1987 AP Exam Essay Question #1

       To many of us leisure is leisure but George Eliot insists that leisure has changed over time. To Eliot, “Old Leisure” was slower and better and the leisure that exists in her life (1859) isn’t quite the same. Eliot uses personification, contrast, and irony to point out the differences between the ideally old leisure and the modern leisure. Eliot portrays old leisure as “contemplative” and “innocent”. She believes that the modern leisure is too eager and too informational to be relaxing in any way. 

     Eliot best portrays the perfection of Old Leisure by personifying it. Old Leisure is “undiseased by hypothesis: happy in his inability to know the causes of things, preferring the things themselves.” Old Leisure is personified as a gentle old man and it gives the reader a serene, calm feeling and an idea of what old leisure was like. She is able to paint a picture of how old leisure felt by using words like “pleasant” “sauntering” and phrases like “scenting the apricots when they were warmed by the morning sunshine” and “slept the sleep of the irresponsible.” She also uses connotative diction to enhance Old Leisure. A “jolly conscience” and “lofty aspirations” make the Old Leisure seem innocent and simple. Personifying Old Leisure was the successful way that Eliot got the reader to feel how different her modern leisure was.

     Eliot also uses contrast to express her dislike of modern leisure compared to old leisure. “Even idleness is eager now - eager for amusement.” She expresses the ignorance of old leisure to be better than the “prone to excursion” modern leisure. She contrasts the calmness of being to unaware to the turbulent lifestyle of knowing everything. Eliot uses contrasting images to solidify her point. The “slow waggons…on sunny afternoons” certainly sound more relaxing than “the great work of the steam-engine.” Eliot believes that what is now modern leisure isn’t even leisure at all. It is ironic that her modern standards should be making life easier but instead they are making less time for leisure.

     Eliot expresses her disappointment in modern leisure. In comparison with old leisure, modern leisure isn’t even leisure anymore. She personifies Old Leisure to help the reader get a feel for how truly enjoyable old leisure really was. Eliot contrasts old leisure with her modern hustle and bustle mentality with everyone trying to understand everything. It’s evident that Eliot yearns for the time where “life was not a task for him, but a sinecure.”