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  • Essay / A theme of religion in The Tyger and The Lamb by William Blake

    Religion has always been global, in the sense that religious communities and traditions have maintained permeable boundaries. As a visionary, Blake had his own way of viewing religion. At the heart of Songs of Experience, The Tyger explores the loss of innocence that “the Lamb” personifies. It symbolizes the terrible and dark forces of the world, just like the Lamb, for gentleness, vulnerability and innocence. Comparing the two pieces creates a complex worldview that recognizes the existence of good and evil in the religious world, questioning its origin and how they might be interrelated. When compared, the poems explore how the presence of innocence can be challenged by experience and the powers of evil. Blake explores this relationship through the use of diction, characterization, and structure. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Blake uses contrasting diction in both poems in order to emphasize the religious disparity. In The Lamb, we use the semantic field of naivety which manifests itself through the adjectives “gentle”, “gentle” and “tender”. The adjective “gentle” refers to being soft, weak, or easily dominated, which highlights the vulnerability of innocence. However, when it comes to religion, it could mean being aware of and obeying God's plan for the world. The child's innocence can be manifested through Blake's use of simple, childlike diction that is no more than 2 syllables long and also serves as a reflection of God - simple, pure and transparent. The idea is further emphasized by the use of archaic language through "toi", "tu" and "dost", which was a common way of speaking to a child. Although the diction is comforting and clear, it leaves the reader uneasy because we know that this is not the totality of what the world has to offer. In contrast, in The Tyger, there is a use of the semantic field evoking the existence of evil which can be seen through the use of the words “deadly”, “terror” and “frightening”. This raises the question of why God, who created the gentle lamb, also created such a dangerous creature as the “Tyger”. Additionally, the use of the synecdoche of the human body is also interesting because it humanizes evil. Coupled with the semantic field of industrialization, exemplified by the 'hammer' and 'furnace', this could also imply Blake's belief that the Industrial Revolution is 'evil' because it has taken over our society, we removing our innocence and replacing it. with material changes. This idea is further explored through the personification of the stars through the quote “the stars threw down their spears”. The “stars” could represent rebellious angels. Therefore, it can be interpreted that the rebellious angels of Heaven abandoned to the power of God are represented by the "Tiger" in this poem and that they wept in humiliation and threw down their spears when God began to create the earth and its inhabitants . This shows the contrast between the two poems since even nature could go against its natural state of obedience. In addition, the refrain used in the first and last stanza is also remarkable since “could” is replaced by “dare”. A low modality verb is replaced with a verb that provokes a challenge that reflects the transition from innocence to experience as the glass of innocence is broken and exposed to the reality of the world. In the context of religion, this could represent how religion is notno longer a source of life and liberation but an agent of social control. The characterization of the “Lamb” and the “Tyger” is included in order to present the liminality of the religion. Animals are both tools of nature and creations of God. The Lamb is a religious figure, an expression of God who represents innocence, youth and the pleasant aspect of nature. While the “Tyger” represents the most powerful and frightening part of nature, emphasizing moral decadence. There is a certain closeness with the two animals because they both have the same creator. However, one wonders how a God considered benevolent could create such a ferocious creature because it carries evil connotations. Being closely related to fire, this could be an allusion to Prometheus, who tricked the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity. Prometheus was not rewarded for his ingenuity; instead, he was condemned to eternal punishment. Just like Prometheus, the “Tiger” is condemned in the sense that he will constantly be considered the evil aspect of religion. Creating further connections to religion, the two poems could perhaps be interpreted as representing two sides of the Bible: the New Testament and the Old Testament. The "Lamb" may be a reference to Jesus, therefore the poem is representative of the New Testament which describes the Christian God as benevolent. Therefore, The Tyger would be representative of the Old Testament in which God is greedy, vain and merciless. This draws connections to Blake's views on religion, as he rejected the Old Testament stereotype of God as vengeful. He believed that people used this idea to justify their own revenge and desire for land and power. Another view would be that the two animals could represent Blake's "two opposing states of the human soul", since the first part presents an imaginative view of the state of innocence. The second shows how life changes, corrupts and that experience is inevitable; a necessary step that is fundamental in the cycle of life. Additionally, Blake's employment of varying sentence structure and tone acts as the embodiment of the polarity of his views on religion. The difference is shown by the innocent child speaking in "The Lamb" and the mature speaker in "The Tyger", in which contrasting techniques are used to juxtapose the poems. Examples are the simple sentence structure used in "The Lamb" and the more interrogative rhetorical questions used in "The Tyger"; naive diction and sophisticated diction; and the child's literal assurance that God is the Creator contrasts with the lack of response for a creator. The effect on the reader would be that the transition from innocence to experience would be inevitable and in the context of religion, most readers would find comfort in the "Lamb" over the "Tiger". In The Lamb, there is a simplicity to the way the child speaks. The child asks if he knows how it was made: “Little Lamb, who made you? / Do you know who created you? The use of the apostrophe accentuates the child's insensitive tone since he does not seem to feel any discomfort in speaking to an animal or that there is something slightly ridiculous about speaking to it as an older person might feel. . In the first two stanzas, repetition is used, which creates a melodic rhythm that can be directly contrasted with The Tyger's sophisticated rhetorical questions. The apostrophe in the latter poem is used in a more complex way, which sets an introspective tone, as if the speaker is speaking to himself rather than to a real being. This would have.