critique of authority: church, monarchy, government

Cards (24)

  • blake directly attacks religious, political and economic power for exploiting vulnerable
    exposes hypocrisy + oppression of institutions meant to protect people
  • key poems
    london
    the chimney sweeper (e)
    a little boy lost
    holy thursday (e)
  • ’chartered street’ ‘chartered thames’
    restriction of both urban and natural world
    manipulation of nature to suit capitalist + industrial schemes
    oppression of nature
  • ’in every face i meet
    marks of weakness, marks of woe’
    unification of suffering of a populace due to ruling institutions lack of care
    suffering of all, not just a specific group
  • ’in every voice, in every ban,
    the mind-forged manacles i hear’
    oppressed by laws, both state laws and those of religious teachings
    restricted by societal expectations
    imprisoned by own minds due to doctrine enforced by church + state
  • ’chimney sweepers’ cry’
    abuse of children to benefit rich
    specificity
    removal of children from natural environment, forced into work early + don’t have chance to fully experience innocence
  • ’every black’ning church appals’
    established church failing truth of christianity
    darkened due to child labour- perpetuates poverty + use of chimney sweepers
  • ‘the hapless soldier’s sigh
    runs in blood down palace walls’
    lack of autonomy
    forced to sacrifice morals to protect/serve royal family + their laws
  • ’youthful harlot‘s curse’
    paradox due to youth
    should still be in state of innocence
    forced into profession for money
  • ‘a little black thing among the snow,
    crying “weep! weep!” in notes of woe’
    stereotyped pity
    sold into form of slavery, dehumanised + loss of identity
    contrast of white snow w/ black
    evidence of corruption + industrialisation
    voiced suffering emphasising misery
  • ‘where are thy father and mother? say?
    they are both gone up to the church to pray’
    demanding/interrogative tone
    judgemental, seeks to blame
    constraints of religion + piety
    abandoned child due to perceived duty
  • ’they clothed me in the clothes of death,
    and taught me to sing the notes of woe’
    world= harsh + unforgiving
    children forcing misery onto child due to own misery? instead of protecting them from it
    society that forces poor to perpetuate own suffering through children
  • ’they think they have done me no injury,
    and are gone to praise god and his priest and king
    who make up a heaven of our misery’
    turn blind eye to suffering + actions influenced by doctrine
    imbibed worrying message
    only following instruction/doctrine
    critique broader society that gives license to church and parents- illusory dream of salvation, child forced to work + seem happy
    paradoxical end image
    problem of allowing child’s suffering + work for salvation
    social hierarchy + conformity
  • the chimney sweeper (e) protest
    children sold into labour + society allow/turning blind eye to it
    church- delusion, lie sell children + parents about life to come, complicity in ongoing injustice
    society that turns blind eye
  • ‘in trembling zeal he seized his hair’
    intoxicatingly potent religious belief
    due to innocent questioning of previous teaching about love
    does not permit questioning of religious teaching, deserves punishment
    becomes an example for all
    sign of experience
    entrenched in fixed ideals
  • ’fiend’
    ‘one who sets reason up for judge
    of our most holy mystery’
    demonisation of young boy, churchgoers do nothing
    church crushes questioning + development
    no contraries means no progress
    church= failed monolith of religion
    human thought vs divine interpretation
  • ‘weeping child’
    ‘stripped him…and bound him’
    vulnerability of child
    treated like criminal, experience corporal punishment
    questioning considered blasphemy
  • ’burned him in a holy place,
    where many had been burned before’
    shocking conclusion
    symbolic of deaths/suffering church permits to happen under its watchful eye
    invited to feel indignation toward church + priests actions
  • ’are such things done on albion’s shore’
    question lack of progression from ancient torture + condamnation
    due to lack of contraries, pointed out by blake
    outright critique of church
  • ‘is this a holy thing to see,
    in a rich and fruitful land’
    comment on britain
    place of wealth + prosperity yet poverty is allowed to continue
    critique ignorance of elite/aristocracy
    questioning of actions
  • ‘babes reduced to misery
    fed with cold and usurous hand’
    critique beyond those working
    infantilised + innocent
    evokes pity + disgust at those who allow suffering
    vulnerability of young juxtaposed by those who have means to help yet refuse
    greed, profit off debt
    church? guardian? state?
  • ’and so many children poor?
    it is a land of poverty’
    children once linked to colour, joy + nature
    now imagery/illusion removed
    expose truth due to removal of children from free + innocent sphere of natural world
    exclamatory indictment
    opposing 1st stanza
    stripping away facade
  • ’it is eternal winter there’
    shift to natural imagery describing bare + barren world
    opposing innocence
    physical + spiritual nourishment aren’t ffered
    god linked w/ sun yet= absent here
    damning critique of british society
    pain + restriction
  • abuse + exploitation of children
    also shown in chimney sweeper (both versions), holy thursday (e), a little boy lost