Alcoholism refers to the prolonged and uncontrollable use of alcoholic drinks which results in addiction and in effect severe health and social consequences. Billy Lynch is a character from Charming Billy and is the focus of the novel. Billy is an Irish migrant who lives in New York just like many other migrants who moved to the city for a better life after the Second World War. (Kenny, 2000) He is found lying on the streets of his neighborhood, he later dies and his cousin Dennis helps to identify his body and plan the funeral as a way of helping Billy’s widow Maeve.
As his family and friends come to find out at the time of his funeral, he died from alcoholism. This was brought about by a series of events that took place in his life which led to emotional distress. Billy in his life was a kind, loyal, romantic, trusting, and charming person and that is how his family and friends chose to remember him. According to McDermott, it is this very nature that led to his demise. (1998) This is because his love and affection were not reciprocated in the same way by his family and friends and more so by Eva who Billy had fallen in love with and hoped to marry. Eva and Billy had met in Long Island where she was helping her sister who worked as a nanny at the time. She later returned to Ireland where she was supposed to wait for Billy to send for her as soon as he has enough money. Despite her engagement to Billy, Eva remarried. Dennis who knew this fact chose to lie to Billy by telling him that Eva had died. Billy later married Maeve but contrary to what many thought, she was not able to rescue Billy from his broken heart. Over the years, Billy’s drinking developed into alcoholism.
Billy’s sister and brother were not in agreement as to what led to the drinking. Rosemary, his sister was of the opinion that alcoholism is a disease and was not brought about by Billy’s life circumstances while Dan, his brother was of the opinion that Billy’s drinking habit was a direct result of Eva’s death which Billy had described to him as a progressive burden on his shoulders. Billy, therefore, drank in order to forget his frustration, and this drinking eventually led to his death. (McDermott, 1998)
Interestingly, at his funeral, Billy’s family, friends, and relatives choose to ignore the problems that his alcoholism caused them and instead focus on his positive behavior such as kindness, charm, and humility. Billy’s wife Maeve, whose father was also an alcoholic proves her loyalty to Billy by persevering through his alcoholism and the problems it brought for both her and Billy. (McDermott, 1998) When he was alive, Billy’s drunkenness saw him getting shunned by those who were close to him until he became sober, but despite this, they tried to help him through his pain. Dennis and Maeve’s effort to help Billy is seen to have been a genesis of his destruction where Maeve’s acceptance of his alcoholic tendencies is seen to have encouraged the behavior while Dennis’s bid to shield his best friend from reality by lying to him id thought to have led to his destruction. Dennis helps Maeve to deal with Billy’s behavior which is instigated by his drinking by bringing him home at the wee hours of the morning and answering his many calls when he was drunk.
When the funeral is about to come to an end, Billy’s friends symbolically take a drink for him while trying to imagine how he would have felt had he been the one taking the drink. This shows their loyalty and continued acceptance of their friend’s past as some of them wonder if they had acted and decided differently Billy’s life would have turned out in a different way. For example, Dennis wonders whether telling Billy the truth would have led to a different outcome as far as the alcoholism that engulfed Billy’s life was concerned. (McDermott, 1998)
Reference
Kenny, K. (2000). The American Irish: A History. New York: Longman Publishers.
McDermott, A. (1998). Charming Billy. New York: Dell Publishing.