Alcoholism among Victorians
Wrayburn: “It will be necessary, I think, to wind up Mr. Dolls, before anything to any mortal purpose can be got out of him. Brandy, Mr. Dolls, or - ?”
Mr. Dolls: “Threepenn’orth Rum.”
--Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Throughout Victorian society “gin was the preferred spirit of the lower class, while wine and brandy were imbibed by the more comfortable citizenry” (Alcoholic Beverages 12).
During the nineteenth century, the Victorians had high expectations of their class system to make sure the classes were distinct and properly represented. They “valued controlled, propitious behavior” and would tolerate nothing less (Harding Victorians and Alcohol). There was a “cultural value placed on teetotaling,” total abstinence from alcoholic drinks, but despite this value “alcohol consumption became a popular pastime” (Harding Victorians and Alcohol). Behavior such as drunkenness was strongly disapproved of because of its association with the lower class.
Alcoholism: Representation of the Working Class
It was widely known that “drunkenness, and the related loss of self-control, was associated with the lower classes” and therefore had negative connotations (Harding Victorians and Alcohol). Spirits, a popular hard liquor, “had become the everyday drink for less wealthy people” and “laborers commonly used spirits to flee from their desolate everyday lives” (Harding Victorians and Alcohol). The awful working and living conditions of the working class contributed to their “hard, controlled, and monotonous life, [leading] to excessive drinking of hard liquor” (Harding Victorians and Alcohol). This excessive drinking would sometimes result in public intoxication which was “regarded as anti-s...
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Distad, Merrill N. “Food and Diet.” Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1988. 304-307.
Garwood, John. “Religious and moral Character of the Pensioners, and Provisions made for their Instruction.” Social Investigation/Journalism – The Million-Peopled City. (1853): 94-96. 11 Mar. 2005
Harding, Stephen. “Alcohol.” Victorians’ Secrets.
“Absinthe and Victorians.” Victorians’ Secrets. 2000. University of Texas at Arlington. 24 Feb. 2005.
Kent, Christopher A. “Drink.” Twentieth-Century Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1995. 239-240.
Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940 . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
As Herie and Skinner state “Beverage Alcohol can be described as a depressant drug which diminishes the activity in parts of the brain and spinal cord in accordance with the amount of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream” (Herie & Skinner, pg. 42). With its long history and unique properties such as the cure of all diseases “prolongs life, clears away ill humours, revives the heart and maintains youth”, alcohol is often related to tradition and expressions; many of these traditions are adaptation from earlier times where it was believed alcohol reflected water of life (Herie & Skinner, 2010). This is quite evident in Days of Wine and Roses where Joe is first seen drinking because “it was part of his job” and because “he had to because of everyone
Most people point to wars, Presidents or the economy when asked to describe the history of the United States, but what about alcohol. Social history in general has always taken a back seat to political and economic history, mostly because many aspects of social history are not exactly bright spots from the past. Alcohol, for example, is actually a much bigger aspect of our history than one may expect. As a matter of fact, early America was centered around drinking as a kind of social event. William Rorabaugh’s book Alcoholic Republic outlines how prevalent drinking really was during the years after the Revolutionary War. Rorabaugh argues that post-colonial Americans should be considered alcoholics. However, the evidence Rorabaugh uses
Alcohol has always been a part of feminine culture, but it took a dramatic shift in the early 20th century. In the book, Domesticating Drink, Catherine Murdock argues that during this period, women transformed how society drank and eradicated the masculine culture that preceded this shift. Murdock draws from a few different sources to prove her argument, such as: etiquette manuals published after the turn of the century and anecdotes from the time period. She provides many interesting and unique perspectives on how drinking culture evolved, but she shows a clear bias towards “wet” culture and also makes very exaggerated claims that turn her argument into something that is nearly impossible to completely prove.
During these times, domestic violence was commonplace and many blamed alcohol as the culprit. Reformers also noticed that alcohol decreased efficiency of labor and thought of alcohol as a menace to society because it left men irresponsible and lacking self control. One reformer, named Lyman Beecher, argued that the act of alcohol consumption was immoral and will destroy the nation. Document H depicts the progression of becoming a drunkard from a common m...
Enacting prohibition in a culture so immersed in alcohol as America was not easy. American had long been a nation of strong social drinkers with a strong feeling towards personal freedom. As Okrent remarks, “George Washington had a still on his farm. James Madison downed a pint of whiskey a day”. This was an era when drinking liquor on ships was far safer than the stale scummy water aboard, and it was common fo...
Victorians values were modeled from British high class society, where their propensity consisted of indulgence and privileges and resonated with the same social class in the americas. Progressive values were adopted by the middle class during the time of the second industrial revolution where the middle class grew and the rich, the top ten as McGerr refers to as, only gets richer from the exploitation of the middle class. The victorian values are contained within the upper-ten who don't embrace nor benefit from the progressive values. McGerr writes “The campaigns against drink, prostitution, and divorce found less support among farmers and still less among urban workers and the upper-class. None of these groups fully embraced middle-class values; none equivocally welcomed government interference in private life.” (87) The separation between middle class and upper class values is shown in the excerpt and applied to fight for prohibition, which progressive support, where the government would enforce and interfere with private life violating victorian ideals. The differences between both values are apparent as each is centralized and purposed for its own class structure making anything idea let alone attitude inherently
After World War I ,the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America like stuffy. The dizzying rise of the social market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, Potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy-families with old wealth-scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919,which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand of bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.
...n White, eds. Society, Culture, and Drinking Patterns Reexamined. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies, 1991.
