William Blake Alienation and Moral Term Paper

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The use of "coffins in black" as symbolism for death aptly justifies the use of the word "weep" to capture the abusive nature of the sweepers' work, not to mention the unfair conditions in work these young workers were forced to agree with. Lacking any choices or rights, the young, alienated sweepers became victims of moral degeneration, a condition only found in Blake's modern society. Abuse of the youth's innocence and the promise of a prosperous life through honest (though abusive) labor became the principle of modern society, and the conditions that served as catalysts for moral degeneration to happen in it. Indeed, in order to alleviate the young, alienated sweepers from this moral abuse, Blake only recommends death as the only way to emancipate or free themselves from it: "That thousands of sweepers...Were all...locked up in coffins of black. And by came an angel who had a bright key, and he opened the coffins and set them all free..."

Noticeably, Blake's depiction of the lives of chimney sweepers and illustrating the themes of alienation and moral degeneration was an honest and real description of what suffering, poverty, and death was like to humanity of the 19th century. Death, once a feared state for society, became an acceptable escape for poor and underprivileged people like the poem's chimney sweepers. Equating death as 'heaven's gift,' signified by the presence of an "angel who had a bright key" meant that society had passed a period in history wherein what was considered before as immoral (i.e., to aspire for death rather than a life of suffering) became acceptable.

However, Blake also presented an alternative to those who have not met their deaths, and it was to accept reality and live life as it is, a modernist's solution to a rapidly modernizing society. William (2001) resounded this assertion when he stated that "...if Blake offers a diagnosis of alienation, decay, and degradation, he also offers a prognosis for reintegration and redemption" (93). Thus, in order for the chimney sweepers to become reintegrated and redeemed by their society, they must accept their plight as impoverished workers. Chimney sweepers who, despite the 'morning cold,' remained "happy and warm; So if all do their duty they need not fear harm." Blake's poem had mirrored that just as time changed, society's status quo had also changed to give way to the further decline of humanity's welfare and plight amid the prosperous 19th century society.

Bibliography

Anderson, N. (2001). "Poet, poet, burning bright." Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 93, Issue 106.

Blake, W. E-text of "The Chimney Sweepers." Available at http://www.online-literature.com/blake/628.

William, R. (2001). "Ideology and Utopia in the Poetry of William Blake." Romanticism, Vol. 7, Issue…