The Effects of Industrialization in William Blake's London 'London' by William Blake is one example of Blake's disapproval of changes that occurred in his lifetime. In his poem "London," from his work Songs of Experience, Blake describes the woes of the Industrial Revolution and the breaking of the common man's ties to the land, which he has brought upon himself. He describes the Thames River and the city streets as "chartered," or controlled by commercial interests; he refers to "mind-forged manacles"; he relates that every man's face contains "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"; and he discusses the "every cry of every Man" and "every Infant's cry of fear." He connects marriage and death by referring to a "marriage hearse" and describes it as "blighted with plague." He also talks about "the hapless Soldier's sigh" and the "youthful Harlot's curse" and describes "blackening Churches" and palaces running with blood. The poem has a simple rhyme scheme of: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH, as each of the four stanzas in the poem rhyme within themselves. "London,? like many of Blake's other works dealing with a similar theme, describes living in a society where the cost of living compared with income is steadily increasing, where new diseases are becoming increasingly common, and where the public is becoming ever more disillusioned about the reliability and trustworthiness of politicians. His works illustrate a nation that, due to the aforementioned problems, the rise of violent crime, and other considerations, is rapidly desensitizing itself to the "marks of weakness, marks of woe" and is becoming accustomed to seeing on the solemn and defeated faces of passers-by on the street. In the first stanza, the narrator refers the str... ... middle of paper ... ... upon man by society, marriage is a sort of death in man?s ability to be free to do as he wishes. ?London? describes a world during and after the industrial revolution in which there have been many ill-fated side effects stemming from the rise of cities and of industry, as people move away from the traditional farming families and their beliefs. People no longer treat each other with kindness or as equals, instead they exploit each other for personal gain, selfish and unfeeling towards the consequences of their actions for other people. Also, new and potentially deadly diseases are becoming a major problem in the cities, and other illegal activities such as prostitution and crime in general are on the rise. Works Cited: Blake, William. "London." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. MH. Abrams et al. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 2000
In effect, the permanent damage that alcohol leaves behind to the baby during conception and after birth is developmental disabilities. Prenatal alcohol exposure attacks the fetal brain structure and function causing FAS (Mattson, Schoenfled, & Riley, n.d.). Mothers who drink an unhealthy amount of alcohol during her pregnancy can hurt the baby’s corpus callosum, which is a significant part of the brain. The corpus callosum is the part of the brain that has a large amount of nerve fibers connecting each side of the hemisphere together, this allows for the right and left side of the brain to communicate with one another (Mattson, et.al., n.d.). People born with FAS’s corpus callosum is out of proportion and they struggle with reading, learning, and have deficits in attention (Mattson, et. al, n.d.). Individuals that are born with
“One by one, many of the working class quarters of London have been invaded by the middle-classes—upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages—two rooms up and two down—have been taken over, when their leases have expired, and have become elegant, expensive residences .... Once this process of ‘gentrification’ starts in a district it goes on rapidly until all or most of the original working-class occupiers are displaced and the whole social character of the district is changed.”
...en it comes to industry and capitalism. The “machine” of which Lawrence spoke in Lady Chatterley’s Lover has won the battle with nature, and we now live in a world driven by money, industry, and greed. So what can we do? I have come to the conclusion that the only logical course of action is to embrace the machine. If there will always be people who need things they do not have and people who have things they do not need, the only thing an individual can do is work as hard as they possibly can to ensure that they are in the former group. As Lawrence says, “Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take in tragically” (1). If an individual can put an end to this “refusal”, and accept the reality of the world in which he lives, he can put himself in a position to succeed, and ensure that he is not among the vulnerable when the iron curtain comes crashing down.
"The Effects of Alcohol on the Developing Brain." Women's Health Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. .
There are no limits in the Army, none on what you can learn and on what you can achieve. The Army strengthens you, and your future, with expert training in one of over 150 different jobs for soldiers on Active Duty. There is no specific job a soldier must have; it all depends on what he/she wants. But if the choice is made wisely, it could affect a big part of your future job and plan. (“Overview” np)
England in the nineteen-thirties was a very bleak and dark time for the working class and unemployed citizens. In The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell, describes the overlooked injustices that happened in in Northern British industrial towns. Orwell depicts his experiences and views on social class and English society. The book is an eye-opener to the challenging hardships that many of the working class gentry faced during the years of the depression; Things such as, horrible housing, social injustices, and a lack of consideration from the government. The primary focus of part one, was to inform the middle class people that the unemployed were victims or a corrupt society, government, and economy.
