Monday, October 4, 2010

What does "The Tyger," written by William Blake in 1794, suggest to you about the ways in which individuals take responsibility for themselves and...

William Blake is generally considered the earliest successful British poet of the Romantic era. As a romanticist, Blake was inclined to write imaginatively about the mysteries of nature. Although Blake doesn't literally say so, it appears that with “The Tyger” he is looking at God's act of creating the being that eventually became Satan.



As far as individuals taking responsibility is concerned, it could be argued that God is taking responsibility for creating the immortal angel that would one day revolt and betray him. Blake stresses the fearsomeness of the “Tyger,” who most likely symbolizes Satan, with these lines from the first stanza:



What immortal hand or eye


Could frame their fearful symmetry?



And these from a later stanza:



. . . what dread grasp


Dare its deadly terrors grasp?



Blake sees Satan as something that is so terrifying it could only be constrained (grasped) by God--only God has the power to actually take on the responsibility of creating at being like Satan.  

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