Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Drink of Choice and its Political Connotations
The final paragraph of Edgeworth's piece alludes to two seemingly staple beverages of the eighteenth century: beer and whiskey. According to the notes, the Irish produced both, but during the 1790's there was a movement to increase the consumption of beer relative to whiskey because of its supposed grander nutrition content and health effects. Beer, thus, became a symbol of betterment and progress in this context while whiskey adopted a baser, more debilitating connotation. The concluding rhetorical question reads: "Did the Warwickshire militia...teach the Irish to drink beer? or did they learn from the Irish to drink whiskey?" (122) The English Warwickshire militia in the case of either question is painted as more upstanding: in the first they are the transmitters of knowledge and betterment and, in the latter, they are the "innocent" cause that is corrupted. Conversely, the Irish take on an aura of iniquity: in the first, they are the ignorant and uninformed citizenry who require outside illumination and, in the second, they are the source of depravity who defile the allegedly "better class" of Englishmen. Clearly, Edgeworth is making a commentary about class and the tension between the English and Irish. The subjugation of the Irish by the English in this context mirrors the Act of Union of 1801 that suppressed and stifled Irish freedoms and customs: social, religious, political, etc.
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I find this post very interesting because it suggests that Edgeworth is not as pro-union as we might initially think. Rather through subtle comments such as these she reveals her doubts in the current state of Irish culture. In the text, it seems that Edgeworth has a bit of nostalgia for the Irish culture in a previous state or it could be read as a hope for its future state. Either way you interpret it, there is a clear hint that perhaps Edgeworth's goal is to preserve Irish culture while simultaneously advancing it. Edgeworth acknowledges that the Irish could learn from the British but does not want that growth to come at the cost off Irish culture.
ReplyDeleteI also think its interesting that alcohol is a "symbol of betterment and progress" in the final paragraph of the piece since Sir Condy literally drank himself to his demise at the end of the story. When I first read this I saw it as anti-union as it seemed as if Edgeworth blamed England for introducing a lethal substance to Ireland that leads to its cultural degeneration of Ireland. Though It's important to note that Whiskey is Sir Condy's drink of choice. Perhaps Edgeworth believes that drinking in and of itself is not negative, but the way the Irish drink (or drink to access) is debilitating.
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