William Morris: Art, Work, and Leisure Author(s): Ruth Kinna Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 61, No. 3, (Jul., 2000), pp. 493-512 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3653925 Accessed: 09/07/2008 07:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upenn. 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His vision of social- ism, famously capturedin his utopiannovel News FromNowhere, was inspired by a numberof principles,but perhapsits most notablefeature was the demand that laborbe made attractive.2As John Drinkwaternoted shortlyafter Morris's death, Morrispassionately believed that an individualwho is "overworked,or employedall the while in degradingwork ... cannotbe himself."The message of his socialism, in Drinkwater'sview "oneof the profoundestand most inspiriting that it has been given to any man to deliver,"was that "in bringingback joy to their daily work [men] ... would put their feet on the first step towards ... true dignity and pride of life."3 Since Drinkwater'scomments, Morris's ideas aboutthe organizationof la- bor in socialism have attracteda considerableamount of attention.Most schol- ars have arguedthat his ideas were underpinnedby two separateconcerns: his hostility to the effects of industrializationand his opposition to the division of labor.As Fiona McCarthynotes, Morris not only protestedagainst the pollu- tion, congestion, and "squalidindustrial waste" produced by "uncontrolledfac- tory production,"he also spoke out againstthe "rigidorganization of the factory 1 E. P. Thompson, WilliamMorris: Romantic to Revolutionary (New York, 1976), 682. 2 See G. D. H. Cole, A History of Socialist Thought(5 vols.; London, 1974), II, 414-24; Fiona McCarthy,William Morris: A Life For Our Time(London, 1994), 584-88; Paul Meier, WilliamMorris: The MarxistDreamer, tr. FrankGubb (2 vols.; Sussex, 1978), I, 288-394; A. L. Morton, The English Utopia (London, 1978), 202-24; Thompson, Romanticto Revolution- ary, 682-98. 3 John Drinkwater, WilliamMorris A Critical Study (London, 1912), 198-99; and Paul Bloomfield, WilliamMorris (London, 1934). 493 Copyright2000 by Journalof theHistory of Ideas,Inc. 494 Ruth Kinna which keeps the operativevirtually chained to a single repetitivetask."4 Though both aspects of Morris'swork have generatedconsiderable scholarly interest, the first has attractedmore attentionthan the second. A. L. Mortonpreferred to examine Morris'sattacks on the effects of industrializationin orderto counter the impression that his complaintswere anti-modem or that his socialism re- quireda returnto premechanizedmethods of production.5Others have argued, more positively, that the proposalsMorris made for the reorganizationand for the improvementof factoryproduction in particularset him apartfrom his con- temporaries.6Recently, eco-socialist writershave developedthis line of thought and extolled Morrisas a precursorof green theory.7By contrast,Morris's views aboutthe division of laborhave not been seen as eithercontroversial or distinc- tive. In some accounts his ideas are straightforwardlycompared to Marx's.8 Others suggest that his understandingof the division of labor was hazy. Paul Meier, for example, arguesthat Morriswas unclearabout the problemsthat the division of laborraised and that he only discussedit in a very generalway.9 Both these approachesmistakenly emphasize the separatenessof the two elements in Morris'sthought, and the relationshipbetween his critiqueof industrialization and the division of laborhas been neglected. I will arguethat it is this relation- ship, andnot the two respectiveparts, which holds the key to his demandfor the realizationof attractivelabor. Morrisintegrated his ideas aboutindustrialization and the division of labor into a wider analysis of the relationshipbetween work and leisure. He began to think aboutthis relationshipbefore he committedhimself to socialism in 1883, but his maturethought was influencedby Fourieras well as Marx.The two led him to conceptualizethe relationshipin two distinct ways. In the first he con- trastedwork with leisure and suggested thatattractive labor required the reduc- tion of necessary labor time; in the second he identifiedwork with leisure and defined attractivelabor as the exercise and expression of humancreativity. As will be seen, these two conceptions were not easily reconciled. The first led Morristo arguethat the realizationof attractivelabor was dependentupon the division of labor and the increase in productivitywhich it fostered;the second convinced him that attractivelabor required a change in workingpractices and 4 McCarthy,Life For Our Time,356-57. 5 See especially Morton, English Utopia, 217-19. 6 See, for example, RaymondWilliams, Cultureand Society 1780-1950 (Middlesex, 1971), 159. 7 See, for example, Derek Wall, Green History (London, 1994), 10. 8 Jack Lindsay, WilliamMorris: His Life and Work(London, 1975), 348; A. L. Morton, "Morris,Marx and Engels," History of the ImaginationSelected Writingsof A. L. Morton, ed. MargotHeinemann and Willie Thompson (London, 1990), 300-303; Thompson, WilliamMor- ris, 690. 9 Meier, Marxist Dreamer, 357. WilliamMorris 495 that its realizationwas blocked by the conditions which this very division im- posed. Morriswas awareof the tension in his work but was unableto resolve it. Nevertheless, his attemptto do so highlightsthe distinctivenessof contribution to late nineteenthcentury socialist thought. Morrisstarted to write aboutthe relationshipbetween work and leisure and the idea of attractivelabor in the late 1870s and early 1880s, a few years before his turnto socialism. Morris's first considerationsof this question, as of most social issues, was mediatedby his understandingof artand his personalexperi- ence. His art was driven by two forces, a sense of unyielding resolve and a seemingly inexhaustibletalent. His determinationto become a craftsmanfirst became apparentin 1857, when he moved into Red Lion Squarewith Edward Bume-Jones.Since the rentedrooms were unfurnished,Morris set aboutdesign- ing some furnituredeveloping his new interestin parallelwith his literarycareer. In 1860, two years afterthe publicationof TheDefence of Guenevere,he moved into the Red House in Bexley Heath. Discovering that he could not find manu- facturerswho could provide suitablefurnishings, Morris disciplined himself to work in accordancewith his motto "if I can" and provide his own.'? Mocking him, his one time studentDante Gabriel Rossetti suggested that the maximshould be "since I can't."Yet though Morrishad failed in his bid to become a painter, Rossetti'ssuggestion soon proved to be well wide of themark. When Ford Maddox Brown suggested that the friends set up in business together, Morris demon- stratedthat his will to masterthe craftswas matchedby extraordinaryability. In Morris, Marshall,Faulkner, & Co., he embarkedon a career that would lead him to become one of the most versatileand influentialdesigners, dyers, weav- ers, and printersof his age. When Morrisfirst explainedhis ideas aboutwork and leisure, he used his personal insights and motivations as startingpoints for his analysis. In the ar- ticles collected togetherin Hopes and FearsforArt he identifiedtwo sourcesof motivation.The first was materialand correspondedto his sense of purpose- Morrisknew that he needed to make a living. Puttingthe point negatively, he wanted to avoid "the fear of starvationor disgrace."' His second and stronger impulse,which matchedhis talent,was pleasure.Aside fromthe need to support himself and his family, he was, he declared,born to labor in culture.'2Without his work he would "die of despairand weariness.""3 Leisure, Morrissuggested, could also be consideredin two ways. If work was seen as a necessity then leisure could be thought of as non-work or free '0J. W. Mackail, TheLife of WilliamMorris (2 vols.; London, 1912), I, 148-49; McCarthy, Life For Our Time, 166. 1 "The Prospectsof Architecture,"Collected Worksof WilliamMorris (24 vols.; London, 1992), XXII, 142. 12 "Makingthe Best of It," 82. 13 "Prospectsof Architecture,"142. 496 RuthKinna time.Alternatively, if it was consideredas pleasure,then