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When Mr. Dooley, a traveling salesman with high-up connections, passes away, his friend Mick Delaney intends to attend the funeral. Mick’s wife, Mrs. Delaney, doesn’t like the sound of this—not because she has anything against Mr. Dooley, but because Mick, a hard-drinking laborer, is in a period of sobriety. She worries that the temptation to drink after the funeral might break Mick’s sobriety, leading to the strife and destitution that come when Mick is drinking.
Mrs. Delaney insists that Larry, their preadolescent son, accompany Mick to the funeral so he can be a “brake” on Mick’s drinking. Larry reflects that, while this has never worked before, his mother has great faith in him.
Get the entire The Drunkard LitChart as a printable PDF.
At the funeral, Mick enjoys himself. It’s a fine social occasion full of fancy cars and important people. He mingles with these folks, showing off in front of them and looking forward to drinking later. Once the funeral is over, he ignores Larry’s pleas to go home and entices him into the pub with a bribe of lemonade. His back turned to Larry, he proceeds to hold forth ostentatiously in front of the other mourners, listing all the other important funerals he’s attended in the past. Larry, meanwhile, gets bored and thirsty, so he drinks his father’s pint which is still untouched at the bar.
With Mick distracted by making himself seem important, Larry drinks without his father noticing. Though he’s initially disappointed by the taste, he soon finds himself “pleasantly elevated”—quickly, though, this lapses into depression, an inability to control his motions properly, and nausea. By the time Mick realizes what’s going on, Larry is about to vomit.
Mick is cruel to Larry while he vomits; he refuses to hold his son for fear of ruining his best suit, he scolds Larry for making a fool of himself, and he dismisses Larry’s pain when he walks into a wall and cuts his eye. Mick takes Larry home with the help of another mourner and fellow drunkard, Peter Crowley. On the way home, Larry seems to experience the entire spectrum of possible drunken states, from maudlin self-pity to short-tempered animosity. Much to Mick’s dismay, various townswomen are observing “the strange spectacle of two sober, middle-aged men bringing home a drunken small boy”— and laughing mockingly.
The trio eventually arrive home and Peter Crowley, fearing Mrs. Delaney’s wrath, quickly takes off. Mick, meanwhile, undresses Larry and puts him to bed. Mrs. Delaney, who has been out, presently returns home and berates her husband for “filling your unfortunate innocent child with drink” and for creating a disgraceful scene for the whole town to see. Mick haplessly protests that he’s not to blame.
The next morning, after Mick leaves sheepishly for work, Mrs. Delaney throws herself happily at the still bedridden Larry and calls him “Mick’s guardian angel”—after all, thanks to Larry, Mick didn’t drink a drop.
