Punch-Drunk Castle Rackrent

Alcohol runs through the history of the Irish people, and through Thady's narrative of the Rackrent family. Alcohol serves as both the cause of and the veil for the corruption, weakness, and wretchedness that plague each successive generation of Rackrent heirs. Sir Kit locks his wife away in her room for her religious views, and he uses alcohol as a way of preserving a facade of peace and cohesiveness in the household and the marriage. While his wife remains confined against her will, Sir Kit entertains company, who toast to the health of the bizarrely absent Lady Rackrent, who assures them that "she did not wish for any thing, but drank the company's health." The false toast shows the futility of attempting to defy the Rackrents, the noble Irish bloodline, and how such an attempt is easily concealed with social graces. For Sir Condy, alcohol renders him incapable of managing his estate, wife, or gambling habits, and he ultimately literally drinks himself to death with the horn full of whiskey punch. Sir Condy is the Rackrent who sinks the family, and he is also the Rackrent who is constantly in the punch bowl; a symbiotic relationship exists, with Sir Condy drinking because he cannot handle his duties, and not being able to handle his duties because of his drinking. Sir Condy is so morally weak that he cannot decide who to marry but for a whiskey punch-drunk coin toss, and it is his alcoholism that leads the winning wife of that coin toss to despise him and bring him to further ruin. Alcohol provides a double shield from the truth about the baseness of the Rackrent family: it is a source of entertaining guests and observing pleasant social customs, while also allowing the Rackrents shield from themselves how cruel they are to their wives, or how given to their addictions and corruptibility.