Confessions of an English Opium-Eater · Chapter
Preliminary Confessions explained
The author explains why he must provide preliminary confessions: to justify how a reasonable being would become an opium-eater, to provide context for his opium dreams, and to create personal interest.
What happens
The author explains why he must provide preliminary confessions: to justify how a reasonable being would become an opium-eater, to provide context for his opium dreams, and to create personal interest. He describes his early life, his father's death when he was seven, his classical education, his running away from school, his time in London, his friendship with Ann, and the extreme poverty and hunger he suffered that led to a stomach ailment. He emphasizes that he began using opium daily not for pleasure but to mitigate severe pain from this condition, which originated from his youthful sufferings.
Themes in this chapter
Addiction and Dependency
The author explains that he began using opium daily not for pleasure but to mitigate severe pain, addressing the question of how a reasonable being could subject himself to such a yoke of misery.
Suffering and Trauma
The author's youthful sufferings from hunger caused a painful stomach affection that later led to his opium use, and he reflects on the hieroglyphic meanings of human sufferings.
Confession and Self-Justification
The chapter is framed as a preliminary confession to forestall questions about his opium habit and to create sympathy for his case.
Characters to notice
- Thomas De Quincey
The author and opium-eater, recounting his youthful adventures and the origins of his opium habit.
- Ann
A dear companion from his London days, with whom he shared tender moments and from whom he was suddenly and critically separated forever.
- Samuel Johnson
Quoted for his remark that we never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
Key passages
“It was not for the purpose of creating pleasure, but of mitigating pain in the severest degree, that I first began to use opium as an article of daily diet.”
He started using opium daily not to seek pleasure, but to relieve intense pain.
Clarifies the motivation behind his regular opium use.
“My father died when I was about seven years old, and left me to the care of four guardians.”
His father died when he was around seven, and he was placed under the care of four guardians.
Key biographical detail about his early life.
“I wept as I looked round on the chair, hearth, writing-table, and other familiar objects, knowing too certainly that I looked upon them for the last time.”
He cried while looking at the familiar objects in his room, knowing he would never see them again.
Reflects his emotional state upon leaving school forever.