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http://cdub77.hubpages.com/hub/Literary-Evolution-William-Blakes-Heaven-

and-Hell-and-the-Bible

Evolution in Literature: An Analysis of William Blake's "The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell" and the Bible.

Why Blake Wrote about the Bible

Given the status of the Bible in the western literary tradition as one of the most appropriated andalluded to of all ancient and religious texts, it is not unusual that William Blake writes soextensively about it. While a great body of Blakes mature works, including the longer works

Milton and Jerusalem, deal with biblical themes, his early central work, The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell, gives insight not only into themes that would later occupy Blakes longer

works, but also into the unique status of the Bible in western literature (Villalobos 246). Blake

appropriates biblical themes and characters not for the traditional aim of glorifying the god of the

Bible, but rather in order to subvert them and create a whole new mythology of the relationshipbetween the eternal forces set in authority over man in the Bible. Blakes subversive

appropriation of biblical tradition illustrates not only the shift in the prevalent attitudes of

western thought towards this tradition from a literal belief to a literary enterprise, but reaffirmsthese ancient stories ability to continually capture the imagination of the most brilliant and

progressive minds in western thought, even after their claim to legitimacy is no longer seriously

considered a possibility.

The first task to be undertaken is to explore exactly how Blake subversively appropriates biblical

ideas for his poem. An understanding of how Blakes appropriation is emblematic of the shift inattitudes towards the Bible as a literary and spiritual authority can be gleaned from examining his

treatment of three specific biblical traditions. The first is the figure of Satan, the fallen

Morningstar. The second is Blakes appropriation of the form of proverb for the section of hispoem entitled, The Proverbs of Hell. The last is Blakes startling vision of the biblical heaven

and hell. Once this has been done, conclusions can be drawn from the example of Blakes piece

that concern not only the changing position of the Bible in western literature and thought, but

also the ability of this tradition to survive no matter how subverted and desacralized its original

intent and message becomes.

The traditional role of Satan of the Bible is that of the adversary of man and god. He is the first sinner,

whose sin is pride. In traditional Christianity, Satan is the tempter of man. He not only tempts human

beings on a daily basis, but is the original tempter who deceives the first human to sin. This original

deception is the reason for the loss of paradise in the biblical tradition. This makes it hard for Satan to

appear as anything but the ultimate, evil incarnate. However, social forces and Miltons Paradise Lost

change that. The religious myth of the adversary lost authority and the figure of Satan was

reconstituted by ideology and by the idealized conception of Miltons Satan (Schock 442). Literary


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criticism after Milton increasingly idealized the fallen archangelas a sublime, human, and heroic

figure (Schock 442). It is this idealization of Satan as a sympathetic figure that makes him such an ideal

character to appropriate from biblical tradition if the aim is to subvert it. As critics have pointed out,

this reconception of Satan makes him a ready vehicle for oppositionist ideology (Schock 450).

Blake, being informed by the ideas of Satanjust discussed, realizes him in The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell as the Jehovah of the Biblehe who dwells in flaming fire (150). Blake

goes on to say that after Christs death, he became Jehovah (150). Blake can be read as

insinuating Satan is Christ, Jehovah, or both. Blake also asserts that a true Poet is of the

Devils party (150). Blakes intent is not to merely undermine the traditional biblical

understanding of the deities so as to simply reverse their positions, but he is seeking to establish

a relationship between them that provides impetus for the biblical understanding of the truenature of Satan to be incorrect. Blake asserts that what the Bible calls good is merely the

passive that obeys Reason (149). He also asserts that what the Bible calls bad is merely the

active springing from Energy (149). Blake goes on to state that Energy is Eternal Delight

(149). This idea that good and bad are contraries in the same way that reason and energy are, is

central to The Marriage of Heavenand Hell. Satan, therefore, becomes emblematic of the wayReason would see Energy. In other words, Blake is saying that the biblical tradition, because

of its bias towards Reason, cannot help but interpret a Satan who is full of desire and creativeenergy as its adversary, that is its contrary. Blake says this is not only a good thing, but also

absolutely necessary in one of the poems most famous lines, Without Contraries is no

progression (149). The ramifications of this interpretation for the biblical tradition will beexplored later in this paper.

