William Blake’s Revolutionary and Reformist Tendencies

Abstract

William Blake was a man whose existence and ideas were controversial for the British society and politics. This essay considers some of the ways, in which he was known and shown as a man of controversy in his community and how his words and actions, made him far from the society, especially from the people who had opposite ideas. It has become so common in the field of literary criticism that Blake’s work was not accepted enough by most of the British critics and the public and what this essay analyses, is the causes and reasons of this reaction in the Romantic age of Great Britain. Throughout his life, he cast scathing attacks on three aspects of his surrounding, and they were, society, the important institutions that were effective, and politics and politicians. His main aim was to make some important reformation and support his desired revolution. The essay, identifies the way, in which he attacked those elements and displays examples of those attacks and criticisms by giving reference to the words that he set out and used in them. The body of the essay includes his circle of acquaintance and his hostile relationships with the people who were against revolution or even reformation. Britain, in the pre-Victorian time, was threatened by Napoleon’s words and invitations for revolution, and there were long debates in different literary genres. This essay discovers what really happened at that time, before and after Blake’s revolutionary rage was startled, and how Blake’s works influenced the writers of the future time.