On The Religious Influence In William Blake’s Works

As one of the representatives of British pre-romantic poet, William Blake is not onlya great poet, but also an outstanding painter and engraver. In his eyes, all his poems andpaintings are inspired by God or angel. His poems are indeed related to mysticism, andhe is also deeply influenced by Swedish theologian Swedenborg. Therefore, he may bethe first characteristic mystic in the history of English poetry. Blake’s poetry isfamous for its creative spirit, the intrinsic vitality, its profound meaning as well asthe features of simplicity and truthfulness. On the one hand he advocated theharmony between human and nature; on the other hand he also condemned theinjustice of the society. With respect to the writing skills, he praised highly of theuse of free verse. And just these views have promoted the development of BritishRomantic poetry.His father was an enlightened Christian, and had a great influence on his religiousconsciousness. Religious factors not only brought a lot of inspiration for Blake, but alsomade him deeply understand the essence of society and life. William Blake wasinfluenced by religion all his life. He asked his readers to forgive mistakes, to advocatethe thoughts of friendship and fraternity. These ideas play an important role incoordinating interpersonal relationship and the development of the individual body andmind which have high practice significance.Critics have interpreted this artist and poet who had been called madman by hiscontemporaries from different angles, including the symbolism in his poems, variousinterpretations of his famous poems as well as his extraordinary imagination andrevolutionary spirit and so on. But concerning the research and discussion of the religiousfactors in his works, although some scholars have already made some research, generallyspeaking there is still lack of systematic analysis and interpretation. Therefore, this thesiswill analyze this literary giant and his works from the religious factors in the hope thatWilliam Blake can be appreciated from a new point of view.This thesis mainly includes three parts.The first part is introduction. This part mainly elaborates the present research onBlake and his poetry and introduces Blake as well as the background of pre-romantic period in Britain briefly.The second part is the main body which is made up of three chapters.Chapter One points out that Blake was not an orthodox Christian through reviewingthe various influences Blake had experienced and his unique religious understanding ofreligion. The various influences Blake had experienced were mainly from mysticism,Swedish theologian Swedenborg and Gnosticism.Chapter Two analyzes some basic principles from the Holy Bible, such as love,forgiveness and the view of apocalypse in Blake’s poems. He insisted that no matter howstrong the corruption and darkness of the society were, they would eventually be replacedby the justice and goodness. He believed that a new world was coming. This chapter alsoanalyzes how Blake advocated establishing a new world in the view of the basicprinciples of Holy Bible from his Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience and some ofhis Prophecies.Chapter Three analyzes Blake’s different attitudes towards religion and how thesedifferent attitudes reflected in his works. Blake’s early works reflected that he, as anenlightened Christian, believed that Jesus was the embodiment of kindness; at the sametime he also advocated the ideas of equality and fraternity. Therefore, the majority ofworks in this period showed a world full of love and happiness. With the development ofthe industrial revolution, the society was filled with darkness and corruption. So hecriticized the religion in his later works. He realized that the morality of OrthodoxChurch was false and cruel, and their charity was only the false means to enslave peoplespiritually. This chapter demonstrates Blake’s praise and criticism on religion through hisSongs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.The last part is conclusion. Conclusion summarizes the former exposition. Thespiritual freedom, the inner world and the harmonious society were the main pursuit ofBlake’s poems. However, unrest and upheaval of the society, starvation and poverty ofthe people limited freedom and destroyed the harmony. With the conflict between thecruel reality and the pleasant dream William Blake lived in poverty all his life. But henever gave up the pursuit of thought. He established his own religious system in hispoems-a pious religious belief.