In the opening scene, Tom Rakewell inherits his late father’s fortune and immediately abandons restraint, surrounding himself with tailors, dancing masters, and fashionable advisors as he begins to spend his inheritance to excess. Like in Grayson Perry’s tapestries, the cluttered interior is filled with visual clues to our protagonist’s future such as unpaid bills, discarded books and symbols of vanity. Nearby stands Sarah Young, his pregnant fiancée, whom he shuns signalling his early rejection of responsibility. Hogarth introduces the central idea that sudden wealth can encourage moral decline, presenting Tom at the beginning of his downfall as he chooses luxury and status over duty.
The written verses on the artwork argue that a father who hoards all his wealth and is suspicious of his son instead of treating him with warmth will be a bad father. He says that if his father doesn’t give him affection, education and companionship Tom will not be ready for the world, and he in turn will not comfort his father:
"O Vanity of age! untoward, Ever spleeny, ever froward! Why those bolts, and massy chains, Squint suspicious, jealous pains? Why, thy toilsome journey o'er, Lay'st thou in an useless store? Hope along with Time is flown, Nor can'st thou reap the field thou'st sown. Hast thou a son? — In time be wise. He views thy toil with other eyes. — Needs must thy kind, paternal care, Lock'd in thy chests, be buried there; Whence then shall flow thy friendly ease, That social converse, homefelt peace, Familiar duty without dread, Instruction from example bred, Which youthful minds with freedom mend. And with the Father mix the Friend Uncircumscrib'd by prudent rules, Or precepts of expensive schools; Abus'd at home, abroad despis'd, Unbred, unletter'd, unadvis'd; The headstrong course of youth began, What comfort from this darling son?"