37 pages 1 hour read

Maria Edgeworth

Castle Rackrent

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1800

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

Whiskey

Alcohol and drinking are key motifs in the novel, appearing frequently. Alcohol also functions as a symbol of hospitality and inebriation. Sir Patrick was “said to be the inventor of raspberry whiskey” and also possessed the exaggerated reputation for being able to drink everyone in both Britain and Ireland under the table (10). He is generous with the alcohol he gives to his guests and solicitous of the needs of his drunk friends, to the extent that he fits up the chicken house to accommodate them after nights of carousing. Stripped of his ancient, Irish name, Sir Patrick declares his fidelity to drinking before he dies, singing “he that goes to bed […] mellow, Lives as he ought to do […] and dies an honest fellow” (11). The meanness of his successor, Sir Murtagh, is shown by the fact that his cellars “were never filled,” indicating his lack of investment in the pleasure and well-being of his subjects(12).

Sir Condy’s relationship with alcohol begins as a means of social ingratiation: “there was not a cabin at which he had not stopped some morning or other along with the huntsman, to drink a glass of burnt whiskey out of an egg-shell, to do him good, and warm his heart” (39-40).

Related Titles

By Maria Edgeworth

Study Guide

logo

Belinda

Maria Edgeworth

Belinda

Maria Edgeworth

Plot Summary

logo

The Contrast

Maria Edgeworth

The Contrast

Maria Edgeworth