The Out-cry of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Rip Van Winkle

Mahmut Deniz

21 June 2013

The Out-cry of Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Rip Van Winkle

            In the stories, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, the women inferiority is given as inner psychological problem in The Yellow Wallpaper and in Rip Van Winkle by ignoring to focus on woman character, the actual oppressed and victimized character was left background. So, on one hand, the stories show the reader, Rip's notorious wife and on the other hand insane wife of a husband. The sign of oppression by the men in The Yellow Wallpaper is clear but the facts are hidden in the story Rip Van Winkle as the story is focused on the man and does not show the female issues in detail, thus she is left in the background. I will try to explain the victimization and oppression that women character face in these two stories by giving examples from the stories themselves and other outer sources.  

            At the beginning of the story, one could easily understand that in Rip Van Winkle, Rip is a "simple good natured fellow"(Irving 3) who is constantly being mistreated by his "witch" wife who thinks he is useless and idle. However, the focus is never on wife's herself, because of Rip's good nature. The story is focused on Rip and we only know by narrator that his wife is a devil-incarnate who drives her poor husband mad and she is all responsible for her husband's escape and grief. But what is a husband without his paternity duties? Rip is the man who is actually responsible for the couple's poor marriage because of his own mistakes and behaviors. In truth, Rip's domestic situation is "configured in terms of simple stereotypes"(Smith and Sage 92) which is to say, Dame Van Winkle is victimized by stereotypes as the story was written from a traditional point of view, actually it is Rip himself that is responsible for his wife's troubles, because, throughout the story, we know Rip the way we are supposed to by the author.

            Throughout the story, the wife might be "nagging" too much but not without reason as Irving himself claims in the story that "his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management"(Irving 5) and "his children too, were as ragged..."(Irving 5). As for Dame Van Winkle, it seems that she "has kept her part of the matrimonial bargain, for she has born Rip children and has, by his own admission, 'always kept the house in neat order' "(Smith and Sage 92). After all, the wife is generally on the right path throughout the story however, it is Rip who could not maintain stability in his family. Besides, Irving " could easily have inserted a sentence to establish that even when the marriage was new and the economic decline was slight, she had demanded what Rip could not provide"(Smith and Sage 92).

            In The Yellow Wallpaper the out-cry of woman is out-loud throughout the story, and this time it is actually maddening. It is woman's freedom that is being restricted by her lovely husband who thinks what he is doing is the best for his wife and of course expects no explanation for this from somebody else. Everything happens gradually in the story and the narrator (woman) confronts the oppression by her husband which makes her feel as a prisoner in her house by her husband. She is unable to speak out and express her own ideas thus the more she gets mad the braver she gets because she is losing her obedient and traditional-self. So, it is clearly expressed that the story is about "woman's loss of freedom and humanity within the institution of marriage"(Chi 80).

            For some authors, the situation is interpreted as "the struggle of women writers to free themselves in the male-dominant literary realm"(Chi 80). As both her husband and doctor, John always knows what's best for his wife and makes her do whatever he wants and prohibits things such as, writing and going out. Although the story does not focus on hatred between husband and wife, it surely shows the inner conflict of the woman against emotionless husband who thinks he is always right. The out-cry of the woman here raises from inside where John is unable to see, because according to him she "looks" happy because he only knows his wife superficially. The woman oppression is at such a high level in the story that the narrator could speak only when she totally loses her mind which makes her actually not herself, so at the end she speaks what her heart desires but as another person where she asks upon her husband's collapse : "Now why should that man have fainted?"(Gilman 33).

            To conclude, both stories include the effect of oppression and false victimization within their meanings but not in a clear way. The details are hidden in the stories to be discovered, especially in the Rip Van Winkle where the man looks the oppressed one rather than woman. The male character John in The Yellow Wallpaper as well looks innocent to many readers due to his love for his wife, but in a conventional way, which looks right from outside but wrong from inside. Nevertheless, the situation could easily be understood other way around as we know that the women oppression in nineteenth century was also very common as "Female oppression was determined by birth, 'like the skin of black'. The unequal social relationship between men and women meant that man could 'brand' women with 'mental incapacity' and call it 'nature' "(Rowbotham 41).    

              

                                                                        Works Cited

Chi, Hsin Ying. Artist and Attic: A Study of Poetic Space in Nineteenth-century Women's Writing. Lanham, MD: University of America, 1999. Print.

