‘Drinking himself to death’: the chronic drunkard in British mid-Victorian fiction and culture

The figure of the chronic drunkard pervades and shapes nineteenth-century British literature and yet she/he is a neglected figure, rarely taken seriously in literary criticism. This entry will demonstrate the importance of fictional accounts of the drunkard in broader public and private discourses on chronic drunkenness, including but not limited to the way the fictional drunkard is used to explore, disseminate, and challenge: medical developments and theories in the treatment of the habitual drunkard; developing ideas about the action of alcohol on the body and mind; and anxieties about changing social hierarchies and gender roles. It gives an overview of the most influential representations of the drunkard in literary, popular, and temperance fiction, and seeks to challenge those traditional boundaries by demonstrating the influence that flows between these seemingly distinct genres. It gives an overview of the way in which the fictional drunkard represents a nexus for anxieties about change while at the same time standing as a cautionary figure with a didactic purpose. The fictional drunkard, usually broken and repulsive, not only warns its nineteenth-century audience to drink ‘well’ or not at all for their own bodily and mental health, but reminds the reader of their duties to family, community, and country by demonstrating ‘Victorian’ values such as moral rectitude and industry.