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Industrialization victorian era
Alcoholism during victorian era
How are Victorians treated for alcoholism
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Elizabeth Gaskell, within her novel Mary Barton, appears stuck in this dichotomy. Greenblatt stipulates that the novel ‘portrays the painful consequences of industrialism’ , which suggests Gaskell sympathises with the working class, something that is certainly prevalent throughout. However there also seems to be elements that suggest she is fearful of potential working class violence, something that Greenblatt overlooks in his statement. Eagleton highlights the issues of this contradiction by suggesting ‘that on one hand, she is sympathetic to the working class, but on the other hand she is both profoundly puzzled as to how the situation could be resolved and is fearful of possible violence’ . In Eagleton’s argument, Gaskell is presented as …show more content…
Guy uses alcohol as an example to argue that Mid-Victorian authors ‘tended to see drunkenness as a form of personal immorality’ going further to suggest that there was a failure to connect these social issues ‘with other problems such as poverty and unemployment’ . In essence, this argument generalises an idea that the view on recreational evils such as alcoholic and drug abuse Victorians is a personal rather than a social problem. Whilst this may be the case on a majority scale, Guy fails to provide any evidence of Victorians that fail to recognise the apparently updated idea that drug and alcohol abuse is closely related to the social issues more prevalent in the Condition of England …show more content…
This is signified through her authorial narrators voice where she directly addresses the readers ‘"But before you blame too harshly this use, or rather abuse, try a hopeless life, with daily cravings of the body for food. Try, not along being without hope yourself, but seeing all around you reduced to the same despair, arising from the same circumstances; all around you telling…that they are suffering and sinking under the pressure of want. Would you not be glad to forget life, and its burdens? And opium gives forgetfulness for a time." Clearly, Gaskell adheres to Guy’s suggestion that the Victorian public, tend to see drug abuse as an example of individual immorality. However, Gaskell distances herself from this view, by portraying drug abuse as a product of the ‘hopeless life’ that John Barton has suffered. This close reading shows that certainly, in the case of Gaskell, there are instances where she is able to connect social issues such as drug abuse, with other social situations that require a form of social change to eradicate them. Guy’s limitation within his own argument here is that there is a failure to recognize a select few who differentiate themselves from his generalisation. In my view he would be more correct in signifying a majority rather than an entirety, because,
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...
Frances Willard’s top priority through her literary piece was to show the negative effects and degradation of the common man due to excessive use of alcohol. Frances Willard’s article on the temperance movement portrays the women’s part in pacifying man’s grasp on alcoholic beverages and the steps they had to take to make it h...
Robinson, David. From Drinking to Alcoholism: A Social Commentary. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1976.
“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
The use of alcohol has many different physical properties. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, alcohol plays a rather compelling and symbolic role. For instance alcohol occurs in both texts in the form of social meanings of having a good time and can also lead to violence. Therefore, the authors are trying to get across that alcohol is used, in different ways, to convey the moral degradations of society.
If one was to look at colonial America with no knowledge of the future, the thought of millions of people promoting alcohol regulation and abstinence would be unimaginable. As hard as it is to assign general characteristics to colonial America, it is clearly evident that alcoholic beverages were extensive in consumption, to the point where they were among the main forms of liquid nourishment. It was so extensive that "Estimates for 1790, at the end of the colonial period, place per capita consumption of absolute alcohol (the alcohol content of alcoholic beverages) at three gallons, about one and a half times the amount of per capita consumption in the United States today. Despite staggering consumption rate, the relatively high level of per capita consumption failed to produce widespread concern about drinking.
...t the night before. Babbitt’s glaringly hypocritical policy on alcohol and partying reflects the common sentiment among Americans during the Prohibition. The affluent were ready to defend their choice to drink because they believed they had the right to, and that nobody else was virtuous enough to argue the same. It’s shown that morals weren’t as important as pride and reputation when it came to respecting the law. Babbitt is also unable to control himself when it comes to smoking. Babbitt condemns smokers and smoking, tries to cut his own consumption of cigarettes, and preaches the benefits of a smoke-free life; “he did everything, in fact, except stop smoking”. Babbitt’s inability to stop his habits, and his tendency to correct others of their vices before correcting his own shows the perceived morality of the middle class, despite being unable to control itself.
Warsh, Cheryl Krasnick. ""John Barleycorn Must Die": An Introduction to the Social History of Alcohol ." In Drink in Canada: Historical Essays , by Cheryl Karsnick Warsh, 3-26. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. (SUNY Stony Brook HV 5306.D75 1993)
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
This research paper will help enable sociologists to determine what the ongoing effects have on an alcoholic and further provides information on the long-term effects that society has to deal with. The significance of alcoholism and sociology is the ability of sociologists to research and discover how human behaviour is affected on many aspects of its effects on a person. An alcoholic can be described as someone who is addicted to drinking alcoholic beverages in excess. What starts out as social drinking can lead to excessive drinking and the many problems associated with alcohol abuse and i...
The prohibitionists had several motives for letting loose their concern of alcohol. The main issue discussed, using the example of the average middle-class citizen, was the aspect of growing children and the effect of alcohol on the family. Facts show that children with parents that have major drinking problems are more “defective” than children with parents that have little to no alcohol trouble (doc. B). Also, more generally, the prohibitionists tried vigorously to directly relate prohibition to progressivism. This was one of their key tactics to their eventually success with the 18th. The movement had strong backup that showed the world that they weren’t just a group of extremists fighting for a cause that probably wouldn’t work. Their emphasis on fact and reason kept them afloat; this is shown (in doc. C) with the statements of the American Medical Association, mentioning that they specifically discourage the use of alcohol, and it is said as “detrimental to the human economy.”
Youngerman, Barry. The Truth about Alcohol. Ed. Mark J. Kittleson. New York: Facts on File, 2005. Print.