Cole, Alan R. Mothers and Sons in Chinese Budhism. California: Stanford UP, 1998. Print.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. [Minneapolis, Minn.]: Filiquarian Pub., LLC, 2007. Print.

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Rip Van Winkle and Other Selected Stories. New York: TOR, 1993. 1-21. Print.

Rowbotham, Sheila. Hidden From History: 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Agai. 3rd ed. N.p.: Pluto, 1977. Print.

Smith, Allan Lloyd., and Victor Sage. Gothick Origins and Innovations. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994. Print. 

Collapse of Animal Farm and the Dream of Revolution

Mahmut Deniz

17 June 2004

Collapse of Animal Farm and the Dream of Revolution

The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is about the struggle for a utopian idea based upon equality and peace among the animals living in a farm. Beginning with the encouragement of the prize winning boar Old Major, the idea of “Animalism” spread out all around the farm, but the idea, due to the conflicts between animals turned out to be a disaster and prepared the collapse of Animal Farm which was supposed to be an ideal place for all animals. The reason of conflict that prevented Animal Farm to achieve its positive goal was, mostly, the disagreement between Napoleon and other animals, these conflicts, in detail, are mainly: Discrimination/inequality between pigs and other animals, Napoleon’s dictatorship and violence, the intelligence factor, and finally, the corruption of the ideology, Animalism, with its seven commandments by these conflicts. However, would it be possible to turn Animal Farm into a paradise just as animals thought it to be? This is also another complicated question in the novel. In my essay, I discuss why animal farm collapsed, and was it really possible for the farm to be as animals thought to be or was it only a dream that ended before it began?

Discrimination or inequality between animals starts when Napoleon claims his dictatorship in the Animal Farm. Since Napoleon and Snowball were the only animals to find solutions, other animals’ mission was to work hard to bring equality and prosperity into Animal Farm. Actually, after Napoleon’s domination, inequality is shown many times in the novel. However, the best example would be the change of seven commandments. The inequality is stressed clearly in the novel with the replacement of seven commandments into one, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (Orwell, 108) Written down by clever pig, Squealer, this quotation explains the inconvenience and inequality between animals clearly. By this quotation, it is possible to deduce Old Major’s idea actually, as he says: “All animals are equal”, but the idea behind this one comes as tricky, since the statement normally supports the equality of animals. However, the latter statement, clarify the situation by stressing a specific point “but some animals are more equal than others.” in which the reference “some” goes to pigs.

At the beginning of the novel, from the statement of Old Major: “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades”. (Orwell, 31) We understand clearly that, first of all; the Animal Farm’s first aim is to be against all men with the support of the brotherhood of animals. At the beginning, all animals adopted the idea with its seven commandments until Napoleon’s reaction. The reaction stemmed from Napoleon’s own ideology which was to control all animals. However, there was only one clever rival of Napoleon, Snowball. As a dictator in the novel, Napoleon used his dogs to chase Snowball to end Snowball’s acts against himself. Instead of using his brain, he uses his nine dogs, which makes him remain the only head of the farm so as to change anything he wants according to his favors. So, we now know, by sending his dogs on Snowball, Napoleon shows his aspect of dictatorship with obvious violence. In this statement the novel clarifies the violence Napoleon applied on Snowball: “At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.” (Orwell, 67) As a dictator, Napoleon’s ideas were simple: Obey the rules that are given by him and do not think or speak. Managing to be the only power in the farm, Napoleon’s imposing these rules upon other animals was not difficult for him.  From this moment on, Animal Farm and naturally, Animalism started to collapse as the principles were changing with the violence and cruelty of Napoleon.

Intelligence is also very important factor that appears even almost at the beginning of the novel, when three pigs; Napoleon, Snowball and squealer transform the principles of Old Major into an idea, Animalism. First of all, we see here pigs’ superiority in intelligence, as they struggle for the idea and find solutions for Animal Farm. In fact, even Old Major’s image as a first ruler, as a pig, signifies the superiority of pigs from the beginning. However, more precisely, as a quite intelligent character, Squealer is the most decisive one that imposes Napoleon’s ideas on other animals. After Napoleon takes the control in Animal Farm, Squealer helps imposing Napoleon’s ideas to other animals successfully with the absence of Snowball. For example, when some of the animals questioned the situation that happened in Animal Farm, such as; where all food, milk or water is, Squealer is decisively gives the answer to others:

“Milk and apples contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brain-workers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. It is for your sake that we drink that milk, and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back.” (Orwell, 52)