Turning now to Blakes appropriation of the biblical proverb with his Proverbs of Hell, thebiblical proverb must first be understood. Critics inform us that biblical proverbs express

transmuted religious truths through intuitive flashes of vision (Villalobos 250). They are also

considered important intellectual documents (Villalobos 248). Scholarship on the biblicalparables was an active enterprise in the century before Blake wrote The Marriage of Heavenand Hell. There was much debate about the received wisdom of the age in much the same

way the traditional understanding of Satan had been in flux before Blakes writing (Villalobos

246). This means it can almost be expected of Blake to be somewhat critical of the biblicalproverb he is appropriating.

How and why exactly Blake appropriates this biblical tradition can be understood if we examinewhat he says about proverbs within the poem. Blake invests about a fifth of the entire poem into

the section entitled Proverbs of Hell; this must mean they are extremely significant to whatever

aim he has for the poem. Given this, it is reasonable to investigate carefully Blakes interest in

proverbs. At the very least, it is obviously the informing interest behind the interest his narratorin the poem expresses, namely that, the sayings used in a nation mark its character, so the

Proverbs of Hell show the nature of Infernal wisdom (150). Critics have argued as to whether or

not the Proverbs of Hell should be categorized as wisdom literature, or rather as a critique andparody of proverbial wisdom, a biblical genre that came under close scrutiny in the years

following the Puritan Interregnum (Villalobos 247). While this debate informs Blakes

appropriation of the biblical proverb, a more firm understanding can be gained by examiningexactly what Blakes proverbs have to say about their particular nation, that is, hell.


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The proverbs echo the themes discussed when examining Blakes use of Satan. A good example

of this is the proverb He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence (151). From the Blakean

perspective of energy, or hell, to desire but not act is a sin by its denial of the very essence of

hell, eternal delight in energy. This is a direct contradiction to the biblical teaching to curbdesire. The biblical proverb of sparing the rod and spoiling the child reinforce the difference in

perspective between the Proverbs of Hell and the biblical proverbs. The goal is to force orderborn of reason upon action in the biblical proverb, while the Blakean asserts the necessity ofaction, or energy, driven by desire. Blake describes this relationship between reason and energy

from his own perspective by saying, Energy is the only life, and is from the Body; and Reason

is the bound or outward circumference of Energy (149). Once again, just like in the discussionof Satan, there is the idea that Blake is not attempting to simply replace god with Satan, but

rather radically redefine the relationship between the two contraries as that of energy and

reason and not the traditionally limited and therefore misleading, good and bad. Another

Proverb of Hell that enriches this understanding is You never know what is enough unlessyou know what is more than enough (152). Contrary to the biblical tradition that excess leads to

folly, Blake is expressing the truth from a different perspective. Both traditions recognize the

foolishness of excess, but while the biblical understanding relies on rules and reason to ensurethe avoidance of excess, the Blakean perspective speaks to the truth that true wisdom of and

ability to avoid excess come not from knowing the effects of moderation, but knowing the effects

of excess. This difference in perspective ones again explains how things in hell must necessarily

appear horrible to heaven and vice versa.

This brings up the discussion of Blakes appropriation of the biblical spiritual realms of heaven

and hell. The traditional understanding is obviously one of hell as a place of torment and

suffering. Even in Milton, hell has a lake of fire and is a place of constant suffering from which

Satan wishes to escape. Heaven, in contrast, is paradise. It is a place that eternally rings with thebeautiful praises of Jehovah who sits on a throne in fellowship with his blessed and blameless

creation.

While there is not much precedent of changing sympathies toward hell the way there is with the

character of Satan, there is a general sense, informed by science and new beliefs about the world,

that the traditional damnation and torture view was not strongly held by the intellectual circles inwestern thought in which Blake participated. Hell would seem to be much more functional as a

symbolic reality rather than a real fate. This is the result of a cultural disconnectedness from the

literally held beliefs of hell that dominated the western world of thought for over a thousand

years. If anything, this would give Blake at least some sort of precedent to speculate on the

actual heat of these fires in hell.

