Blake Plate Analyses
Many of Blake’s Proverbs of Hell directly contradict what would otherwise be deemed “good” or “Christian,” but Plate 10, the fourth and last listing of the Proverbs of Hell, contains some “good” and some “bad.” Unlike the previous plates written in fiery colors, Plate 10 has the rosy tones of a sunrise on the sea. The first several lines follow this mellow tone. Calling the head “Sublime” and the hands and feet “Proportion,” and even calling the heart “Pathos” and the genitals “Beauty” all could work within a classical view of Enlightenment. Blake continues in contrasts with the crow who “wish’d every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white” up to the exclamation that “Exuberance is Beauty.” This climax of harmony is accompanied by small sketches of dancers jumping on clouds.
But here there is a shift. The previous lines placed creatures in their appropriate places—“The sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible”—and everything had a black and white nature. The next lines suggest placing things out of order. Blake talks of a lion “advised by the fox,” of “crooked roads without Improvement” and of nature being “barren” without man. He even writes, “Sooner murder and Infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.” Blake aims for the reader to consider these oddities as possible truths, and adds this warning: “Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not believ’d.”The reader not only deciphers each line, but necessarily puts stock in its message. I think here, Blake is not praising Romanticism or Enlightenment, but as a conclusion to his proverbs presents a warning to reconsider everything that is told. He asks, “Enough! Or Too much,” directly inviting the reader to make decisions about the text instead of just passing through it.
Note: The image at the bottom of the page shows three figures, one on the left writing in a blue gown, a winged figure kneeling and pointing out a long scroll to the first, and a similar figure in a blue gown also peering over at the first. The writing figure could be like writing good proverbs, the winged creature (possible demonic) pointing out contrary proverbs, and the third an onlooker trying to write its own but examining the others.
I think Blake is all "CONTRADICTIONS", after reading The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and after reading different analysis, I came to conclusion that no matter what we discuss about the plates, or about Blake himself we will for sure conclude with a contradiction.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Blake presents himself and his ideas in a unique style to convey the opposite of what is being presented. For example, the idea of Heaven and Hell. It is not necessarily true that because Blake talks more about Hell, he likes Hell more than Heaven. He just presents both ideas to the readers trying to convince them that there is something good about Hell and Hell is with Heaven, they are not divided. But honestly, how many of us after reading Blake think that Hell has something good in it? If you think that Hell is good, then I would say that Blake succeeded in conveying the exact message he presents, if you still consider Hell as bad, then I will say Blake uses contradiciton to convey a message beyond the message he presents.
In plate sixteen, Blake discusses the two “portions of being”: the Prolific and the Devouring. He starts by creating an image of giants that are restrained by chains. These giants were responsible for “form[ing] this world into its sensual existence”, and are therefore the “sources of all activity”. On the contrary, the chains are restraining the giants, and therefore trying to dampen the activity in the world. In this image, the giants are Prolific and the chains are Devouring. The Devourer is trying to hold back progress of the Prolific, and it “only takes portions of existence and fancies that the whole.” This relates to the general theme of romanticism that science only provides one view of life, as the Devourer is only taking certain facts and assuming they are the entirety of life. Also, Blake states the Prolific and the Devouring parts of being are eternal enemies, yet “whoever tries to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence.” Hence, both are needed for existence and they must always be opposing. The image on plate sixteen is of a man that may be God, who Blake states is present in all men, and he has his arms around two men on either side of him. These two men on either side of God may represent the Prolific and the Devouring portions of being necessary for life. They are joined together by God who is present inside our being. Therefore, this is cementing the Romantic view that contradictions are necessary for life.
ReplyDeletePlate 21 sees Blake solidifying his position on man at the center of the universe. The text is primarily concerned with the arrogance of angels, and of Swedenborg, in thinking of themselves as wiser than all else. For the angels, Blake says that this hubris, this arrogance stems from "systematic reasoning," one of the clearest indictments of Enlightenment thinking that he delivers throughout the text. He implies that angels are not the only sources of wisdom in the universe, and the fact that they arrived at that arrogant conclusion through reason shows that reason isn't the only source of truth, either. Although he doesn't explicitly state in the text what an alternate source of wisdom might be, the image above makes his conclusion fairly obvious. He shows a man, resplendent and glorious. This juxtaposition between man and a suggestion that angels aren't the only source of truth and wisdom implies that there is inherent greatness to man, and inherent truth. The man is drawn in reds and blues, a combination of the colors of passion and energy and passivity and reason. In man, they find unity and purpose. His pose is sexually suggestive, but his face is passive and enlightened, looking upwards at heaven while he is firmly grounded on earth. Everything about the figure is a mixture of opposites, of the contraries that Blake has expounded on earlier. Yet in this conflicted form, we are left with a man who seems to be portrayed as the ideal human, a being who in fact emits rays of light, who seems to glow with inner glory. The text says that angels aren't the only source of wisdom, that Swedenborg deludes himself into thinking he is the source of new wisdom, but after seeing the image of the beauty and resplendence of the true nature of man right above, Blake intends those claims to seem laughable. Through this juxtaposition and his skillful combination of words and images on this plate, Blake makes a compelling argument for humanity being a source of wisdom, truth, and greatness as well as the divine.
ReplyDeletePlate 4
ReplyDeleteIn Plate 4, "The voice of the Devil" Blake says that bibles or sacred codes are the cause of certain commonly believed myths, and that the truth is covered up by the words of these codes. A man's body is distinct from his soul, energy is the only life, and energy is eternal delight. These contraries that he says are true contradict those who believe in enlightenment.
Blake does a good job of aligning his words in the plate with the pictures, and uses them to show his contrary beliefs. For example the Heaven or light side is on the same level, neither above nor below Hell. The figures in each seem to long for eachother and are almost connected. This furthers the argument that energy is eternal delight and not evil.