INTRODUCTION

VICES (2 para)
Humans are the product of various attributes, habits and attitudes. These
attributes and habits can be bad and looked down upon by the society or be
revered. The habits and attributes considered bad or not ideal by the society
are referred to as vices. These have an absurd way of manifestation and
existence.Despite having dire effects on the human, one cannot separate vice
and man, as they are what make man more human. It is beguiling that
absence of them is also a vice, making them very well knit in the lives of you
and me.

Due such pervasiveness of vices and the reach of their presence, I was
impelled to find literature written on them or someone’s account of the same.
That is when I was introduced to Thomas de Quincy’s essay, “Confessions of
an English Opium Eater” wherein he writes about his experience with his
vice,opium.

Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater was first

published, anonymously, in two parts in 1821 by London Magazine. It
appeared as a novel the following year, and has since been frequently
reprinted.

THOMAS DE QUINCY
OPIUM IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Throughout Victorian history, Opium served a somewhat
different role than it does in western society today.
Laudanum, an opium tincture (which also sometimes
contained alcohol), was widely used as a pain reliever, and
many people, both popular and common, were addicted to
this type of medication. Opium has also been used as an
additive to a variety of other products, including the
cordial Godfrey, a sleeping syrup given to children. In the
19th century, many traditional remedies and sophisticated
experimental drugs were taken.
Many notable Victorians are known to have used laudanum
as a painkiller. Authors, poets and writers such as Charles
Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot were users
of laudanum. Anne Bronte is thought to have modelled the
character of Lord Lowborough in ‘The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall’ on her brother Branwell, a laudanum addict. The poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley suffered terrible laudanum-induced
hallucinations. Robert Clive, ‘Clive of India’, used
laudanum to ease gallstone pain and depression.[ CITATION His \l
16393 ]

The druggist — unconscious minister of celestial pleasures! — as if in

sympathy with the rainy Sunday, looked dull and stupid, just as any mortal
druggist might be expected to look on a Sunday; and when I asked for the
tincture of opium, he gave it to me as any other man might do

LITERARY ANALYSIS

 It is a comment on the class of the poor

De Quincey says the true philosopher should be willing to associate himself

with all kinds of people, including prostitutes and the poor (20). He also
digresses from the story to propose ways to make life easier for the
impoverished English (21), a concern possibly informed by his brief time of
deprivation as a runaway youth in London. In his memoirs he admires the
actions of the poor.

The “Preliminary Confessions " segment of the memoir incorporates the

partial autobiography of de quincy and his comments on the society. There is
a section in which De Quincey diverges from his biography to depict the
horrendous conditions that the London poor experienced when he lived there
in 1803.

PLEASE ELABORATE ON THIS

. Further, he comments on the hierarchical system of the English society
“frameworks of London society" - which refers to the decent, wealthier
populace and states that they come up short on the charity of the
"underground," more unfortunate, London. De Quincy’s portrayals of
monetary imbalance give a case of how Admissions of an English Opium-
Eater contrasted from other nineteenth-century artistic writings. The memoir is
regularly by all accounts concealing this opinion, which would have been fairly
radical in the nineteenth century. For instance, the Duke of Densart is
substantially more reluctant to help De Quincey than are Ann or the head
servant on the mail-truck. In spite of the fact that De Quincey avoids passing
express judgment on the earl, rather he takes note of how the refined man
treated him charitably, this balance is by the by predictable with his affirmation
here that destitution draws out the boundaries of human conduct. His
expansion that destitution can likewise bring out "conceivable awfulness"
seems to be an admission to increasingly traditionalist perspectives, since so
far, we have not met any terrible characters who are genuinely poor.

3 paras with 6 lines each

Ponts to write (2 refrence Min, 2 paras each with 6 lines)

 It was an account by an opium addict

 Kindness amongst strangers
 The shrewdity of the rich
 Showed the daily working of the drug by a common person (a normal
narrative of the experience)
 Much more than a teaching / not an essay preaching with a holier than
thou tone
 Gives the account of de quincy’s life as well


Topic sentence

Textual evidence and explanations

  Opium usage at the time of De Quincy
The quality of his tone can give one contention to the individuals who trust De
Quincey too emphatically portrays the delights of the medication, since he keeps
on thinking about that pharmacist as a strict figure regardless of the torments he
would later go because of the medication.

 English Society at the time of de Quincy

 Major issues at the time
 Major events that took place
 De Quincy’s background
 Medical papers in relation to laudanum/opium

Prescription of opium.

Legislation in relation to drugs and opium

The most popular preparation was laudanum, an alcoholic herbal

mixture containing 10% opium.[ CITATION His \l 16393 ] Called the
‘aspirin of the nineteenth century,’ laudanum was a popular
painkiller and relaxant, recommended for all sorts of ailments
including coughs, rheumatism, ‘women’s troubles’ and also, perhaps
most disturbingly, as a soporific for babies and young children. And
as twenty or twenty-five drops of laudanum could be bought for just
a penny, it was also affordable.

Class and racial tensions also contributed to growing public concern—while opium
was “respectable” for the middle class to use, its spread to the working class caused
concerns about opium abuse contributing to their “degeneracy” (3). Later, public
sentiment and xenophobia were stirred as opium became associated with Chinese
opium dens; in particular, white women were thought to be at risk of being corrupted
by foreigners (3)..Berridge V, Edwards G: Opium and the People: Opiate Use in
Nineteenth-Century England, Reprint ed. New Haven, Conn, Yale University
Press, 1987 Google Scholar

In addition to the use and pleasures of opium, de quincy expresses

fascinating account of his life through which he explores a variety
of themes such as the large heartedness of the poor, the

Opium wars and opium in 1810