Men's Role in Society - Research Paper Example

Visions of the Daughters of Albion Introduction: That remains the unending story through the Ages, Between HE and SHE! You have, perhaps, never heard a symposium or discussion on the topic, “Men-their role in the society!” The debate is always about women! Men perhaps have no role! Men can as well do some of the jobs normally done by women! Aren’t the best chefs men? The never-ending talk of giving equal rights to women goes on unabated. All the Acts of Parliaments all over the world will not provide equality, fair-play and justice to women. The change has to be achieved within-by both men women! How can one give equal rights to women? God has created her, given her the status of more-equal. Nobody has the power to snatch it away from her. It is the mother, who gives protection for the initial nine months to the divine creative force of the future-male or female! In most of the societies a female child is victimized and given differential treatment at every step of life, from the moment of birth, notwithstanding the fact that it she who sacrifices, in those situations. The question is simple and straightforward but solutions require profound and sincere applications at all levels of the society. How to make women the legal and spiritual equals of men? “Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". (Shakespeare, Twelfth Quote Act II, Scene V) William Blake belongs to the second category. Born in a poor artisan’s family, he could not get the formal school education. He studied in the ‘College of Self-education,’ where his mind was his Principal. His initiative, his Professors! His hard work, his tutors! A copy of his work colored and painted by Blake and his wife, Catherine, in 1793, is available in Huntington Library. This personal touch indicates Blake’s love for literature and books and more correctly his love for work. Turn the pages of history-- you will find that organized religion and oppressed womanhood have always been a strange combination. The era to which Blake belonged was no exception. It is mostly so, even today. In his book Blake criticizes the sexual morals of his time, evils of organized religion, on slavery and on oppressed womanhood. Each illustration, (there 10 color and 10 line illustrations) brings to life through the painted/printed page, the sufferings of women during the era to which Blake belonged. He made use of his vocational skills as a painter /engraver and he used the art of itching in his tags and designs and he developed the illuminated printing in 1780s and early 1790s. His internal illumination perhaps inspired him and paved way for its external applications. Itching is generally done on brass/copper sheets and it requires lots of skill. All honest work is equal. What you do is not important. How you do, what you, really matters. William Blake was a smalltime engraver. Engraving requires lots of concentration and unfailing skill. In this art, there is no scope for mistakes. William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, the third son of a London hosier. He died on August 12, 1827. On his death Wordsworth wrote, "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott." Critics wonder and admire, what Blake wrote more than two hundred fifty years ago, holds good in the modern context. The reasoning for this can be found in the above observation of Wordsworth. The ‘madness’ identified by him, in reality, is the spiritual greatness of Blake. No ordinary writer, when he writes within the corridors of the mind-level interpretations, can write such revelation-like ideas. Such ‘thought currents’ (it is correct to call them as light-currents of enlightened consciousness) can glow in one’s inner world, when that individual crosses the mind barrier. The ordinary people with body-mind-intellect equipment will not be in a position to understand the ‘madness’ of such people. Blake was one such mad man. As rightly observed by many, he was an engraver-poet-prophet. He set up his engraving business in 1784. The sparks of divinity within him were evident right from the age of four, when he saw visions. His poetry and engravings remained impacted by his visions. The mind-level conflicts will always remain as conflicts, with no possible solution. When they are discussed and commented upon by the above-the-mind level experiences of an extraordinary individual, it is altogether a different issue. There will be arguments and counter-argument as there is, there was, and there shall be a counter argument for every argument of reason. Reason comes within the domain of the mind, and hence it can not see beyond reason. It is not possible for an individual who stands at the height of 100 ft. of a mountain, to gauge the experiences and feelings of an individual who stands at a height of 28,000 ft. When Boris Pasternak, the Nobel prize-winning author said, “Silence is the sweetest sound on earth,” he does not refer to the dead, vacant silence! He means the dynamic silence of the inner domain of a human being brimming with powerful, unexplainable feelings! When a man experiences the beauty of Nature and becomes one with it, he experiences unique feelings of silence, which are too difficult for the printed pages to capture! Once back to his normal state, one tries to scribble down the experiences. Blake did the same! He had the additional advantage of being born