So much literary name-dropping

While reading I was intrigued by how many literary allusions Jamie and Edmund make. Although each of them uses literary references for different purposes, as a whole it sheds light on their characters.

Jamie:

“Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see. Sing all once more together; surely she, she too remembering days and words that were, will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we, we are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there. Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me, she would not see.”

The Swineburne poem speaks to Jamie’s helplessness and his desire for Mary to recover. It captures his longing for his mother to return to normal, wishing that she would remember him. Although this poem is quite morbid, it reveals Jamie’s true feelings. He’s failed countless times and ruined his life, which leaves him feeling unloved.

Edmund:

“Be always drunken. Nothing else matters: that is the only question…Drunken with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you will. But be drunken.”

Baudelaire’s prose poem perfectly captures Edmund’s character as well as all of the members of the Tyrone family. They are always intoxicated. For Tyrone the “horrible burden” that weighs heavy on his shoulders is his worry that he will end up in the poorhouse. Edmund on the other hand, is simply dealt a bad hand in life. Consequently, Edmund and the other members of the Tyrone family, resort to alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms for their problems and insecurities.