Compare and Contrast the Romantics: William Blake and Mary Wollstonecraft
Compare and Contrast The Romantics: William Blake and Mary Wolstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman sets out to invalidate the social and religious standards of her time in regards to gender, just as William Blake sets out to do the same for children. Both Blake and Wollstonecraft can be read by the average man and woman, lending its attention toward both upper and middle class. Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary themes of tyranny and oppression of women parallel the themes in Blake’s poetry of the tyranny and oppression of children; hence, leading the reader to the Romantic notion of empathy.
Wollstonecraft’s use of nonfiction prose for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman sets her apart from the conventional poetic form of the Romantic literary movement; but the tone and theme of her work is as revolutionary as Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper,” “Holy Thursday” and “The
Little Black Boy” and so is the epitome of Romanticism.”
Wollstonecraft and Blake set the tone for Romanticism through the use of simple and common diction within their literary forms. This shift in conformity from the Age of Reason allows both Wollstonecraft and Blake to directly address the unjust social issues at hand. In
Vindication, Wollstonecraft directly addresses men and their selfishness in regards to the standards they have implemented for “female virtues” and says that ...”men who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been anxious to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers” (291). Likewise, Blake poetically criticizes the treatment of children in “The Chimney Sweeper,” and says, “And my father sold me while yet my tongue/ Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep/ So your chimneys I sweep
& in soot I sleep” (Lines 2-4). By using common and direct diction within their literary forms,
Convery 2
Wollstonecraft and Blake are able to speak directly to both upper and middle class about
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman sets out to invalidate the social and religious standards of her time in regards to gender, just as William Blake sets out to do the same for children. Both Blake and Wollstonecraft can be read by the average man and woman, lending its attention toward both upper and middle class. Wollstonecraft’s revolutionary themes of tyranny and oppression of women parallel the themes in Blake’s poetry of the tyranny and oppression of children; hence, leading the reader to the Romantic notion of empathy.
Wollstonecraft’s use of nonfiction prose for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman sets her apart from the conventional poetic form of the Romantic literary movement; but the tone and theme of her work is as revolutionary as Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper,” “Holy Thursday” and “The
Little Black Boy” and so is the epitome of Romanticism.”
Wollstonecraft and Blake set the tone for Romanticism through the use of simple and common diction within their literary forms. This shift in conformity from the Age of Reason allows both Wollstonecraft and Blake to directly address the unjust social issues at hand. In
Vindication, Wollstonecraft directly addresses men and their selfishness in regards to the standards they have implemented for “female virtues” and says that ...”men who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been anxious to make them alluring mistresses than affectionate wives and rational mothers” (291). Likewise, Blake poetically criticizes the treatment of children in “The Chimney Sweeper,” and says, “And my father sold me while yet my tongue/ Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep/ So your chimneys I sweep
& in soot I sleep” (Lines 2-4). By using common and direct diction within their literary forms,
Convery 2
Wollstonecraft and Blake are able to speak directly to both upper and middle class about
Cited: Vol 2A. Susan Wolfson and Peter Manning. Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. 175-176. Education, Inc., 2010. 288-310.