An Explication of The Garden of Love
My original interpretation of "The Garden of Love" encompassed the speaker as a person who was scared to move on in their life and in love. I thought (he) was afraid of failure, afraid of losing childhood innocence in the wake of adulthood decisions and expectations. I funneled my theory into a neat little package that contained the Chapel as a symbol for marriage (or adult themes), and the Garden to stand for his life, or thoughts. I further belabored my opinion and interpretation.
After long deliberation with the writings of Blake 'experts,' I have conceded to concur with their interpretations of "The Garden of Love," and therefore: According to Ostriker, Blake "celebrates sexuality and attacks repression" (156). I agree that his attack on repression is apparent in this poem, in that Blake seems to want the speaker, and the readers, to take a chance on life, love, or sex. Whatever the convention of each individual, Blake wants us to not be afraid to go against the conventional. Yet the speaker in "The Garden of Love" is constrained to move forward with his own decisions, probably restricted by the strict conventions of the Church. The priests follow suit as a reminder of 'conventional holiness.'
Blake has often ridiculed the Church, and it seems as though he uses "The Garden of Love" to display the affects of the Church's manipulation on youth. Regarding the two youngsters kneeled behind the priest, Kauvar explains, "The bowed figures reveal the presence of Urizenic (def. Reason - mine) repression and morality, for instead of embracing, the youths kneel submissively behind the priest" (60). As I grasped in my first response to this poem, Blake's 'Garden' represents new growth and childhood innocence. Kauvar continues that thought with the opposite side, "but in Experience he sees nature dying and the graveyard supplanting the garden" (60).
It seems to me that Blake was highly disturbed with the manipulating effects placed on the public by the Church. I think he believed the public was mislead by the Church and its expectations, and further, believed their lives were governed as such. Pagliaro continues with the mention of, ".
Priestley's Use of Characters to Send a Political and Social Message to the Audience in An Inspector Calls
Mason, Michael. Notes to William Blake: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. Michael Mason. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
With Gertrude, Hamlet would also like to express his anger towards her, as well as possibly kill her or make her go insane, without arising suspicion in others that he is not insane. In addition, he would like to confront Gertrude with the grounds of Claudius' crime, without her thinking that he actually believes in them, so that she might somehow think about them and realize that Claudius is guilty. Now, she will no longer love Claudius and she will not believe that Hamlet thinks that Claudius is guilty. If she believes this, she might pass on this fact to others, leading to Hamlet's downfall. Also, Hamlet does not want to confront Gertrude with the crime in a sane condition, which then will be forcing her to make a difficult choice between Hamlet and Claudius, with disastrous psychological results for Hamlet if she chooses against him.
The first images of the garden are seen through the exaggerated imagination of a young child. “” are as “ as flowers on Mars,” and cockscombs “ the deep red fringe of theater curtains.” Fr...
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
...uses Inspector as a device in itself to convey his ideas about socialism and conflict with Mr Birling with those ideas. The main way the Inspector conflicts with Mr Birling is that, Mr Birling is extremely confident and conflict, especially when dismissing the possibility of a war based on his belief of progress as “the world’s developing so fast that it’ll make war impossible” and this conflicts strongly against the Inspector’s own views. Priestley’s conclusion within a conclusion is that if people will not look out for one another in the most smallest of ways, they men will destroy men on battlefields, with ‘fire and blood and anguish’. This is Priestley’s message of direct conflict. This is shown in the microcosm of the dining room in the Birling residence. A message that will be echoed by many - with the Mr Birling’s of society wondering where it all went wrong.
However, keep in mind that this poem was published in 1794. A renowned movement in history had just taken place a few years before this poem was published. That movement was The First Great Awakening. Christine Heyrman of The Univeristy of Delaware describes the First Great Awakening as “a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s.” (Heyrnman 1). This means that just before Blake published his poem, a revamping of Christian culture was being taken place in The United States. This is essential information to keep in mind because Blake, less than thirty years later, questions Christianity in its entirety through a poem called “The
...nity of all living things, including himself. The harsh reaction of organized religion to this idea is illustrated in the second "Little Boy Lost," in which the youth is actually burned for his rebellious thinking. The first set of poems tells of the boy's lack of success in a religious system in that did not seem to really care about the boy, and left him floundering. It then describes his introduction to God in the forest, who brought him back to his mother, the earth, which showed him proper reverence of God through nature, not priestly education. The second poem captures organized religion's harsh reaction to this unorthodox and rebellious thinking, and destroys the boy for trying to reach outside of the accepted normal teachings. Together, the poems show an evolution from Blake's dissatisfaction with organized religion to an outright indictment of its practices.
In several poems found in Songs of Experience and Innocence Blake presents the church, as well as religion, as corrupt and damaging to the innocence and purity of youth’s souls. The poe...
There is a scene in which the actor illustrating the late king is laying in a garden to rest. An evil relative to the king confronts the sleeping man, and pours poison into his ear (III. ii. 260-275). It was at this point that Claudius snaps, knowing that his nephew knows the truth behind his acts. Gertrude tried to calm him by asking him if he felt ill, but it was to no avail; Claudius cuts the play short, indirectly confessing to the audience that he indeed murdered the late King Hamlet. However, Gertrude still remains calm and undetected by Hamlet; he thinks of her as a harlot, but not that of a murderer. At least, that is what she thinks.
Throughout all of his literary works, Blake incorporates many classic romantic characteristics. But he also incorporated important people and events surrounding the time period. One of his most controversial works, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” explores three of the most prominent romantic themes in his works: the battle between good and evil, the presence of the supernatural and an affinity for nature. Most likely inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell”, Blake used common romantic symbolism to demonstrate the prophetic meanings of the pieces in the book. In “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, Blake alludes to the idea that,
When Gertrude tries to protect Hamlet from Claudius in act IV, scene 1, when describing to Claudius about Hamlet 's killing of Polonius, Gertrude covers up Hamlets indifferent attitude by saying that he cried afterwards: “ Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done” (IV.I.27). She knows that Hamlet did not show sorrow, but as a mother, she wants to describe him in a way that will make things easier for him. However, this does not change the conflict towards Gertrude and Hamlet. Hamlet is still enraged with vengeance and Gertrude’s nurturing act does not help the situation: “The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing—Of nothing: Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after” (IV.II.22-23, 25). Gertrude’s acts does not stop Hamlet from seeking revenge. She does not have the insight to distinguish between sincerity and deception in people. She seems to be more concerned with being caught in the middle of the two men in her life than with the possibility she has done something
William Blake's poems show the good and bad of the world by discusses the creator and the place of heaven through the views of Innocence and Experience while showing the views with a childlike quality or with misery.
For Blake, God is like the human in that He also feels the inevitable sorrow that comes with somebody else’s pain. “He doth feel the sorrow too.” The reader becomes aware of a divine force inside of himself, something he should not search for elsewhere.
Many see Gertrude as a voiceless character, that she is simple minded or witless. It is important to note, that whether she is a strong character or not in the play, she is innocent of murder. She has no part in the murder of her husband, but that does not mean she is not an adulterer. Hamlet sees Gertrude’s moral offence and is disgusted by it. In Hamlet’s mind, Gertrude was guilty simply by association with Claudius. Though, would Hamlet have condemned her to the same fate as Claudius in the end? Could Hamlet have murdered his mother if not for the ghost’s intervention on her behalf? The closest we may ever come to knowing is in act three in the closet scene.