Blake: Critique on Society

Blake: Critique on Society

1. Exploitation of children

   • The Chimney Sweeper (I)
     • "So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep"
       • AO2: Use of rhyme- emphaises repetitive nature of life
       • AO3ii: Marxist- exploitation of child labour
       • AO4: poor social conditions in IR, high infant mortality rate
     • "thousands of sweepers [...] lock'd up in coffins of black
       • AO2: imagery of "coffins of black"- connotations with chimneys and death in child labour (AO4)
         • AO2: lexical choice of "thousands"- emphasises nature of mass child employment at the time
   • The Chimney Sweeper (E)
     • "They clothed me in the clothes of death"
       • AO2: imagery of "clothes of death"- clothes symbolise their work; death
       • AO4: Poor social conditions for working class
       • AO3ii: Marxist- exploitation of children & working class
   • Holy Thursday (I)
     • "The children walking two & two"
       • AO2: Imagery of connotations with Bible; Noah's Ark
         • AO3ii: Children treated like animals

2. Confinement & Conformation

   • The School Boy
     • "How can the bird that is born for joy sit in a cage and sing?"
       • AO2: Metaphor of caged bird for school boy
       • AO3II Marxist: Industralised schooling, young generation forced to conform with old
       • AO3II Eco-critical: Nature helps us grow and develop. Source of joy
   • Holy Thursday (E)
     • "Fed with cold and usuorous hand, is that trembling cry a song?"
       • AO2: lexical choice of "usurous"; life sapping
         • AO3ii Marxist: poor forced to comply with rich
   • London
     • ""thro' each charter'd street [...] where the charter'd Thames does flow"
       • AO2: lexical choice; forced to conform. Dictated by authorities
       • AO3ii Marxist: Totalitarian state. Oppression of classes by state