Research Task: Beer Street and Gin Lane

For this task, I will explore two images created by William Hogarth and devel deeper into what each image suggests on what you can see and the underlying meanings.

First up, is Beer Street. Beer Street shows tall buildings in repairs, a bustling street with well-fed and happy people; lively people bellow into streets and on their roofs, signs being repainted and food being supplied. The building on the right shows some disrepair, which could show the evident underlying problems of drinking in general.

The feeling of the illustration is merry, with a sense of community. The community is well-mannered, they're healthy looking with joyful faces and relaxed poses; the happy people showing the alcohol effects, not as harsh as the next illustration.

For Gin Lane, the streets are filled with chaos and drunkards, you see child endangerment and starvation. you can see the houses tippling over, crashing and killing those on the streets. The exposed building shows someone hung, death by suicide due to alcoholism. All ages drinking, and with a dog and child feasting on a bone just to try and have some source of nutrition.

The staircase leading down with the starved man is a great way of showing that the woman is heading down that path; it shows poverty them being at the bottom of the pile. I've seen this done before on Bong Joon-ho's movie: Parasite, where the main characters live on the lowest level of the city and where they worked and plotted against the rich that they travelled up to. Leading back to the illustration, in the distance you can see the same tower that is in the first illustration, the building almost acts like a wall between the classes--between streets.

The overall mood is disturbing and uncomfortable, the faces are contorted and angered/pained; their poses are strained and desperate. A stark contrast to Beer Street, the comparisons reflect on its society, similarly to current society.