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William Blake Aristographics Essay

Decent Essays

At the very beginning of the poem, [we see] Blake castigates (the aristocrats of London who capitalize on the suffering of the poor/ impoverished workers,,,. So the poem starts with a criticism of laws relating to control and ownership)c4 as clearly expressed in the lines below:

I wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

(the river which should be freely flowing and which is usually a symbol of life, freedom and the power of nature is under the ownership of the rich; suggesting corruption in every sphere of society)B7. (Here the ‘charter’d Thames’ is a bitter reference to the way[ in which] every aspect of life in London is owned, regulated/constricted, measured and mapped out by the oppressive ruling system.)B7 (The word 'charter'd' can also have connotations of hiring and leasing which emphasises how the city is claiming to own its people and suggests the unjust nature of capitalism in …show more content…

Everything is a possession of the ruling class. It is as if life has been structured by the need to conform to the rule of those in power. The common people cannot question authority and their faulty reasoning / indiscretion.They cannot enjoy freedom. This lack of freedom is also evident when(with sarcasm Blake describes the sights he sees while walking through the “charter’d street" of London)B7. Everywhere he turns, he sees in “every face” “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” while (the “marks of woe” point to the poorer population in London)B12.

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