A Peek at the Diary of Samuel Pepys

Unlike many other writers of the mid 1600s, Samuel Pepys displayed great candor when discussing the everyday events that may have then seemed trivial or unimportant. But for modern day readers, these minute details are so drastically different from what we know today and they can be wonderfully insightful into the world Samuel Pepys was living in.
Pepys detailed many major events in his diary entries like the devastating plague and the Great Fire. But sprinkled in between these main dealings, we get a taste of Pepys personal life. For example, Pepys allows us to see his insecurities, concerns, infidelity with his wife, philosophies, and drinking habits (Litt 1).
Pepys lists many occasions where the beer or wine has gotten the better of him. He even goes so far as to announce that he is going to try to cut down on his drinking and womanizing, but later breaks this promise to himself (Litt 1). On the 9th of February in 1660, Pepys writes, "went to bed with my head not well, by my too much drinking today. An I had a boyle under my chin which troubled me cruelly"(Gyford 1). Often in other writers' texts we hear of a great deal of drinking (as water was unsanitary to drink in this time period) but rarely do we hear of the hangover. On December 16, 1661, Pepys promises to abstain from alcohol and women, but by February, he writes, "And here I drank wine upon necessity, being ill for the want of it" (Gyford 1). There is not a plethora of instances when a writer details his personal failures. Most often the events that are recorded are the amazing, unusual, accomplished, or spectacular. But here we get an inside perspective at Pepys' addictions and failure to abstain from them.
In his diaries, Pepys mentions his wife, Elizabeth, on several occasions. He talks briefly about his wife's "absence of her terms" which gave him the hope that perhaps she would be with child (Damrosch 2087). In a time when women were rarely thought of as important, it was an even rarer event that her menstrual cycle should be mentioned.
We get to see an intensely personal side of Pepys when he mentions his other relationships with women. He was having an affair with another woman, Deb, with whom Elizabeth had caught him with, one hand up her petticoats and the other hand on her "cunny" (Damrosch 2108). On November 20, 1668, his wife told him she did not trust him to go out alone in public because he may get into trouble with other women. She made him promise and even sign a pledge that he was "never to see or speak with Deb while I live" (Damrosch 2110).
It was not uncommon for men to sneak around and engage in sexual activity with women other than their wives. But if a woman engaged in said activity, she was banished to the street corner and forced to prostitute herself to stay alive. Obviously it was an unfair existence, but being the uneducated and weaker gender, there was not much a woman could do to change that. Learning of Samuel Pepys rendezvous' with Deb (and ultimately, his wife's unhappy discovery) allows us to see how the role of women has changed immensely throughout the years.
Other diaries, like Daniel Defoe's The Journal of the Plague Year, give readers detailed accuracy about the plague and specific moments which Defoe felt were significant. The beauty of Pepys diary is that it was lengthy, extensive and went into great detail about inconsequential actions that provide information on day to day living. Without his records, our knowledge of his time period would be limited.

WORKS CITED

Damrosch, David. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc, 2003.

Gyford, Phil. Particulars of the Life of Samuel Pepys. 1 January 2003. 14 April 2005. .

Litt, Marilyn Knapp. A Look at Samuel Pepys. 1995. 14 April 2005. .