William Hogarth's Gin Lane

Gin Lane, by William Hogarth, is a satirical engraving showing the dangers of gin and alcoholism. The engraving shows several groups of alcoholics partying, rioting, and selling all of their possessions to a pawn shop. The artwork has a goofy, humorous feel, and it pokes fun at gin drinkers while also showing an exaggerated example of what can happen when a society becomes addicted to alcohol.

The buildings in the background of the print are shabby and ruined, and one building is starting to collapse. The walls on the building in front of it have broken off revealing a man who has hung himself, and many of the people in the scene are wearing frayed, tattered clothes. The bare breasted woman sitting on the stairs is so drunk that she lets her baby fall out of her arms to his death. There is also a man prancing around with a baby skewered on a stick. These elements of Gin Lane suggest that gin causes people to neglect everything and just let society rot and fall apart.

On the left side of the print there is a couple selling their possessions to a pawn broker, and a man fighting with a dog over a bone, who presumably sold everything he had to buy more gin and now has nothing to eat. On the right side there is a distillery where people are fighting over the gin with chairs and hammers, showing the lengths people will go to get their gin once addicted.

Gin Lane also shows that gin addiction can only lead to death. Towards the background there is a woman being lowered into a coffin while her crying child sits beside it. Sitting on the front of the stairs is a dead man who it still holding a cup and a basket with a bottle in it. In the basket there is also a newspaper with the headline “The Downfall of Mrs. Gin.”