With Squealer’s decisive answer, the cleverness is juxtaposed with the superiority of pigs, that’s to say, pigs are both clever and superior to other animals. They are clever, because of Squealer’s decisive answer to them, as in the quotation, and they are superior, because they have more rights than other animals and they are the ones who manage the farm. Furthermore, Squealer’s cleverness actually creates an image as if what he said was normally advantageous for both pigs and other animals, because here he does not give the real meaning directly, but he implies it, as if milk and apples were really necessary for pigs to strengthen their brain, and they manage the farm and consume these foods only for the good of other animals. On top of that, by threatening other animals with Mr. Jones, he leaves no chance for animals except for a desperate confirmation.

The more Napoleon controlled animals, the more their ideas moved opposite to the original idea given by Old Major. Napoleon gradually collapsed the idea, animalism, together with the hopes of all other animals. He began trading with neighbor farms, with the help of even a man named Mr. Whymper from neighbor farm. This was also surprising result for other animals as Napoleon himself told once that never trust humans. Actual rule as “Four legs good, two legs bad!” turned out to be “Four legs good, two legs better!” (Orwell, 132) Pigs slept in beds, drank alcohol and wore clothes, which were normally forbidden for animals. So, the beauty of the dream of animals turned into a nightmare. However, in my opinion, even if animals had applied what Old Major said and even if Napoleon had been good enough to support all seven commandments there would not have been any piece, prosperity or equality for animals. As the novel itself is the allegory of totalitarian government and supports that this idea is a myth and is impossible to come true, George Orwell himself speaks about the book in an interview:

“First, I wanted to kill the "Russian myth:" the myth that the Soviet Union was a working model of what a socialist state would be like. That was nothing but a lie. I wrote a history of the Russian Revolution and called it Animal Farm.”

As we can see, Animal Farm is an allegory of the society, which tries to persuade people with totalitarian government’s idea in order to keep piece and equality between all people, and which resulted in a disaster and a big lie. So Animal Farm, inevitably, shows the situation that was already experienced by people of that period. As a result of rebellion of animals in the farm the situation actually changed in opposite side which again George Orwell supports:

“Well, this is the great paradox, of course. What you don't want is to be taken over by a totalitarian power. The great danger is that in protecting yourself against a takeover, you might become totalitarian yourself -- at which point, as at the end of Animal Farm, the pigs become indistinguishable from the human beings.” (Orwell, Rev. of Palmer)

In conclusion, rebelling against the tyranny of men, animals were not able to be successful as it was before in real time. The problem did not stem from unsuccessful acts of animals themselves, but it is realities that prevented them to achieve their goal. The author himself supports the idea of impossibility of being equal to others quite consciously. Napoleon struggled to reach his goal by any means just as the other animals wanted to. Old Major wanted equality but Napoleon power. Old Major was the big power, because he was the cleverest. He died and another clever claimed the throne. If Napoleon was not clever and he did not do anything evil against other animals, Snowball would do, because he would be the head as the cleverest one in the farm. However, again, other animal would not accept Snowball’s authority, just as many people are against their authority and system in our modern world. This is the nature of the world and everybody is perfect according to themselves.

    

Works Cited

Palmer, Scott. "1984: An Interview with George Orwell." Review. 1984: An Interview with George OrwellMar. 1984. 27 Jan. 2009 <http://personal.nspalmer.com/>.

Orwell, George, Russell Baker, and C. M. Woodhouse. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classics, 1996.

The Injustice of Prospero in The Tempest

Mahmut Deniz

The Injustice of Prospero in The Tempest

            Shakespeare's last play The Tempest is mainly concerned with the themes mercy and  justice. The use of themes of justice and mercy in the play is subjectively given to the audience, because while dealing with the themes and maintaining the mercy and the "illusion" of justice throughout the play, some characters are ignored as human beings. Prospero " is a tyrant who controls Miranda, Ariel and Caliban with the same 'paternal omnipotence' "(Croft 201) He has a peculiar treatment for the native of the island, such as , Caliban. Prospero's ill-treatment of Caliban and European approach towards the same subject and unjust events are dominant throughout the play.