First named and treated in the 1960’s, the condition results from the toxic effect of alcohol consumption and its chemical factors on a developing fetus. FAS is the leading cause of mental retardation in one out of every seven hundred fifty births. This number changes drastically if the mother is a heavy, habitual alcoholic, as high as twenty nine children out of every one thousand births. The ultimate sadness of this disease is that is one hundred percent
Children can be effected by their caregiver’s alcohol and substance abuse in numerous ways. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a pattern of birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome tend to have physical abnormalities such as deformed facial characteristics. They are generally born with a variety of emotional and/or intellectual limitations. It is very common for these children to...
In utero, something that can be tested is habituation, which is a decrease in responsiveness to repeated stimuli.9 In a study done by Hepper, results indicated that the fetus’ response to a binge-like alcohol exposure, increased the number of trials required to habituate and also increased the variability in performance. This could be interpreted as the alcohol negatively affecting the neural integrity and the brain areas involved in habituation, potentially the hippocampus and the pre-frontal cortex.9 Structural damage in the brain could result in abnormalities in development after birth.
Writers like Henry Mayhew (London Labour and the London Poor) and Jack London (The People of the Abyss), and artists like Gustave Dore (London) and John Thomson (Street Life in London) - all chroniclers of the desperate conditions of those in the East End - helped enlighten many around world - particularly those who lived just beyond the permeable boundaries of that notorious area - as to the needs of the city's unfortunate members of society. Their works called out - whether directly or indirectly - for some sort of radical social reform, but there was little immediate response.
Penfound, W.T. (May 1968). The Problems of Overpopulation. Bios ,39 (2), 56-62. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4606831 .
In “London” by William Blake the grunge, and domineering nature of a city engaged in a transformation of industry, is articulated through the setting. London of the poem, and the 1700s and 1800s, was griped by a sense of overwhelming entrapment in the mechanical comings and goings of industry. This massive shift is expressed through the stark nature of the setting, and the speaker’s awareness of a sense of confinement, and malaise in the face of great progress. Blake’s choices in the portrayal of industrialized London, is one aimed to express the overwhelming battle between machinery, and flesh in a city gripped by the throws of revolution.
The sight of an angel made William Blake the most celebrated poet of his time, it influenced in his poems and painting, which it became gothic to people and made him a spiritual person. William Blake was born over his father hosiery shop at 28 Broad Street, Golden Square, London in Nov. 28,1757. His father was James Blake a hosier, and his mother Catherine Wright Armitage Blake. (Blakearchive.org) William Blake, being mostly educated at home learned how to read and write by his mother and later on went to school. His parents watch that he was different from others and they didn’t push him to attend to school, the main reason why his mother decided to instruct him. “They did observe that he was different from his peers and did not force him to attend conventional school.” Later on, Blake saw a positive thing after, writing “Thank God”… I never sent to school…”(Bloom, page 37) Apparently William Blake was a special boy, and a true believer of faith. When Blake was four years old, he told his parent he had experienced his first visions of God “His first vision occurred…when he was four. He saw God who “put his head to the window and set (Blake) screaming.” (Bloom, page 26) A couple years later, when Blake was nine years old, William claimed he had experienced new visions of angels. “ When Blake as a child told his mother “That he saw the Prophet Ezekiel under a Tree in the Fields.”” (Bloom page 26) Those visions changed William life. An age of ten William confesses to his parents that he wanted to be a painter. Later on, his father sent him to a drafting school. “At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school.” (Guterberg.org) Two years later William began c...
In summation, William Blake’s London describes a journey through London, all the while providing an insight into the terrible conditions faced by the city’s poor. To do his, it begins with an attack on Capitalism; the custody of the streets and The Thames River. It then moves to exemplify London’s social enslavement. Blake also critiques he Church and is failure to protect he most vulnerable. Blake also describes the cry of the chimney sweeper and the blackening of the church walls, suggesting that the church neglected hose who needed it most. The poem end with a grim vision of child prostitution and the horrific consequence of sexual diseases.
Sociological 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 preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poems such as “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” from his poetry collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience illustrate Blake’s despair regarding the unjust and unequal society of 18th century England. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake expresses his anger at the late 18th and 19th century's use of child labor in urban England. In “London,” Blake illustrates the depressing class oppression prevalent in the streets of the city.