Desperate for financial recovery, Tom marries a wealthy and elderly heiress in a church ceremony. Her status is emphasised through dress and posture. However, Tom’s face is turned away from his new bride showing his lack of affection. Hogarth critiques marriage as a transactional arrangement and highlights the moral compromise of using social institutions to solve personal financial problems rather than acting with sincerity.
This verse tells us that when someone falls from comfort into hardship they may accept humiliation to avoid poverty. Money has the power to hide flaws and may result in unequal relationships:

"New to the school of hard Mishap, Driv'n from the ease of Fortune's lap, What shames will Nature not embrace T' avoid less shame of drear distress! Gold can the charms of youth bestow, And mask deformity with shew: Gold can avert the sting of Shame, In Winter's arms create a flame; Can couple youth with hoary age, And make antipathies engage".