Thursday, February 11, 2010

Resercher

Gemma's father is addicted to laudanum. It is known as opium tincture and it is an alcoholic herbal preparation. It contains 10% opium and 1% morphine. He is slowly becoming addicted to it. Gemma is sent to Spence Academy shortly after her mother dies. Throughout the book when Gemma speaks with her mother (in the realms), she believes her mother not being there is making the addiction worse for him.

2 comments:

  1. I can agree with the fact that the mother not being there can result in this addiction becoming stronger. After the death of a loved one people tend to result in doing harmful things to "relieve" them from the stress and depression occurring. Morphine is also a very harmful drug. The consequences of being addicted to laudanum are very bad and may even lead to death

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  2. I also agree, and I'm happy that you explained what laudanum is because i really did not know. I do also agree with what Jessye was saying. People do tend to resort to harmful things to ease the pain. I think that it is a good thing that Gemma was able to leave so that she wouldn't have to witness the downward spiral her father may experience.

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