A Structralist Approach To William Blake’s Poems

William Blake is the most distinctive original poet of Romanticism in thenineteenth century of England. The rich imagination and mysteries in his poems haveset a solid foundation for his great reputation from home and abroad. Contrariety is animportant idea in his aesthetic thoughts and poetry, which is condensed in his saying“without contrary is no progression”. This thesis intends to apply Binary Opposition(one important principle of Structuralism) to analyze William Blake’s poems. Binaryopposition is an important and basic method to recognize the chaotic world whichbelieves that there are two non-overlapping parts in every domain of the world by oneof which we can know the other. Different from the traditional dualism of right andwrong, good and evil, William Blake’s system of Binary Opposition is an organicunity in which the two contrary forces interact with each other to maintain aharmonious and positive condition. William Blake’s Binary Opposition mainlyencompasses his views towards human soul, women, political revolution andmorality.Chapter One deals with the binary opposition between innocence and experience—two contrary directions of human’s perception of the world. People with innocencebelieve that the world is full of love, warmness and sympathy and blindly believe inthe goodwill of all authorities, while people with experience always perceive thedarkness of the world and are afraid of the release of natural feelings for they only seethe evil of the social system. But these two perceptions have shortcomings for theinnocence is too optimistic and the experience is too dogmatic. They arecomplementary with each other and are all necessary in people’s growth in which aman gradually steps into a real maturity.Chapter Two explores the idea of Binary Opposition in Blake’s views towardswoman. On the one hand, William Blake criticizes the repression of man over woman,and calls for the liberation of woman’s desire and the equality of man and woman. Onthe other hand, he sticks to the obedience of women. William Blake knows that it will be a disaster whether man or woman gain an absolute social dominance, so heproposes an ideal state—androgyny. It is a harmonious state in which man and womanare mutually dependent to form a healthy unity.Chapter Three analyzes the confrontation between energy and reason whichreflects William Blake’s view towards political revolution. Energy is a passionatepower which is necessary for revolution to overthrow the old tyrannous ruling order.But if unbounded, energy may bring out violence or even another form of tyrannywhich it aims to overthrow at the beginning. Reason is a tyrannous force imprisoninghuman’s material and spiritual life, but it provides a boundary line for theexcessiveness of the energy. In William Blake’s opinion, energy and reason should bereconciled into an organic unity in which these two forces interact with each other toachieve a balanced political state.Chapter Four is about the opposition in William Blake’s views of morality. Onthe one hand, William Blake criticizes the traditional moral laws binding andrepressing human’s natural feelings and desires, and on the other hand, he also praisesthe positive function of morality to limit the excessive desires and to maintain anorderly society. So William Blake proposes an ideal society both free and organizedin which people can develop freely under a democratic ruling system.Through the analysis, this thesis comes to the conclusion that the full expressionof the Binary Opposition in William Blake’s poems shows his deep meditation onhuman and society, that is, everything in the world has two contrary sides, but thesetwo opposites are not absolutely negated with each other but dependent andcomplementary mutually and interact with each other. By the constant interactionbetween these two opposites, the inner world of human and the society are kept in abalanced and healthy state, and thus the whole world will be pushed forwardcontinually.