Abstract

This article argues that Walt Whitman’s Franklin Evans (1842) merits renewed attention for connecting the Self-Made Man’s lack of temperance to public and domestic failure. Whitman’s novel highlights forms of abuse beyond physical violence, showing how alcohol weakens a man’s ability to provide emotional and financial security for his family. Through Franklin Evans’s two marriages, Whitman shows that temperance failure is more than just drunkenness; it also means losing a sense of duty, care, and self-control. By using research on gender and temperance, this article shows how Whitman uses the drunkard’s downfall to question nineteenth-century ideas about manhood and responsibility. In this way, Franklin Evans turns temperance fiction into a critique of masculine failure, specifically regarding his duty as a husband, and a reflection on the personal and social costs of self-made ambition. 

Keywords: Masculinity, Temperance, Whitman, Gender, Marriage

How to Cite:

Harrington, M. P., (2026) “Franklin Evans and the Inebriated Husband”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 43(1/2), 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/0737-0679.34662