Confessions Of An English Opium Eater

Question 1

What is the significance of the passage: “Sine these rambles led me to great distances… intellects of hackney-coachman”

Answer 1

• Wondering by himself is more entertaining for him when taking opium than attending the opera
• Presents himself as a sort of observer like van urban anthropologist - looking at the way people spend their. Time and money in the city
• He’s wondering but there is something guiding him or propelling him in a certain way
• Thinking he is in a suspended state where time does not really exhibit
• Treats it like it is a voyage of exploration by using words like “voyage”
• To him the streets are like a riddle or a puzzle
• He is trying to convince us that he is lost but all of the language is telling us he knows exactly where he is
• Making himself out to be an epic hero of his own devising
• Emphasis on solitude (he is walking by himself, wants to be alone, presents himself as fundamentally happy in solitude, he chooses this but it is partially because of the opium that draws him into himself, he even chooses to take opium by himself instead of at a den)

Question 2

In what way is this text a confession?

Answer 2

• People confess as an act of absolution - something you do to be released of a burden
• He is making a spectacle of himself
• There is a fad for people to publish and read instances of crime that are sensationalized so he is kind of capitalizing on it but he is also exposing himself to reveal the true horrors of opium so although he is capitalizing on this fad he is also trying to educate and warn people

Question 3

What are the possible things confessions could be about?

Answer 3

• A confessional about his life
• About the opium
• A story of lost agency - losing power of the self and giving it up by choice in his opium taking

Question 4

Does opium render us all the same?

Answer 4

• Raises the question where true individuality lies
• Some addicts might argue it brings out their true individuality and they have never felt more in touch but others think it removes you from the self

Question 5

Explain the significance of “Oh! Just, subtle, and mighty opium… washed pure of blood”

Answer 5

• Gives opium agency - it is the opium who has the power to do these things
• Gives opium a healing quality - like an elixir
• Uses almost biblical language - like a fake archaic language - borrowing early 17th century language - making the opium almost kingly
• Defending his text by making it a literary artifact

Question 6

What are the four things that are different about opium dreams than real dreams?

Answer 6

• A transfer of things from his waking life into the dream world that are transformed into the shadowing insufferable side of things - they become phantoms
• He experiences depth of anxiety and depression that he doesn’t feel as tough he is ascending out even when he wakes up - he cannot express these feelings in words
• The sense of space and time are both powerfully affected - almost a sublime experience but he is not looking at it from a safe space as it is not an aesthetically attractive experience for him - it is what is like to experience what is only ever talked about in romantic literature and it is something absolutely awful to live through
• The minutest incidences of childhood, how they are forgotten and how they are revived - the trances of what you have been exposed to can be revivified - there is not such thing as forgetting - the things we have been exposed to leave their mark

Question 7

How is Confessions framed?

Answer 7

• Each segment is framed where the reader is addressed directly
• At the beginning of the pains of opium - warns of chaos because he can’t organize his thoughts, projects himself into the future to see what we would want to know, if you don’t understand addiction then you wouldn’t understand what it takes to stop
• Ends with the reader being addressed - tells us the only ongoing problems are disordered thoughts, nightmares, and anxiety