Essay about The Representation of the Female in William...

The Representation of the Female in William Blake If William Blake was, as Northrop Frye described him in his prominent book Fearful Symmetry, a mystic enraptured with incommunicable visions, standing apart, a lonely and isolated figure, out of touch with his own age and without influence on the following one (3), time has proved to be the visionarys most celebrated ally, making him one of the most frequently written about poets of the English language. William Blake has become, in a sense, an institution. Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human Existence, wrote Blake in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Perhaps his most famous line,†¦show more content†¦In his essay Blake: Sex, Society, and Ideology, David Aers follows Foxs thread that Blakes attitude toward the Female shifts, but explains that the case is far more complicated than a matter of authorial incoherence or change of mind (33). Aers offers a psychologically-based exploration of Blakes treatment of the Female and the conventional views of women in the society of which he was a part and concludes that Blake could not escape the popular male supremacist tradition. In opposition to this approach, Mary Lynn Johnson, in her essay Feminist Approaches to Teaching argues that in a century when no one . . . fully escaped the fourfold grip of father, priest, king, and God, Blake stands out as one of the few writers who understood the pervasiveness of this patriarchal power alignment and resisted its influence (58). Another critic who discusses the shift in Blakes treatment of the Female is Brenda Webster, whose article Blake, Women, and Sexuality considers Blakes shift in his treatment of the Female a result of his increasingly negative attitude toward sexuality (209). Webster explores Blakes fear of the Female Will, and how it affects his images of women. Dealing with the subject of the shift in the treatment of the Female, yet from a different angle, in his article William BlakesShow MoreRelatedThomas Paine And America A Prophecy2237 Words   |  9 PagesThomas Paine and America a Prophecy William Blake, poet of the Romantic Era, wrote in 1793 the prophetic story America a Prophecy. The story begins with Orc breaking the chains that held him down and sexually assaulting a young woman that has been taking care of him. The woman is revealed to represent America and that she has been waiting for Orc to help her. Soon Orc and other colonies under British rule attack the Prince of Albion and King George III. 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