            Caliban, a native who was on the island before Prospero arrives, is treated by Prospero as the violator. Anything Caliban does on the island is seen offensive and evil, because the play is biassedly read and understood from the point of view of European which  Hazlitt "was outraged by it" (Graf 7) when he realized how Caliban is treated in the play. For instance " 'there is little logic' to Prospero's argument that Caliban deserves his treatment for the offense of attempting to violate Mirnada's honour." (Croft 201). According to Hazlitt "not Prospero but Caliban was the legal king of the island" so actually "Caliban is actually the victim of Prospero" (Graf 7)

            The first time Caliban and Prospero appears on the scene in act one scene two, we witness the disagreement between them as Prospero orders his slave Caliban to bring firewood and Caliban rejects and then they have a fierce argument and cursing each other, but this argument is finally stopped by Prospero as he threatens Caliban that unless he does what he orders, he says" I'll rack thee with old cramps, fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar"(1.2.369-370) hearing this Caliban answers suddenly "No, Prey thee".(1.2.371) Thus, it is also clear that Caliban's freedom is taken from him as he is a slave now.

            Prospero, who is actually rightful duke of Milan, was usurped from his position by his brother Antonio and forced to flee the country in a boat with his daughter. So actually, Prospero once may be merciful and just man, was turned into a revengeful man who seizes his opportunity on the island and tries to take his revenge from Caliban. “Desire for vengeance has apparently lain dormant in Prospero through the years of banishment, and now, with the sudden advent of his foes, the great wrong of twelve years before is stirringly present again, arousing the passions and stimulating the will to action” (Palmer 225).

            Prospero may not seem to be a total monster as he has some good feelings towards the people on the ship and when Ariel returns with the news that he brings "I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide, And burn in many places; on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join." (1.2.196-201) Although all these acts are performed by Ariel, they are actually ordered personally by Prospero: "Hast thou, spirit, perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?" (1.2.193-194)

            Prospero mentions the moment when Caliban tried to rape his daughter Miranda; "in mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate the honour of my child."( 1.2.344-348). However, he unjustly speaks of the event  because the play is mostly read and analyzed from European perspective, not from Caliban's point of view. Caliban's "ambitions are to kill Prospero and rape Miranda, both, considering his situation, eminently natural desires."(Frye 61). He does not want to rape Miranda actually "Caliban has tried to reproduce himself" (Alexander 28) So, when thinking from the perspective of a native such as Caliban, we can realize that so called "monster" or "animal" actually wants to procreate in his island.

                        Caliban who "enslaved by the most powerful of the Europeans, a man named Prospero"(Peterson 1) is punished, tormented and shown as evil just because he disobeyed his master Prospero, he has no right to claim anything. Ariel earned his freedom as he obeyed and did everything word by word for his master Prospero. Caliban isn't seen or counted as human, as he has no right but to serve and obey, although he is obedient and he is always in need and search for a God or master, he rebels against his tyrant master but punished many times. When Trinculo first sees Caliban, he describes him as "a man or a fish? dead or alive?" (2.2.24-25) and he continues "Legged like a man and his fins like arms!"(2.2.33-34) Even the description shows the biased approach towards this native islander.

            To conclude, while it is clear that the theme of forgiveness is an important theme in the play, the analyze of the behaviors and attitude of the major characters in the play, especially Prospero, shows that there is almost no true justice and mercy in The Tempest." The way Prospero behaves Caliban and the way even the play portrays Caliban is unjust as the perspective of the play is subjective, which is to say, it is one sided and European. As Peterson stresses: "the Europeans treat Caliban like an animal, yet he can speak, just like a person."(Peterson 2)  

             

Works Cited

Alexander, Catherine M. S. The Cambridge Shakespeare Library. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP,      2003. Print.

Croft, Janet Brennan. Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes and Language. Jefferson, NC: McFarland &, 2007. Print.

Graf, Sandra. Is He a Monster? - Caliban in William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' N.p.: GRIN Verlag, 2009. Print.

Palmer, D. J. Shakespeare: The Tempest; a Casebook. Nashville: Aurora, 1970. Print.

 Shakespeare, William, and David Hamilton Horne. The Tempest. New Haven: Yale UP, 1955. Print.

Modernism and Virgina Woolf

Mahmut Deniz

Modernism and Virginia Woolf

Virgina Woolf exhibited the most important elements of modernism in her works very effectively. As she rejected the conventional techniques of Nineteenth Century literature, Woolf used poetic and symbolic language in her works, especially in The Waves, so that her works are mostly considered to be beautiful in form and not meaning. Along with a poetic language, she used also irony effectively in her A Haunted House which differentiates the short story from its classical sorts and simple ghost stories. Woolf, in order to emphasize inner psychological and emotional motives of her character and to let us see what is inside her character’s head, she used Stream of Consciousness literary technique in her both works. In my essay, I will focus on the use of language, irony and stream of consciousness technique as modernist techniques by Virginia Woolf in her works A Haunted House and The Waves.   