As might be expected, the heaven and hell in Blakes piece are in striking contrast to their

traditional presentation. This difference, once again, speaks to the difference in perspective that

is one of the underlying themes Blake brings out beautifully throughout the course of The

Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Specifically, critics find Blakes hell to be the source of all lifeand all creativity, and without it existence would not be possible (Stewart 48). Moreover, at

each level [The Marriage of Heaven and Hell] is constructed in such a way as to present


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Blakes leading ideas as if they were from a hell imagined in startlingly unconventional terms

(Schock 441). Blakes hell is the contrary of heaven.

To understand exactly how Blake appropriates these ideas within the text, we must examine his

presentation of both places. In one particular section towards the end of the poem, the narrator and an

angel visit both heaven and hell with one another to examine where the other will spend eternity (155-

157). Upon entering hell, the two see the head of Leviathanhis mouth *hanging+ just above the

raging foam, tinging the black deep with beams of blood, advancing toward [them] with all the fury of a

spiritual existence (156). However, when the angel leaves for a moment, the scene fades to a peaceful

river by moonlight, hearing a harper, who sungthe man who never alters his opinion is like standing

water, & breeds reptiles of the mind (156). Their trip to heaven has similarly horrible results. There,

they see chained animals eating one another (157). Blakes narrator realizes the problem is that because

of their contrary nature, heaven and hell must necessarily appear horrible to one another as the

complete void of the essence which makes the other that which it is. He says as much when he states,all that we saw was owing to your metaphysics and we impose on one another (156-157). This,

again, speaks to the difference in perspective that Blake has stressed in his appropriations of both Satan

and the proverbs.

What can be said about Blakes appropriation of biblical tradition as a whole in The Marriage ofHeaven and Hell must be that despite its lack of appeal as a document that literally prescribes

true salvation for man, as its obvious intent is, it still retains strong spiritual appeal and evidently

a form that works for an understanding of the relationship between man, god, and Satan that is

radically different from the original. Blakes genius is in the consistency and imaginativebrilliance that cohesively makes his presentation in his small poem a small but powerful

footnote, significant enough to alter the meaning of the most read text in the history of mankind.

What this says more generally about the relationship between literature and the Bible in the

Romantic period is that there is evidence to support that the Bible is as rich and as fertile of a text

for the imagination of these poets as it was for the religious fervor and intellectual sincerity of ahistory over a thousand years old. This is a tradition that, writing from the perspective of the

twenty-first century, has gone far beyond Blakes achievements three hundred years ago. The

ubiquity of Blakes The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in twentieth century culture, an issue not

touched on in this paper, is at least one example that shows that the Bible remains as rich and

fertile a ground for literary and cultural imaginations to this day. If this is true, what is truly seenin Blake is a significant shift or addition to a tradition of appropriation, interpretation, belief, and

artistic creation that centers on this ancient sacred text and the western traditions relationshipwith it.

The significance of such a shift can only be understood by exploring Blakes radical reformationof the dynamics of the relationship between heaven and hell into a marriage. This investigation is

beyond the scope of this paper. For now, the significance must be found in the understanding of


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his appropriation of biblical themes as a means not only to divorce ourselves from old

understandings of the Bible, but also to usher in new understandings that revitalize the biblical

story in a manner which seems to be saying:

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear

To man as it is, infinite.

For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro narrow

Chinks of his cavern. (154)

Works Cited

Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake: Complete Writings. Ed. GeoffreyKeynes. Guernsey: Oxford, 1966. 148-160.

Schock, Peter A. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Blakes Myth of Satan and its Cultural

Matrix. ELH 60.2 (1993): 441-471.

Stewart, Dave. The Context of Blakean Contraries in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Essays in Literature 21.1 (1994): 43-54.

Villalobos, John. William Blakes Proverbs of Hell and the Tradition of Wisdom Literature.Studies in Philology 87.2 (1990): 246-260.

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