Human Condition Essay

The human condition is a term which references our complicated existence by highlighting our ongoing ability to adapt and change both our perceptions and values. Through our mental capabilities of both creativity and imagination, humanity is able to achieve a sense of both self-actualisation and liberation, resulting in them acting as the core of our existence where, without them we would become susceptible to the overwhelming flaws of the human condition. Evidencing this are the three texts, ‘Dejection: an Ode’, ‘This Lime Tree Bower my Prison’ and ‘Focus’, which
Samuel Coleridge’s “Dejection: an Ode,” is a poem describing a man’s torment as he attempts to overcome his dispirited state as a result of the loss of a romantic relationship. The poem highlights the importance of creativity within humanity through the persona’s struggle to maintain joyous after the loss of such ability, presenting the fact that without creativity, we would become susceptible to the negative aspects of the world. Beginning the poem using pathetic fallacy, Coleridge relates the persona’s reality to the growing storm, which through describing the “dull pain” received from his loss, highlights the duality present within our emotions, and hence the idea that we have the ability to experience both love as much as we do despair. The poet again reinforces our vulnerability to reality by using a metaphor to describe how it “coils around my mind,” presenting the fact that without hope and optimism, reality can hinder our creativity. Describing that he was born with a “shaping spirit of imagination,” the persona alludes to the idea that humanity maintains the ability to bring about their own happiness, which as a whole, demonstrates to the audience that life can only ever be worth living when we have found our own contentment and joy, as encountered only through our imaginative pursuits. As the poem concludes, the importance of maintaining happiness is reiterated as the persona wishes his lover