Woolf used stream of consciousness literary technique in her short story A Haunted House. In the story, the use of stream of consciousness is very important, since the technique itself helps meaning to be conveyed to readers by characters. Woolf used the technique very effectively, but complicated. Its being complicated, actually, is not the way we should see the story in my opinion. As we read her story, it resolves itself like a puzzle gradually. However, For instance, stream of consciousness which was used in the story creates ambiguity in Woolf’s  A Haunted House.  “Here we left it,” she said. And he added, “Oh, but here too!” “It’s upstairs,” she murmured. “And in the garden,” he whispered “Quietly,” they said, “or we shall wake them.” (Woolf, 3) In the quotation, we see “they”, “we” or “she”, but who are they? Or who is she? These questions are not clear till we read the story to the end and find out who are these people. Despite being rather ambiguous, in her story, stream of consciousness not only gives the story a mystic aspect, but also makes the story much more interesting to us. Besides, with the help of stream of consciousness, we can easily understand ghostly couple’s past and association of their past with the story, because couple’s conversations and inner thoughts reveal the realities to us: “Here we slept," she says. And he adds, "Kisses without number." "Waking in the morning" "Silver between the trees " "Upstairs " "In the garden " "When summer came " "In winter snowtime” (Woolf, 4)

Poetic language is almost everywhere in the story. Repetition of words in a prose is good example of poetic language. For example, we see “Safe, safe, safe, the heart of the house beats proudly” (Woolf, 5), apart from the repetition in the story the metaphorical language supports Woolf’s poetic language quiet effectively, as well. “the heart of the house beats proudly” (Woolf, 5) As normally, heart is an organ related to human being, but the metaphor “heart of the house” creates very good image as Woolf allows us to feel the atmosphere of the house much better and deeper.

Woolf’s short story A Haunted House might seem as a ghost story from the term “Haunted” in its title. In fact, the story is not a simple ghost story that gives us horrific and creepy images, but it is a story that has a meaning which is revealed at the end, that’s why she uses irony of “Haunted” in her work. At first glance, the term “Haunted” might seem rather horrific as one can understand that the house is simply haunted by ghosts. However, at the end, the story reveals its meaning and we understand that ghostly couple does not haunt the people in the house, but they try to make them understand the joy of life they have, as a valuable treasure. 

Symbols are mostly used in poetry in modern times, but quickly spread out to the novels which helped the novelist and his/her novels to gain more meanings and value, but, again, they are rather obscure in language. Being complicated and difficult to understand, The Waves is among the best example of modernist style novels. Woolf used symbols in The Waves which made her novel difficult to understand due to metaphorical meaning of the words. For example, The Waves itself is a symbol which symbolizes the life, because, in the novel “Woolf presents the ocean as a symbol of procreation and life-giving energy.” (J.Ward, 2003) With an elastic language, Woolf writes her novel The Waves like music in a poetic language. She writes to rhythm, not to plot. So what concerns the reader is not the meaning or the message in the novel, but the beauty of the language itself.

Stream of consciousness technique in the The Waves adds novel a great sense of understanding inner thoughts of character. In realist writers works, for example, it was not possible to get this feeling because of the omniscience point of view or fixed point of view narrative technique which was only controlled by author. So the characters were like puppets as we were aware that they were being managed by their authors. However, Woolf breaks these rules with her technique and let characters act freely.

In conclusion, both works A Haunted House and The Waves blaze the trail in modernist literature. By using some modernist techniques in a great efficiency, Woolf presents her works not in a language that is based on strict rules, but she prefers to play with the language and shape her works in a better form with her own creativity. In spite of being rather difficult to understand, language of her works and symbols show the beauty of Woolf’s works. She is not an author who relies on conventional narrative style which is rather insufficient for her, as she says: “Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” (Faulkner, 31)

Works Cited

Woolf, Virginia. A Haunted House and Other Stories : The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf. New York: Harvest Books, 2002.

"Virginia Woolf. A post-symbolist writer who relies on symbols?!" ENGLISH LITERATURE CRITIQUES. 27 Jan. 2009 <http://www.english-literature-essays.com>.

Faulkner, Peter. Modernism. New York: Routledge, 1977.

