Confessions of an English Opium-Eater · Chapter
To the Reader explained
The author introduces his confessions, justifying the public exposure of his opium use by the potential benefit to other opium-eaters.
What happens
The author introduces his confessions, justifying the public exposure of his opium use by the potential benefit to other opium-eaters. He describes the widespread prevalence of opium use across English society, from eminent men to Manchester factory workers, and defends his own moral position by emphasizing his philosophical life and his successful struggle to break free from addiction.
Themes in this chapter
Confession and Self-Justification
The author wrestles with the propriety of public confession, justifying it as a service to others and asserting his own moral standing.
Addiction and Dependency
The chapter documents the widespread prevalence of opium addiction in England and the author's own struggle with the drug.
The Philosopher's Life
De Quincey frames his life as that of a philosopher, emphasizing intellectual pursuits and self-conquest over sensual indulgence.
Characters to notice
- Thomas De Quincey
The author and confessor, justifying his narrative as a service to fellow opium-eaters and asserting his philosophical life and self-conquest.
- Awsiter
Apothecary to Greenwich Hospital, author of 'Essay on the Effects of Opium' (1763), quoted on the dangerous allure of opium.
Key passages
“I have struggled against this fascinating enthralment with a religious zeal, and have at length accomplished what I never yet heard attributed to any other man—have untwisted, almost to its final links, the accursed chain which fettered me.”
I fought my addiction with intense dedication and have succeeded in breaking nearly every link of the curse that bound me, something no one else has achieved.
De Quincey boasts of his unique success in overcoming opium addiction.
“Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fellowship with the great family of man.”
Guilty and miserable people naturally avoid public attention, seeking privacy and solitude, and even in death they choose isolated graves, as if refusing to belong to the human community.
The author reflects on the instinctive desire for concealment among the guilty and suffering.