37 pages • 1 hour read
Maria EdgeworthCastle Rackrent
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1800A 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). However, as his debts mount and he goes further and further into denial about the urgency of his affairs, he begins to drink to escape. There is a cruel scene in which Jason announces that he has arrived with the whiskey punch, even though his true intention is to withhold the drink from Condy, until he has signed over his estate. Thady takes it as a marker of Sir Condy’s generosity, that following the signing, “in the midst of his trouble, poured out a glass and brought it to my lips” (78). This freehandedness with drink illustrates the essential nobility and generosity of Sir Condy’s nature, a direct result of his relation to Sir Patrick.
Ireland as the Mysterious Sister
The Editor refers to Ireland as the “sister country” of England, and the motif of Ireland as England’s unfamiliar relative is prominent throughout the novel (97). Throughout the novel, there is the juxtaposition of Ireland being revealed as a place of strange people, with strange customs, alongside references to England’s contribution to the Anglo-Irish aristocracy’s decadence. From the outset, the Editor prepares the reader for a journey into unfamiliar terrain, speech, and people, adjoining a glossary and notes for “the information of the ignorant English reader” (4). For example, when Thady talks about preparing his “little potatoes” when Sir Condy and Isabella are away in Dublin, an asterisked note informs the reader that “Thady does not mean by this expression that his potatoes were less than other people’s, or less than the usual size—little is here used only as an Italian diminutive, expressive of fondness” (61).
By understanding their narrator’s profession of endearment for a crop that normally flourishes in Ireland, the English reader learns that Thady is emotional, attached to his creature comforts, and different from rational, sophisticated people. However, the narrative makes it impossible to ignore the English influence on the Irish aristocracy’s current state when it describes the Act of Parliament that dispossessed Sir Patrick of his ancient name, or the pleasure resort, Bath, that tempts Sir Kit away and makes him an irresponsible, absentee landlord. It is significant, too, that his wife leaves for England following her release from banishment. Thus Ireland, mysterious sister to England, is presented not only as a symbol of alterity but as a somewhat-neglected satellite state that does not function well when an English-style feudal system is imposed on it. While the narrative shows that those with knowledge of the land and country, such as Jason Quirk, are best equipped to govern, the Editor anticipates that a closer Union with England will make the typically Irish decadence of the Rackrents a phenomenon of the past.
The Irish Funeral
The funeral is an important motif in this novel and relates to the downfall of a dynasty. As per the novel’s notes, “in Ireland,” a wake “is a nocturnal meeting avowedly for the purpose of watching and bewailing the dead; but in reality for gossiping and debauchery” (81). Sir Patrick’s “funeral was such a one as was never known before nor since in the county,” a lavish affair attended by all the gentlemen in three counties and women in red cloaks (11). It is also accompanied by a whillulah, a lamentation over the dead that has root in the Caoinan or Irish funeral song, which combines sighs and groans with Irish words and music.
This proceeding, explained in the Glossary, would seem exotic and strange to the English reader, who would view it as further evidence of Ireland’s alterity. The combination of lamentation, pageantry, and an excuse for a drink also presents an un-English and rather Catholic combination of morbidity and festivity. Although Sir Patrick’s body is seized for debt, Sir Condy remembers tales of his funeral and seeks to emulate it. Although, according to the Glossary, funerals were so much in the Irish public consciousness that even beggars would save up for their own, Sir Condy's wish to see his own funeral after the loss of Castle Rackrent is exaggerated to darkly comic effect when the crowd of men, women, and children gather in the two rooms of the hunting lodge, practically smothering him. While the Rackrents’ funerals are lavish and an occasion for collective mourning and the expression of emotion, the aftermath is very practical, with mourners helping themselves to the deceased’s spoils as best they can. For example, after Sir Kit’s funeral, his friends eagerly divide his horses among themselves and though they claim they would “give any price for them,” they never actually pay the new heir, Sir Condy, a penny (35). This juxtaposition of public lament for the deceased with vulture-like opportunism gives the impression that there is complexity behind the rowdy pageantry of Irish funerals.
Related Titles
By Maria Edgeworth
