EXPLORING THE SYMBOLISM IN WILLIAM BLAKE'S POETRY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The function of symbolism is an extended concept that provides texts with numerous references and layers of meaning that confound interpretation and increase reader interest in the text. The so-called vision of William Blake (1757–1827), English poet, painter, printmaker, and MHRR author and artist of children and innocence of experience, is oriented organically by symbolism that shapes both his style and his thinking politics, imbued with internal and external ideologies of politics. Blake’s symbols are not just and aesthetic or illustrative, but active and expressive and contain pedagogical values that convey messages about the human existence, power, and the opportunities of change. That is what his work does and that is why it remains unique and ground breaking in terms of symbolic representation and signification which is intimately bound up with his condemnation of the pseudo-cultural, political, and religious systems of his day. This study embarks on an in-depth exploration of Blake’s symbolic world, with a particular focus on two of his major prophetic works, America: A Prophecy written in 1793 and Europe: A Prophecy composed in 1794. These texts are replete with images and signification which interact with the historical and political unrest of the late 18th century and although these appearing to work on a basis of the potential for revolution these do so on the back of an avowal of spirituality and philosophical rebirth. In more detail, recognizing that Blake’s art is semiotic, this study aims to examine the multiple meanings encoded in his specific iconography and develop a better understanding of the revolutionary message and purpose of his art. In America: In A Prophecy, Blake makes effective use of revolutionary imagery and themes of retribution by characterizing them against the social evil standards of the revolutionary period such as colonialism imperialism and institutionalized religion. This way, using mythological images and the references to the Bible as the primary authority this artist rebels against conformism and offers another type of freedom associated with religious revelation and political emancipation. Similarly, in Europe: In A Prophecy, dream and symbol is Blake’s attack against the ravages of industrialism, war and systematic religion, awakening the human spirit at the same time to the possibility of freedom, creativity, and divine truth. Each construction contains the speculation of human suffering and deliverance revealing imagination as a material for combating oppression. It is important not to see Blake’s symbolism in the work as exclusively political, however. Indeed, it is also very philosophical and metaphysical as he was a strong believer of pantheism, the idea that the world both the physical and the spirits worlds are one. It provides readers with symbols beyond the cult, which raises the depths of man: the idea of creation, a struggle between the head and heart, and the search for the spirit. To Blake, the change in the society in its revolutionary form is guaranteed a change in the spiritual form; liberation from the chain of material society. By examining the intricate web of symbols in Blake’s America: A Prophecy and Europe: A Prophecy, this work aspires to shed light on how these symbols are not only political commentary tools, but also representations of Blake’s revolutionary otherworldly opinion. As with most of Blake’s works, the piece embraces radical themes of social change and spiritual emancipation, literarily and metaphorically urging the audience to contemplate on the prospects of change in two spheres – the external and the internal. Hence, even today, Blake’s work speaks in a very loud voice for politics and religion, for action — calling man or woman to be all he or she is capable of being — free. Finally, it is the goal of this work to try to persuade the reader that Blake’s symbols are historical in their reference, but eternal in significance, and that they contain for those who seek such things keys for the regeneration of society no less than the human soul. In the following excerpt, Blake’s innovative use of language, in terms of the topics that he encourages the reader to think about, ties the two categories of imagination and the divine with the freedom from oppression, freedom of creativeness, freedom to paint future human life.

Key words: Symbolism, William Blake, Romanticism, Revolution, Spirituality, Imagination, Prophecy, Emancipation, Metaphysics, Pantheism.