Driven by the Spirit: The Alcoholism of Man in
Boardwalk Empire
The television drama Boardwalk Empire is an historical drama that seeks to
prove first and foremost that the cities of the United States never desire to be
wet more than when they are dry. Alcohol — according to the series — never
has more power than in the time of Prohibition, and Prohibition brings to life the
very thing it attempts to destroy. This ironic flourishing of alcohol after it is
banished and killed is illustrated in the very first episode, and then throughout
the first season, with the inordinate chaos that erupts in New Jersey over
alcohol’s metaphorical corpse. That chaos includes the instantaneous rise in
organized crime, the increase in corrupt politicians’ power, the fatal poisoning
of consumers, and the multitude of murders used to sustain illegal operations
and supplies — all of which arise from the attempt to slake the cravings of those
banned from their thirst. Boardwalk Empire documents this state of chaos
extensively, while simultaneously committing a far more important action: The
series relates the deceased and powerful alcohol to other more personal items of
its characters — children, lovers, and God — with the implication that these
things are interchangeable. The comparison of these items in the show occurs
both visually and dialogically and, though unorthodox, argues for a familiar
psychoanalytic premise. Jacques Lacan’s theories of lost objects and repression
bloom forth in Boardwalk Empire's relating the condition of alcohol in the
1920s to the condition of man for all time. Those theories, hand-in-hand with the
series, ultimately explain why Prohibition failed and always will.
According to Lacan, the