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영어

This essay aims to examine the social thought of Gerard Manley Hopkins as shown in “Tom’s Garland,” a unique poem of his which reveals his serious concern about the social situations of his time. For this purpose, the essay attempts to look into his letters, sermons, and the Catholic views of social problems on which he was influenced by Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning. His correspondence with Robert Bridges shows that Hopkins once thought of communism as a way out of the social problems of his time. But since he joined the Jesuit and was ordained as a priest, he had witnessed the miserable situations of the poor working-class people while ministering for the diocese he belonged to. Meanwhile, he preached his view of the Commonwealth which he thought was a possible cure for the worsening traditional and divine social order. In his final years in Dublin, however, he was very much worried about the problem of unemployment in England, which led Hopkins to write “Tom’s Garland.” This poem emphasizes the responsibility of the conservative and rich upper-class people to resolve the social and economic crisis. He suggests that the government as well as the Church make a common bid for the “common weal” of healthy society lest the poor unemployed people should turn to socialism or communism. Here we see that Hopkins was much influenced by Cardinal Manning, who criticized the laissez-faire economic policy of the state and also asserted that the church was also responsible for the miserable situation of society.