Gin Lane

Gin Lane is one of the strongest didactic engravings by William Hogarth. It is a graphic lecture on the evils of drinking gin which, in his words, produces "idleness, poverty, misery and distress, which drives even to madness and death.” Hogarth makes his point very well by using shocking, horrible scenes.
On the left side of the picture, in front of a pawnshop, a carpenter is trying to sell his tools and a woman tries to sell her pots. They will surely buy gin with their money. In the lower left corner we see the entrance of what is supposed to be a gin bar. Over the entrance there is an inscription that says, “Drunk f...