Sociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry Essay

Sociological criticism analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature. To examine literature from the perspective of Marxist social theory is a quintessential form of sociological criticism, as Marxism primarily deals with political and economic ideas of communism and social inequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poems such as â€Å"The Chimney†¦show more content†¦Many of Blake’s perspectives could be seen through Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Songs of Innocence celebrates the naive hopes and fears of children, whom Blake thought w ere the representation of good innocence before the evil distortion of adult experience. Songs of Experience illustrates the harsh live of the adult that are full of immorality, sexual repression, and secrecy. Blake illustrates the â€Å"experience,† which is marked by the loss of innocence, by political corruption, and by the oppression of Church, State, and the ruling classes, though â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† and â€Å"London† (LaGuardia 5). Marx once said, â€Å"Capital is dead labor.† In â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper,† the labor is the poor children who are the victims of a system, which creates class oppression through income disparity. Blake illustrates the image of a child who is victimized under the unjust social conditions created by the capitalist system. The sentence, â€Å"my father sold me while yet my tongue† (2), illustrates the abuse of child labor during that time. Under capitalism, the proletariat is unable to escape from the recourse controller – the bourgeoisie. Thus, economic inequality is the result of such restraint. The proletariat is unable to sustain even a basic standard under such a system. The child in the poem is unable to escape economic oppression, as expresses in the sentence, â€Å"your chimneys I sweep in soot I sleep† (4), ergo it explains his