Our Mutual Friend Drugs and Alcohol

It's no secret that alcohol can make a person chatty. In Riderhood's case, this means he talks more often and more loudly. This is all pretty consistent with his character, really, since the guy isn't known for his restraint or self-discipline.

Riderhood is so used to having alcohol that his brain only snaps into action after he gives himself something to drink. Now that's what you call a chemical dependence.

Riderhood has a clever trick whenever he splits a bottle of booze with someone else. He specifically uses a type of glass that has no feet, meaning he can't set it on a table. This means that whenever someone fills his glass, he tends to empty it almost immediately and gets more of the bottle in the process.

John Harmon has been drugged before, and he's not going to let it happen again. It's only after examining the cork on a bottle of alcohol that he's satisfied to drink it.

It's not only drunks who want a drink of liquor now and then. Bradley Headstone tries to rest after a stressful day by asking Mr. Riderhood for a drink of gin. His logic is: how's a guy supposed to get to sleep without a tipple?

Headstone likes alcohol as much as the next man. But unlike some of the serious drunks in this book, he mixes his alcohol weakly. He might be doing this on purpose to make Riderhood think he's drunker than he is. After all, Headstone has a lot to gain by tricking Riderhood.

Jenny Wren's father doesn't just love liquor. He feels downright entitled to it. That's why he tends to wander the streets all day asking for booze money, even though he has a job where he could earn this money if he wanted.

Jenny's father has a particular area where he likes to do his drinking, because this area seems like it was designed for men like himself—dudes who like to drink alone until they barely know where they are. He even considers himself to be part of a special "tribe" of drinkers who go to this area.

Most of this book only mentions male examples of alcoholism. But this line reminds us that there were plenty of female drunks in Dickens' time as well. The book doesn't tell us anything more about these women, though, like where they come from or what first drove them to alcohol.

Young Blight is kind enough to give Mr. Dolls money for cab fare home, but the man promptly spends the money on alcohol. Or as Dickens like to call it "conspiracy against his life." Here, Dickens is reminding us that alcohol is a poison, which we remember even more when we find that Mr. Dolls ends up dying of alcoholism.