The Dungeon - Key Quotes

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1. 'dance', 'minstrelsy', 'healed', 'harmonised' and, 'wins' are part of a positive semantic field in the second stanza that juxtaposes the negative semantic field of the first stanza.

  • False, it juxtaposes the sceptical tone that Coleridge adopts when talking about God and religion in the first stanza.
  • True, it juxtaposes the negative semantics of stanza one in order to contrast the effects of the penal system and the effects of nature and god. However, the way in which Coleridge embraces the power of God can be seen as contradictory.
  • False, it doesn't directly juxtapose Coleridge's lexical choices in the first stanza, but it does present god as being omnipotent and benevolent.
  • True.
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2. 'Till he relent, and can no more endure To be a jarring and dissonant thing ... His angry spirit healed and harmonised By the benignant touch of love and beauty.' Is Coleridge's summation that nature should be used in the rehabilitation of prisoners.

  • False, Coleridge didn't believe in rehabilitation.
  • False, Coleridge believed that religion was the best way to rehabilitate prisoners.
  • True. Although the Romantic movement did also advocate religion as a tool for rehabilitating prisoners.
  • False, it simply supports the romantic belief that nature posses restorative powers, Coleridge did't believe in its use to rehabilitate prisoners.

3. 'Merciful God?' can be seen as ironic because...

  • All of these things.
  • It ambiguously extends the previous question whilst subtly questioning god's status as omni-benevolent.
  • Coleridge's use of punctuation questions god's mercy.
  • Coleridge's use of lexicon and punctuation reminds a religious audience - at the time - that a system based on the bible is entirely devoid of God and religious teachings.

4. In the second stanza, Coleridge talks directly to nature; personifying it. Which of the following quotes would best support the argument of Pantheism?

  • 'Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;'
  • 'O nature!'
  • 'Healest thy wandering and distempered child'
  • 'Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters'

5. What quote would support the Romantic belief that regardless of a person's actions, they are entitled to a certain level of basic human kindness. This quote also expresses a concern for the punishment than an individual would undergo for their crimes

  • 'Loathsome plague-spot;'
  • 'Is this the only cure? Merciful God?'
  • 'and what if guilty?'
  • '... most innocent, perhaps'
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