as an artist. He captured his feelings, divine visions, in his itched drawings. On this count, he was twice-blessed by God! His writings, therefore, are no ordinary literature! They can be the writings of an individual, who has developed the inner capability to transcend the mind! Blake’s poetry is timeless! This man remained an unknown pilgrim of literature, and the mystical writings are beyond the comprehension of an ordinary reader. He was far ahead of his times. To oppose the church in those critical years, when the influence of the Church was very strong was not an ordinary issue. The Church had powers to award severe punishment to an individual, who acted contrary to the Christian preaching, as understood by the priests; He worshipped God, and hated the Church. He did not have cross on the neck, but Christ in his heart! He belonged to the lower class and had to undergo the harsh realities of life. But he was the monarch of his mind, and lived a happy life. But from the point of view of money matters, the harsh one! Some of the beautiful poetry came at the fag end of his visit to the Planet Earth, tell us about his knowledge and intuition about his death and the churning processes of his life filled with tough circumstances. To say about the poet of such a highest level, as male-centered, favoring the female gender or one with liberal attitudes is, as good as making efforts to measure or empty the ocean through bucketfuls of water! The gender, as perceived by Blake in “Visions of the Daughters of Albion” is an extraordinary concept. These daughters are no ordinary daughters-they are celestial angels! Such a highly evolved individual like Blake can not take sides for one gender and fight for the other! For he knows, that male and female are the alternative beats of the same heart. This is one level of the personality of Blake and viewed from that level, Blake is free from the concept of duality, pairs of opposites, as he experiences peace, harmony and bliss in all the activities of Nature. Having said this, one can not negate the influences of the ground realities in the societal conditions prevailing in the era in which Blake lived. “William Blake was greatly inspired by the concepts of freedom and individuality that began to spread in Britain after the French Revolution. According to David Duff, (1998) "for the Romantic poet, the idea of revolution has a special interest, and a special affinity. For Romanticism seeks to effect in poetry what revolution aspires to achieve in politics: innovation, transformation, defamiliarisation". In his poem Visions of the Daughters of Albion Blake reveals his negative attitude to any display of human subjugation and stresses on the emotions of an oppressed individual.” (English Essays….) The following poem expresses the deep concern of Blake as for the condition of the female gender and the social inequalities that she suffered then. Even in such grim conditions look at the extraordinary understanding of the female character of Oothoon and how she visualizes the issue. She is sexually abused by Bromin, but she pinpoints at her inner chastity in her talks with her lover Theotormon. The sapling of true love blooms in her heart and it is full of fragrant flowers! How a stranger can cut it and throw? Yet Bromin has done precisely the same to Oothoon. But look at the indomitable courage of Oothoon. Blake writes, “ENSLAV'D, the Daughters of Albion weep: a trembling lamentation Upon their mountains; in their valleys. sighs toward America. For the soft soul of America, Oothoon wanderd in woe, Along the vales of Leutha seeking flowers to comfort her; And thus she spoke to the bright Marygold of Leutha's vale Art thou a flower! art thou a nymph! I see thee now a flower; Now a nymph! I dare not pluck thee from thy dewy bed! The Golden nymph replied; pluck thou my flower Oothoon the mild Another flower shall spring, because the soul of sweet delight Can never pass away. she ceas'd & closd her golden shrine. Then Oothoon pluck'd the flower saying, I pluck thee from thy bed Sweet flower and put thee here to glow between my breasts And thus I turn my face to where my whole soul seeks.”(University…) Sexual abuse is the ultimate one for a woman. She can never forget that incident nor can she forgive the man who did that crime against her. This is the normal reaction of any woman and the protection of the honor is supreme to her. But Oothoon, the character created by Blake shows extraordinary spiritual bent, when Oothoon harps confidently about her inner chastity in her talks with her lover Theotormon. The two, male and female, can never walk together in the journey of life, except they are agreed. The institution of marriage, by the standards of any religion, is a sacred institution. Two distinct individuals, two separate personalities, born, bred and brought up in two different set of circumstances try to come together from the day of marriage( or from the day they swore their love for each other) to find a common identity, a common goal and to be precise, a common all! Such an attitude to life is derived from spiritual moorings of an individual, whether male or female! Oothoon, is precisely defending her on these lines, with her lover. “Through Oothoon the poet rejects the principles of traditional morality that deprives a woman of freedom and allows males to take possession over her. Oothoon is treated as a