“By 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumed nearly seven gallons of pure alcohol a year – three times as much as we drink today – and alcohol abuse (primarily by men) was wreaking havoc on the lives of many.” In the 1800s millions of Americans took a pledge to refrain from drinking alcohol. This was known as the Temperance Movement. The temperance movement was a reaction to the increase of alcohol consumption throughout the nation. The opposition to drinking originally stemmed from heath and religious reformers. These groups were crucial to American society for their efforts to tighten social controls. During this era, there were multiple citizens who believed some individuals were living unethically. “These people feared that God would no longer bless the United States and that these ungodly and unscrupulous people posed a threat to America's political system. To survive, the American republic, these people believed, needed virtuous citizens.” Due to these
Many may say that the Antebellum Temperance Movement was primarily motivated by religious moralism. I tend to take that stance as well. The Antebellum Temperance Movement of the 18th century was focused around the idea that people, mostly men, should abstain from alcohol if they could not drink the spirits in moderation. In this era, many women had suffered greatly because their loved ones would imbibe excessively leaving them short on money, food, and even shelter which left many impoverished and unable to care for their families. Additionally, the excessive consumption of alcohol led to health care issues, crime and in the end, destitution. The first author, W.J. Rorabaugh, is a proponent on the side of how Christian ministers, “portrayed liquor as the tool of the devil and develop temperance societies as socialization institutions to ease social tensions and anxieties that contributed to alcohol consumption,” (Madaras, L.; SoRelle, J. Pg. 256) Appositionally, John J. Rumbarger opposes by stating that, “the nineteenth–century temperance reform was the product of the pro-capitalist market economy whose entrepreneurial elite led the way toward abstinence and prohibitionist campaigns. In order to guarantee the availability for a more productive workforce,” (Madaras, L.; SoRelle, J. Pg. 256). I agree with W.J. Rorabaugh that during the Antebellum Temperance Movement, the church’s played an enormous role in prohibiting alcohol consumption because it was the “tool of the devil”.
Blocker, Jack S. "American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform." Boston : Twayne Publishers, c1989. Ezell, Marcel D. "Early Attitudes toward Alcoholic Beverages in the South." Red River Valley Historical Review 7, 1982. Nott, Eliphalet.
The abolition of slavery became a more important topic of debate until after the Civil War. By the turn of the century, temperance societies were a common thing throughout the communities in the United States (“Prohibition”). Women advocated the unity of the family, and they believed alcohol prevented such a thing. Drunken husbands only brought about negativity to the home, and women could not support that behavior. Suffragists, in their pursuit of voting rights, also sought to eliminate alcohol from the home.
The hopes of the prohibitionist were dreams of a healthier and more successful nation. Their dreams were spun from the idea of shutting out the alcohol industry and enforcing large industries and stressing family values. The eighteenth amendment consisted of the end of sales, production, transportation, as for importation and exportation of intoxicating liquors. Their imaginations were large and very hopeful. The prohibitionists felt that alcohol is a slow poison of their community. They felt that if the liquor industry was shut out that Americans would spend their hard earned money in the clothing, food, and shoe industries therefore boosting the American economy. Many felt, “Seeing what a sober nation can do is indeed a noble experiment and one that has never yet been tried, (Crowther, 11) Prohibition was a test of the strength of the nation and an attempt at cleaning up societies evils. These reformers denounce alcohol as a danger to society as well as to the human body. Some ethnic hopes of prohibition was to regulate the foreigners whose backgrounds consisted on the use of alcohol for religious purposes. And try to enforce an American valued society upon them. Many reformists felt that ending the use of alcohol would protect American homes and families. They felt that alcohol use was the root of their family’s destruction. Many women felt that their husbands would waste a lot of their income on the purchase of alcohol and not on family needs. Alcohol was often known as a “poison, or sin”. Another hope for the eighteenth amendment was to reduce the crime and death rate. Many people felt that drunkenness was the cause of many of the nations crimes. Prohibitionist felt very passionately on their cause and were often called “dry’s.” They felt their battle was justified and that, “it is manifest destiny that alcohol will not survive the scrutiny,”(Darrow and Yarros, 20).
Citizens of the time consumed rampant amounts of absinthe because of the extremely high prices of wine. Because of the high prices, absinthe became a more affordable alternative; therefore the poor could still achieve intoxication and escape reality. Society in the 1800’s started to blame Absinthe for cultural fears about sexuality, madness, and aggression. As a result of the overwhelming popularity of the drink, the wine growers of the time period started losing money, so they in turn backed the Temperance Movement, which targeted Absinthe and blamed it f...
From 1701 to 1751, gin production levels increased by nearly 600%, while beer production stayed fairly stable and only increased a negligible amount (Doc. 1). It can be reasonably inferred that gin sales increased as a result of a larger supply, which was in turn beneficial to the liquor industry and the finances of the large number of workers involved in the production or sale of gin in all of England. Because this data was collected and processed in the 18th century, when data records were quite poor compared to modern day standards, it cannot be certain that the statistical information is wholly accurate concerning the production of alcohol. However, from this data it is easily gleaned that gin production marginally surpassed that of beer over the course of 50 years, and this in turn created economic benefits for the liquor industry, which made a greater net profit on gin than beer. Great numbers of Englishmen entered the liquor industry, drawn by the profits promised by gin, and by the 1730s there was hardly a tavern in all of England that did not owe a large share of its revenues to the sale of gin (Doc. 4). Many families of England championed the liquor industry, and gave their utmost support to the distilling and sale of spirits, which points to how gin created economic benefits that would induce such support. These same