The Case for Impulse

Abstract

The works we have discussed so far are clearly minor. Tiriel and Island are unfinished as well, and their psychological themes are relatively accessible. With The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, however, we are dealing with a work of acknowledged importance that appears consistent thematically as well as in religious, historical, or philosophic terms.1 The question now is whether Blake in his successful work continues to express the strong psychological preoccupations we found earlier and whether the emotional content continues to structure the work. One may also ask if aspects of this content have been ignored by critics using a more traditional approach. One is struck primarily by the extent to which most interpretations deny hostile intent on Blake’s part and discuss the work under quite different categories. Blake’s attacks on figures of authority are seen as necessary to his moral purpose. Northrop Frye, for example, brilliantly rationalises Blake’s expressions of hostility as self-defence: a fearful society indeed seeks to destroy the poet. David Erdman similarly justifies Blake on the grounds of his social conscience. Others simply ignore hostility while concentrating on sexual aspects of the poem. Robert Gleckner is an exception. He senses Blake’s irrational hostility, particularly toward Swedenborg, and concludes that ‘with passion as its basis, the artistic subtlety characteristic of Blake’s other works is understandably lacking’.2