The idea of healthy living was and is still a major aspect in one’s life. A person’s health could determine a lot about them; the way the lived, what they can afford, and could determine the way they get treated. Back in the eighteenth century some people, men to be exact, could even be held in a higher regard depending on their illness, in the end it all came down to who you were and what society decided was a disability. In Tobias Smollett’s novel, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, we can see a lot of these aspects all within the character of Matthew Bramble. Sure, if we’re going based off first impressions, Bramble can come across as a little bit of a nut case, who just hates the world because he’s in so much pain due to his illnesses. BUT. These illnesses that he has, are his own fault! AND. No one see’s him as a burden while they are trying to take care of him. Why? Because this nut case, is a gentleman who suffers from the gentleman’s disease: GOUT; Per Roy Porter and G. S. Rousseau, gout was “the gentleman’s code: proof of pedigree, class and rank, insurer of accomplishment and a hard work ethic”, “gout was the great enabler, and illness implied creativity above all” (94). Bramble’s gout is what defined him, it was his health, is label, his identity. Now, gout is a horrible disease, but because this is the one Bramble suffered from he is still greatly respected, seeing as he is the leader of the expedition the group goes on, and the whole expedition is for his soul benefit. as Porter and Rousseau stated, “this work is also the last novel in any language to select the gouty old man as its hero” (94).
Bramble is the lucky, sick, man that gets to lead everyone on this great adventure to find their cures! Whether that cure be some, actually very gross, medical treatment, companionship, or just the nice country air, Bramble helped everyone find it, including himself. The expedition showed what people would do, the choices they would make all to become healthy in the society’s eyes. Bramble got everyone to travel to some of the worst places, all for the benefit of his health, describing them as “mean, dirty, dangerous, and indirect” (34), and everything was “composed of all the drugs, minerals, and poisons used in mechanics and manufacture” (120), he was even exposed “as the monster that was hauled naked a-shore upon the beach” (184), but it was all beneficial to his health, so that means it’s okay. Their health meant everything to them as it became the label that they lived by. The journey they took was to better themselves, and to better their health so they could no longer live as a disabled member of society; they needed this journey to ensure that they could live well and happily with any judgement from the society that they lived in. This great journey of health, was everything and anything Bramble and the others could do, no matter what it would cost them, in order to find the cure for their illnesses, so they could finally live as a functioning member of the society that labeled them as disabled.