slave by Bromion and Theotormon, and Blake demonstrates that such treatment is natural for the world, in which these people exist.” (University…) What an unfortunate situation that was! That which is not practical, can not be spiritual either! Every spiritual revelation must stand the test of practicability. This is the problem with the spiritual Blake and the secular Blake! Considering the time to which he belonged, he deserved pity. The dominance of Kings and Church on the society was complete and too difficult to resist. Both had enormous powers to punish the common man in the most ruthless manner on silly excuses or on concocted cases. Women had no voice of protest. In the above poem, “The initial word “ENSLAV’D” is larger than the rest of the text, which emphasizes the Daughter’s predicament. The “Daughters of Albion” are imprisoned in same way…..Englishwomen, enslaved in the social mores of their time, who weep over their sorrows and long for the freedom of the body, or “America.” They are looking towards the new country and Oothoon to free them from imprisonment.”(Barfoot, 2006, p.158) Blake portrays the helpless psychological destruction of Oothoon by the male attitudes. Her suffering is intense. Blake comes to the brass tracks and initiates a direct attack on the male section of the society as he describes about the helplessness of the daughters of Albion who console Oothoon, but regret their inability to help her, as the prevailing patriarchal world would strongly come in the way of any attempt to eliminate inequality and subjugation. Most of the revolutions have failed to deliver the objectives for which the revolutionary process began and the revolution took place, resulting in mass loss of life and property. Blake stresses the importance of revolution but not thoroughly convinced about the pure reasons of a revolutionary. He clearly visualizes the stated objectives of revolution and the reality when it takes place! Unable to find a tangible solution, Blake reverts to the spiritual domain. He brings the images of eagles in his poem. The entry of these eagles is the mark of resistance to oppression, violence and the related negativities. When the collision happens between Oothoon and the eagles, she receives purification and new insight of the world around her. (Symbolically this amounts to spiritual enlightenment, when the thought process of an individual changes-when the thoughts are changed, the mind is changed; when the mind is changed, the individual is changed!) This is not mere imagination of Blake. It is his conviction! God sees the truth but how long a male of female has to suffer injustice? Blake seems to give up, when his eagles are destroyed, indicating that he has lost hopes about the struggle against social equality. Social restrictions and strict religious dogmas are too powerful. But this again is the defeat of the secular Blake. The spiritual Blake knows that everything in this world is happening as it should! He says it through the conversation of marigold with Oothoon. She “asks the marigold whether it is a “flower” or a “nymph”—and the answer will determine she will face engaging with sexual experience. The marigold explains to Oothoon that even if she is plucked, “another flower shall spring.” The life cycle continues both in nature and in humanity….true virginity is the purity of the mind, not of the body. Therefore, the flower will never die, because the soul of the sweet delight can never pass away.”(Barfoot, p.158) Conclusion: The vision of William Blake is so broad and vast, that it is difficult to entangle him in the male-female conflict. But the conflict between the secular Blake and the spiritual Blake does exist from the point of view of a lay reader. It is more correct to say that in the beyond-the-mind state, Blake has no scope to entertain conflicts, because that is the zone of bliss, where all dualities cease. But the fact remains that Blake, during his times, could no see secular equality for women! ========= Works Cited: Barfoot, C.C.(Author) And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry (DQR Studies in Literature 36) Hardcover: 490 pages Publisher: Editions Rodopi BV (October 31, 2006) Language: English ISBN-10: 904202075X ISBN-13: 978-9042020757 Blake, William (Author) Essick, Robert N. (Editor)Visions of the Daughters of Albion Hardcover: 82 pages Publisher: Huntington Library Press; 1 edition (January 2003) Language: English ISBN-10: 087328187X ISBN-13: 978-0873281874 English Essays - British Romanticism. The aim of this essay is to critically analyze the thematic and stylistic features of William Blake's poem Visions of the Daughters of Albion and Percy... www.englishessays.org.uk/english-essays/british-romanticism.php Retrieved on June 5, 2009 Famous Quotes by William Shakespeare from the play Twelfth Night "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them". - (Quote Act II, Scene V). ... www.william-shakespeare.info/quotes-quotations-play-twelfth-night.htm -Retrieved on June 5, 2009 UNIVERSITY OF BOLTON SCHOOL OF ARTS, MEDIA AND EDUCATION ENGLISH ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML “Art thou a flower? Art thou a nymph? I see thee now a flower,. Now a nymph! I dare not pluck thee from thy dewy bed!” The Golden nymph replied: “pluck thou ... data.bolton.ac.uk/aqas/Past_Exam_Papers/Semester_2_2007_pdf/BS156.pdf – Retrieved on June 5, 2009 Read More