An Explication of The Garden of Love
My original interpretation of "The Garden of Love" encompassed the speaker as a person who was scared to move on in their life and in love. I thought (he) was afraid of failure, afraid of losing childhood innocence in the wake of adulthood decisions and expectations. I funneled my theory into a neat little package that contained the Chapel as a symbol for marriage (or adult themes), and the Garden to stand for his life, or thoughts. I further belabored my opinion and interpretation.
After long deliberation with the writings of Blake 'experts,' I have conceded to concur with their interpretations of "The Garden of Love," and therefore: According to Ostriker, Blake "celebrates sexuality and attacks repression" (156). I agree that his attack on repression is apparent in this poem, in that Blake seems to want the speaker, and the readers, to take a chance on life, love, or sex. Whatever the convention of each individual, Blake wants us to not be afraid to go against the conventional. Yet the speaker in "The Garden of Love" is constrained to move forward with his own decisions, probably restricted by the strict conventions of the Church. The priests follow suit as a reminder of 'conventional holiness.'
Blake has often ridiculed the Church, and it seems as though he uses "The Garden of Love" to display the affects of the Church's manipulation on youth. Regarding the two youngsters kneeled behind the priest, Kauvar explains, "The bowed figures reveal the presence of Urizenic (def. Reason - mine) repression and morality, for instead of embracing, the youths kneel submissively behind the priest" (60). As I grasped in my first response to this poem, Blake's 'Garden' represents new growth and childhood innocence. Kauvar continues that thought with the opposite side, "but in Experience he sees nature dying and the graveyard supplanting the garden" (60).
It seems to me that Blake was highly disturbed with the manipulating effects placed on the public by the Church. I think he believed the public was mislead by the Church and its expectations, and further, believed their lives were governed as such. Pagliaro continues with the mention of, ".
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shows strong prejudice against woman especially with such characters of Ophelia and Gertrude. Shakespeare created an interesting character with Gertrude; he created a character that sits in the middle of all the conflict and appears to not partake in much of it. However Gertrude does seem intent in defusing it at every possible chance she receives. Gertrude is a central figure in the play. She appears a great deal but doesn’t say much – implying mystery and creating an interesting uncertainty in the audience. Hamlet spends a lot of time dwelling on her marriage to Claudius and Shakespeare leaves many questions unanswered with Gertrude such as did she have an affair with Claudius behind old hamlets back? Why does she drink the poisoned wine that is intended for her son? Does she know it is poisoned? Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet and although they do not have a typical mother son relationship she does love him. Queen Gertrude is often interpreted by many as an adulterate, incestuous woman. Catherine Belsey states that typical interpretations of Hamlet maintain: ‘Gertrude a slut; and Shakespeare a patriarchal bard’ (Belsey,1997:34). Gertrude’s actions throughout the play could be read to show her to be a very passive character, far from a strong independent woman. This is shown with her obedience to Claudius, three times during the play, Gertrude is told to leave and each times she complies without hesitation. In Act 1, scene 2 Claudius says to Gertrude, ‘Madam, come’ (122). Then again, Act 3, scene 1, Claudius says to her, ‘Sweet Gertrude, leave us .’ (28), she complies with ; ‘I shall obey you’ (37). And finally, in Act 4, scene 1, Claudius say, ‘O Gertrude, come away!’ (28). This obedience that Gertrude ...
...uses Inspector as a device in itself to convey his ideas about socialism and conflict with Mr Birling with those ideas. The main way the Inspector conflicts with Mr Birling is that, Mr Birling is extremely confident and conflict, especially when dismissing the possibility of a war based on his belief of progress as “the world’s developing so fast that it’ll make war impossible” and this conflicts strongly against the Inspector’s own views. Priestley’s conclusion within a conclusion is that if people will not look out for one another in the most smallest of ways, they men will destroy men on battlefields, with ‘fire and blood and anguish’. This is Priestley’s message of direct conflict. This is shown in the microcosm of the dining room in the Birling residence. A message that will be echoed by many - with the Mr Birling’s of society wondering where it all went wrong.
People have tendencies to stick to tradition, and things that have been steady for them. Even more so, people tend to stick to tradition that?s been favourable, like a specific dinner time or wake-up call. Similarly in sports, people follow the sports and particular teams that have excelled in competition at some point in the franchise history. Because of the fact that neither Canada or the United States had any big time soccer teams, or have faired well internationally in competitions throughout history, people decided a long time ago to ditch the sport altogether or dislike the sport from the get-go, and instead watch their hometown football or basketball team ...
