Social Criticism in William Blakes Songs of Innocence and...

William Blake was a social critic of his time, yet his criticism also reflects society of our own time as well. He mainly communicates humanitarian concerns through his Songs of Innocence and Experience; which express two opposite states of the human soul, happiness or misery, heaven or hell. Innocence; expresses the state of childhood, into which we are all born, a state of free imagination and infinite joy. Experience;, according to Blake, is mans state when disaster has destroyed the initial ecstasy. He believes that problems concerning child labor, religious institutions, individual apathy, prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, war and marriage are the result of humankinds carelessness. He explores this point of view†¦show more content†¦The water, which was once a beautiful natural river, has now become polluted for merely economic purposes, which illustrates mans negligence. Blake also believes that without mans government, man could live in peace and in freedom . Instead, the image we are becoming used to is one of marks of woe;(4) on the faces of the pedestrians, and we hear every infants cry of fear;(6). Blake states that people participate in their oppression by not helping to solve societys problems when he writes that there is an effect of mind-forgd manacles;(8) on every man. In the third stanza, Blake describes that the people involved in religious institutions participate in the oppression because they not only allow child labor but encourage it. In addition, Blake states that the Palace; (12), symbolizing mans government, also oppresses society because soldiers are forced to sacrifice their lives and that these tired victims can only sigh by not speaking up to their oppression: How the chimney-sweerpers cry Every blackening church appals, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down the Palace walls. (9-12) By the end of the poem, mans repression has clearly caused the death of everything. Hence the husband who visits the prostitute will bring home Harlots curse;(14) symbolizing sexually transmitted diseases which will infect the infant and the curse of a forever ruined marriage. Thus, Blake communicates that people are ignoring the infants tear, which is aShow MoreRelatedSociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry Essay1506 Words   |  7 PagesSociological criticism analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature. To examine literature from the perspective of Marxist social theory is a quintessential form of sociological criticism, as Marxism primarily deals with political and economic ideas of communism and social inequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preferenceRead MoreEnglish Preromanticis m: William Blake3403 Words   |  14 PagesPreromanticism: William Blake Term Paper Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. M. Ã…  idlauskas 2008 CONTENTS Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...............3 1. William Blake-a forerunner of English Romanticism 1 William Blake-a social critic of his own time†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..6 2 William Blake’s ideas and the Modern World†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 2. â€Å"Songs of innocence and of Experience†-the most popular W.Blake’s poem book 1 The social significance of W. 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