Work Is the Curse

Red and blue text around the outer edge with a red and blue illustration of a man with a red nose and cheeks, drinking from a blue bottle while writing on paper on a desk on a white background

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes” is a quote famously uttered by Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde. It is a humorous twist on the old saying “drink is the curse of the working class,” which was typically uttered by the upper classes to explain why the poor failed to climb up the socio-economic ladder. This quote captures a common sentiment that British aristocrats held about the working class, which was that they failed to improve their lot because they indulged too much. Ironically, Wilde believed that the rich were the ones doing the indulging and that their looking down their noses at the lower classes was awfully self-righteous. As Wilde saw it, work was a nuisance that seemed to be getting in the way of aristocrats’ regular drinking habit.