Judgment, Gossip, and Reputation Theme Analysis

In the small town in which “The Drunkard” is set, everyone knows each other’s business. Friends, neighbors, and acquaintances gossip incessantly and judge their peers, taking pleasure in feeling superior to others. Mick Delaney is no exception; he constantly gossips with his neighbor Mr. Dooley, he passes hypocritical judgments on local drinkers, and when his irresponsible parenting leads his young son to get drunk, he is concerned for his own reputation, not Larry’s suffering. While O’Connor is clear that the town’s atmosphere of rampant gossip encourages Mick’s vanity, it’s no excuse for his behavior. Larry getting drunk was Mick’s fault; nonetheless, Mick feels only self-pity and embarrassment that this happened in public, and he’s cruel to Larry as a result. By juxtaposing Mick’s desire for admiration with his deplorable behavior, O’Connor mocks Mick’s obsession with reputation, suggesting that pursuing public admiration can lead one to behave inadmirably.

From the opening of the story, O’Connor depicts a town soaked in gossip. The story begins with the death of Mr. Dooley, a beloved local man who knew almost everything about “what went on in town” and who came often to the Delaney house to tell Mick the “news behind the news.” Mr. Dooley’s high social status and his penchant for gossip are intertwined; he knows gossip because he’s so well-connected in town, but he’s well-connected in part because he loves to gossip (it’s through gossip that he’s friends with Mick, after all). From this, O’Connor implies the high value this community places on gossip.

When Mr. Dooley dies and Mick plans to attend the funeral, Mick’s wife protests because Mick is an alcoholic and she knows he might drink after the service. Mick defends his decision by appealing to what others would think if he skipped the funeral; “I wouldn’t give it to say to them,” he says, showing how much he cares about what others say behind his back, and revealing the power of gossip to lead him to make poor choices. O’Connor takes this a step further by drawing an explicit link between the town’s vain obsession with reputation and Mick’s temptation to drink. In his bouts of sobriety, Mick mocks his peers who waste their money at the pub, becoming so “stuffed up with spiritual pride” at believing himself to be “better than his neighbors” that he inevitably decides to celebrate his virtue with a drink. Then, after realizing he’s “made a fool of himself,” he drinks more to forget. Clearly, living in an environment in which gossip and judgment are so pervasive distorts Mick’s sense of self and leads him to behave poorly.

At the bar after the service, Mick’s desire to impress his peers contrasts with his irresponsible behavior. When they arrive at the bar, Mick orders a drink but doesn’t touch it; he’s too busy “holding forth […] in great style,” making himself sound important to his peers while they listen “reverently.” It’s clear how much Mick loves to drink, so impressing his peers must be incredibly important to him for it to take priority over his pint. Not coincidentally, it’s Mick’s vain need to show off for others that leads Larry to trouble. While Mick is holding forth, Larry gets thirsty and drinks his father’s whole pint. This is a stark illustration of the dangers of burnishing one’s image; Mick is so beholden to his vanity that he doesn’t notice his child get drunk. O’Connor drives this point home when Larry starts vomiting and Mick, instead of showing concern for his sick child, moves away from Larry because he’s worried that the vomit might ruin his suit. It’s absurd to think of a man so concerned with how he appears to others that he can’t help his son in a moment of crisis—especially since this crisis is his fault.

O’Connor’s strongest condemnation of the town’s obsession with appearances comes as Mick walks Larry home from the bar and the townspeople gather on the road to mock them. Even in his drunken state, Larry is aware of his neighbors’ scorn: he sees that “every woman old and young in Blarney Lane was leaning over her half-door or sitting on her doorstep. They all stopped gabbling to gape at the strange spectacle” of a father dragging home a drunk child. Later on, they openly laugh, but nobody tries to help. In some ways, this cruelty explains Mick’s obsession with appearing respectable to the townspeople (who wouldn’t want to avoid their relentless cruelty by putting on a good public face?), but O’Connor still judges Mick’s reaction: while Larry suffers, Mick isn’t focused on taking care of him. Instead, Mick indulges his “neighborly need to explain that it wasn’t his fault” (even though it clearly is his fault), he threatens and scolds bleeding Larry, and pities himself that he’ll be the subject of endless gossip. Rather than taking responsibility for his actions and showing compassion for his son, Mick frets about other people’s opinions and tries to “work up a smile” for a neighbor, showing again that putting on a good face for others comes at the expense of his son.

In the end, all of this is for naught; Mick is, of course, the subject of vicious gossip. In fact, the neighbors falsely assume the worst—they tell Larry’s mother that Mick deliberately got Larry drunk simply for amusement, even though it was actually an accident. While Mick is humiliated and pities himself for his loss of reputation, his wife will have none of it; “everyone knows what you are now,” she says. And she’s right. Even if the neighbors have distorted the details, Mick behaved abominably—the irony is that his terrible behavior (from his irresponsibility at the bar, to his cruelty with Larry as they walked home) was all meant to impress them.