William Blake And Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Use Of Violence In The Prelude

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Recommended: The influence of Romanticism

Images of violence are deployed in various means in order to reach ends which may link to the personal views of the writer, which in term reflect greater public views of events (Dawson, 50), and political issues that are prevalent in the society. The Romantic age was highly interested in ‘violent and inclusive change’ and can be seen to have influenced the poetry of the time (Abrams, 46). William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge use violence in different ways in order to reach their end. Poetry, during the Romantic period, becomes closely related to politics (Bainbridge, 196) as not only was it believed that poets helped ‘contribut[e] to political understanding and action in ways that went beyond their role merely as citizens’ …show more content…

Moreover, I will argue that the use of violence acts to exclude women from the narrative of the revolution – instead of constructing inclusive change, women are often portrayed as victims or missing from texts. This will be examined in relation to not only Blake, but also Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake. Wordsworth’s use of violence within The Prelude represents his ambivalent and changing nature toward the French Revolution. Wordsworth, in the earlier years of the revolution, supported the French yet as violence began to surface, Wordsworth became more troubled and disillusioned by it (Dawson, 50). The episode in Book Nine of Vaundercour and Julia’s relationship reflect the French Revolution and Book Ten’s violent imagery relates both this episode to Wordsworth’s attitude toward the violence. Finally, Coleridge’s ‘Fears in Solitude’ deploys violence in relation to the threat of invasion. This mirrors the political anxieties of the period of a French invasion and threatens the peace within …show more content…

This is not only done through the powerful description of sexual violence in the beginning of the poem but also portraying the Orc and it want and ability to destroy the oppressive forces not just of Britain, but of religion as

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