Moll is dying of syphilis in a run-down room, as her doctors argue over her treatment, her landlady rifles through her possessions, and the maid has had enough of the ruckus. Meanwhile, Moll's son sits by the fire, picking fleas out his hair.
A professor of mine loved how the clothes on the line above Moll appear like a spirit reaching down to grab her soul.
The two doctors are well-known physicians of the time, Richard Rock and Jean Misaubin, so Hogarth can put in a jab at the vanities of the medical world. They are apparently disagreeing about whether to use bleeding or cupping with their patient, oblivious to the fact that neither treatment will do one bit of good.
The modern viewer will, of course, find such methods barbaric, though we should be careful we don't blindly assume our own "cures" are any better. To this day, we still bow and scrape to our doctors, and all too often they leave us far poorer, though just as sick.
I am told the small detail to the left of the door is a piece of matzah being used as a flytrap, which may be a clue that Moll's former "benefactor" is still quietly paying her bills. Lascivious men will often try to cover for their sins with cold, hard cash.
William Hogarth, A Harlot's Progress, Plate 5 (1732)
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