William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

Paper Summary:

In this paper, the writer considers William Blake's novel "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as a reaction to the Enlightenment. William Blake saw the Enlightenment as favoring the rational over the imaginative and explicitly reacts to this thought process in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell." The paper discusses how Blake contrasts science, poetry, rationality, and imagination to show the limitations and problems that privileging the rational has had by exploring the imaginative in a diabolic way.

From the Paper:

"Blake dismisses the advantage that has been placed upon good over evil by taking on a diabolical voice and condemns the Church, as it has condemned men, by explaining that "All bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors:..."6 (Plate 4), then affirming that "the following Contraries to these are true:..."6 (Plate 4). Blake uses this rejection of the bible to point out the misleading notions that the Church has caused, then blatantly writes "Those, who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be/ restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place and governs the unwilling."6 (Plate 5) Here, Blake points out the insufficiencies that "conventional moral[ity]"6 (1377) holds while restraining those who do not wish to follow, as a prediction of the breaking away from Church or State governance."

Sample of Sources Used:

• David Ashley, and David Orenstein. Sociological Theory Classical Statements. (6th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon Press. 2005), 7 - 8
• John Milton, "Paradise Lost," in The Norton Anthology of English Literature The Major Authors, ed. MH Abrams. (7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2001), 769
• New Testament ;Psalms Proverbs. Guelph, ON, Canada: The Gideons International. p. 503 - 507
• Wiersbe, Warren. Bible Commentary NEW TESTAMENT. (NKJV, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), 15 - 90 *the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John*
• William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," in The Norton Anthology of English Literature The Major Authors, ed. MH Abrams. (7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2001),1377 - 1387

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