Themes
Smollett offers a vicious portrayal of the hypocrisy, greed, deceit and snobbery peculiar to the times, especially among the upper and middle classes. He exposes the brutality, incompetence and injustice of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Cartagena in 1741 and in relation to preferment, promotion and medical support.
The novel also embraces common 18th century topics such as privateering, slavery, prostitution, dowries, homosexuality, debtor's prison (the Fleet), political and arts patronage, the clergy, the practice of medicine and corruption. Smollett experienced many of these first-hand and portrays them with a candid vigour.
Throughout the novel, Random is referred to by both himself and others as a "North Briton". The relatively recent Act of Union between England and Scotland in 1707 was still a hot political topic.
Read more about this topic: The Adventures Of Roderick Random
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)