Willam Blake London Marxism

London - Exploitation and Hopelessness: Marxist Literary Criticism

Many of Blake’s Songs of Experience directly tackle some of the social problems and injustices that were present in 18th and 19th Century Britain. The general social conscience that exists within the poems has resulted in Blake’s work being heavily associated with marxist theory and is often subjected to marxist literary criticism. Although much of his work was neglected at the time of writing, poems like London have shown Blake to be somewhat of a visionary; producing work that can be so closely related to the Communist Manifesto which was written some 50 years later. Living in London for most of his life, Blake was able to witness the growing industrialisation and institutionalisation of the city. In turn, Blake was also able see the growing oppression of the proletariat that was inflicted upon them by the bourgeois classes. Blake illustrates the extent of the suffering on the streets of London well and also adopts an accusatory tone - directing blame to the moneyed classes for such inhuman conditions and injustices. The scale of the problems that the poor had to face is made very clear by Blake. First, the title: London was, at the time of writing, the economic capital of the world and was the heartland of the unparalleled British empire. The sheer size of London adequately demonstrates the fact that the issues Blake is addressing are most certainly widespread. If anything, London could be seen as a representation for all urban cities at the time. Second, there is an extensive use of the adjective ‘every’ through the poem which proves to be particularly striking. Simply by repeating this all-encompassing adjective Blake is able to convey how he is not talking about a minority here. Unfortunately, it seems, children are not exempt form this underclass who’s suffering Blake so vividly displays. It’s clear that with lines such as ‘every infants cry of fear’ Blake wishes to emphasise how