JB Priestley’s intent in ‘An Inspector Calls’ was to convey the attitudes of socialism to the minds of the society in the Edwardian Era as he was a passionate believer of the concept. Priestley has attempted this through the employment of ‘Inspector Goole’ in the play. In the play drama is displayed through a variety of methods for the interest of the audience and the communication of personal views from JB Priestley.
Priestley's Use of Characters to Send a Political and Social Message to the Audience in An Inspector Calls
The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the changes of growing up. When she no longer can hide from reality, she tries to hide from herself, which leaves her feeling disillusioned and unsure of who she is.
The Inspector, straight form his introduction, is commanding and authoritative. Upon his entrance he creates, “…at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefulness.”(PG.11) The Inspector continues to create this impression as he progresses through his speeches and through his interrogation of the family. The Inspector remains confident, sturdy and composed, while people around him crumble and fall to pieces. His ‘solidity’ is proven by the fact he remains on task despite numerous attempts from Birling to digress from the points he is making. The Inspector is told to appear ‘purposeful’; this is shown where he explains to Birling that Birlings way of thinking “Every man must only look out for himself,” is not the case, and all warps of society are interlinked. The view is best illustrated in the Inspectors final speech, where he says, “We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”(p.56). This idea is one that Priestley, himself believed in deeply, and many of Priestleys writing shared this very theme.
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous
J.B. Priestley wrote the play "An Inspector Calls" in 1945 and set it in 1912. These dates are both relevant because he wrote his play in a world emerging from the Second World War, at a time when people were getting nostalgic about pre-world war one. Priestley used his play to try and show people that the idea of a community in 1912 was gradually being washed away by the upper classes and that the world needed to change rather than return to the egotistical society that existed in pre war England.
The First World War began in 1914 and the Second World War ended in 1945. Between these years, the world changed in many ways- there was a lot of time and money being spent on people thinking up ways to kill each other. The Russian Revolution also took place. (see the novel ?Animal Farm?, by George Orwell- which is created in a similar manner to ?An Inspector Calls?) This was an area where the Royal Family was abolished. Initially, there was democracy, then communism.
However, keep in mind that this poem was published in 1794. A renowned movement in history had just taken place a few years before this poem was published. That movement was The First Great Awakening. Christine Heyrman of The Univeristy of Delaware describes the First Great Awakening as “a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s.” (Heyrnman 1). This means that just before Blake published his poem, a revamping of Christian culture was being taken place in The United States. This is essential information to keep in mind because Blake, less than thirty years later, questions Christianity in its entirety through a poem called “The
...nity of all living things, including himself. The harsh reaction of organized religion to this idea is illustrated in the second "Little Boy Lost," in which the youth is actually burned for his rebellious thinking. The first set of poems tells of the boy's lack of success in a religious system in that did not seem to really care about the boy, and left him floundering. It then describes his introduction to God in the forest, who brought him back to his mother, the earth, which showed him proper reverence of God through nature, not priestly education. The second poem captures organized religion's harsh reaction to this unorthodox and rebellious thinking, and destroys the boy for trying to reach outside of the accepted normal teachings. Together, the poems show an evolution from Blake's dissatisfaction with organized religion to an outright indictment of its practices.
The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is strained at first. From the beginning of the play to act III, Hamlet is bitter with his mother. He feels this way because it has been less than four months since the death of his biological father, yet she is already remarried to Claudius. He feels his father is being betrayed from her lack of mourning. She tells her son to "cast thy nighted color off" (I.ii.68) and "all that lives must die" (I.ii.72). Clearly, she isn't grieving over her late husband's death and instead puts forth an optimistic attitude to her new husband and life. Gertrude's concern with Hamlet's odd behaviour after his encounter with Ophelia in act II scene i also shows the strain in their relationship. For example, she agrees with Claudius' words that "of Hamlet's transformation" (II.ii.5) and suggests Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy and find out the underlying cause of her son's problems. In addition to that, she consents Polonius to hide behind the tapestry in act III scene iv without Hamlet knowing. These two decisions suggest their inability to communicate. Instead, spying is required for Gertrude to find out about her son's inner mentality. The mother and ...
With out actually being in prison it is hard for a person to grasp what it would actually feel like. The media gives us some idea but they are usually sugarcoated and do not give an accurate portrayal of prison life. A constant routine and hours of boredom constitute part of prison life. It is unfortunate that some people in our society are so bad that they have to go to such a facility.
Throughout all of his literary works, Blake incorporates many classic romantic characteristics. But he also incorporated important people and events surrounding the time period. One of his most controversial works, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” explores three of the most prominent romantic themes in his works: the battle between good and evil, the presence of the supernatural and an affinity for nature. Most likely inspired by Emanuel Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell”, Blake used common romantic symbolism to demonstrate the prophetic meanings of the pieces in the book. In “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, Blake alludes to the idea that,