ABSTRACT
Industry and Idleness fits into the established and traditional ideological pattern in which crime was seen as an expression of moral weakness or corruption, and in which the legal system was seen as the incarnation of justice. Literature seems to draw attention to the pressure points in ideology, those places where a culture is less confident of itself, where the greatest contestation of images can occur. A more subtle suggestion is that literature reflects society but with sufficient accuracy for the skilled viewer to discover the true picture. The cultural and ideological importance of law in eighteenth-century England ensured that it remained at the centre of public discussion throughout the period. Contemporary commentaries were multi-vocal, and it is hard to provide a consistent or even a fully coherent version of them. The legal system and the courts acted as stimuli to discussions of the nature of humanity, the principles of civic organisation, and the possibilities of a rational, just society.