The Tyger by William Blake

William Blake is a famous poet for his collections of “Songs of innocence” and “Songs of Experience”. Blake gives his poems to the reader in two different perspectives. In “Songs of Innocence” the child’s perspective and soft language in the poems let us figure out the literal intentions of the collection as pure innocence. However, in “Songs of Experience” Blake reflects the opposite aspects of the “Songs of Innocence” in a severe language and he gives the evil side of the events as response to “Song of Innocence”. By using these two different approaches, Blake shows us both evil and good by presenting two different sides of the “human soul”. In his poem “The Tyger” Blake gives a fierce and dangerous aspect of the creation. In my essay I will try to explain allusions, intertextual reference and theme issued in the poem “The Tyger” by making some references to his other poem “The Lamb” in the category of “Songs of Innocence”.

The beginning of the line in “The Tyger” as the poet wrote foreshadows some of the forthcoming events, “Tyger! Tyger burning bright”. The phrase “burning bright” gives the poem a fierce and negative meaning together with “night” in the second line. Both “burning” and “night” have negative meaning as, obviously, “burning” relates to fire and “night” is to darkness. With the negative words given, reader can understand Blake’s this poem is different from the one in “Songs of Innocence” which is “The Lamb” as it begins with the line “Little Lamb”. Both words “Lamb” and “little” represent innocence, since the word “lamb” is opposite to “Tyger” as the tiger is wild but lamb is domestic, useful and harmless animal, and “little” represents weakness. So, the actual oppositions are given in both poems at the beginning.

Apart from some basic understandings of the poem from the beginning of the first lines, Blake gives some metaphorical words such as “immortal” in the third line in “The Tyger”. “Immortal” is obviously referred to God and so it is revealed that the creator of the “Tyger” is God. However, in the fifth stanza, he also mentions “The Lamb” as he asks: “Did he smile his work to see? / Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” Here, the question comes as the poet is surprised. Basically, the reference “he” goes to God, and he asks if it is the same power that created both “The Tyger” and “the Lamb”, and if God is happy for what he did. The word “The Lamb” is probably reference to the poem “The Lamb” from the “Songs of Innocence” by Blake. And he shows us the opposition that was created by God by referring to his other poem, because there is “Tyger burning bright” and also “Little Lamb” in the same world.

The poem goes on with some allusions to mythological figures both of whom committed something wrong. The second stanza, third line is a question “On what wings dare he aspire?” Here we have a reference to “Icarus” the figure who flew too high to the sun with his wings made of wax despite his father’s warning and fell into the sea as his wings melted by sun. And again, the second stanza, fourth line asks another question: “What the hand dare size the fire?” from the words “seize the fire” we remember the story of “Prometheus” who stole the fire from the gods and was punished for what he did. These two allusions show us the power of the God that he possesses. As we know these both figures committed what was forbidden. So these allusions also associate God’s creation with transgression that goes beyond the limits and laws, as poet’s field of understanding is not enough to comprehend it.

In the third stanza, the act of God is considered as “art”. As the words “shoulder” and “art” are referred to God’s art of being able create such a fierce creator as “tyger”. The word “dread” again implies the God’s act of creating dangerous things. However, the words in “The Lamb” are totally opposite to “The Tyger”, such as “tender voice”, “softest clothing” or “delight”. With such words, poet breaks the evil side of the poem and gives us a lively, innocent and happy side of the creation of God.

The art of God is repeated in the fourth stanza with some specific words, such as; “hammer”, “chain”, “furnace” and “anvil”. These words are referred to blacksmith who gives shape to a strong material, metal. While it is not easy to shape the metal, it is also not easy to control such a dreadful creature “tyger”. In the third line of the fourth stanza, it is written: “…what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terror clasp?”  Here the God as being the blacksmith, the poet shows us the power of the God that he can control the evil “deadly terror”. And with the last stanza, which is a repetition of the first one, poet tries to stress the questions he asked before, which are, again, related to power of God.

To conclude, I tried to explain the use of allusions, intertextual references and theme of the poem “The Tyger” along with giving some references to Blake’s “The Lamb”. While in “The Tyger” in “Songs of Experience” Blake gives us the evil side of the world, he also gives us good side of it in his “The Lamb” in “Songs of Innocence”. Throughout the poem, we understand that the poet stresses the power of God as he is capable of everything, and he is the one who created the “Tyger” together with “Lamb” and again he is the one who is able to control what he did.

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