1987 AP Essay Question 1

"Old Leisure was quite a different personage..."  George Eliot shows "Old Leisure" in his piece Adam Bede as a relaxing but yet useless or lazy leisure.  Leisure is defined as the time or opportunity of ease or relaxation.  People's relaxation varies from sleeping to drinking to even painting.  Leisure doesn't necessarily mean you have to be productive while you have your "free time".  During Eliot's time (late 1800's) however, "Old Leisure" meant something else than what their kind of leisure time was.
"Old Leisure", according to Eliot, criticizes new leisure as it changes throughout the years.  Back in "Old Leisure"'s time, "he was...happy in his inability to not know the cause of things, preferring the things themselves."  Eliot personifies leisure showing that people didn't really care what would happen with the choice of their leisure activities.  He makes it known that they didn't truly care about learning, religion, or dancing, but rather being "..able to carry a great deal of beer or port-wine."  He concludes that you cannot "be severe upon him and judge him by our modern standard" because they aren't in their times of modern preachers or extravagant halls or books.  "Old Leisure" simply didn't have anything extraordinary as they do in their own modern leisure time.
Leisure changes as years pass and technology develops.  Eliot's view of leisure before his time is like us looking back at leisure time before this age of technology.  It's simply changed.  "Old Leisure" is more idleness while Eliot's leisure is more productive.  They see more education and prayer in their free time rather than sleeping or trying to get out of church.  Leisure changes with the time.