Comparing Use Of Chains In Enlightenment And London

The use of “chains” within the works Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment and William Blake’s poem London. In my essay, I will analyze both of their works by determining whether they both agree if they are “mind-forg’d”, the implications of their claims and if they agreed that they should be casted off, how? If not, what would be the alternative? By understanding these questions, we begin to understand the politically revolutionary change occurring during the Romantic Period as well as the literary revolution that coincided with the change that progressed to modern and later post-modern philosophy we take for granted on a daily basis.

Both works speak about the societal chains brought upon by the current civil society that they are living in. In

William Blake and Immanuel Kant both agree that these chains can be eliminated or at least should be by those who have been chained. Both turn to a certain place of enlightenment yet oddly enough, both turn to a separate source of knowledge. For William Blake, the knowledge derives from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as he proclaimed in the last stanza “And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.” (16). The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a critique on Catholicism and its censorship as well as repression of desires. More importantly contained in the Proverbs of Hell, within plate 8, “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of religion.” (Blake, 1-2). William Blake reflects back to the Proverbs of Hell, not for solace but chastise the society of London for their sins and their master stating the hypocrisy of law and religion. “One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression” (Blake, 12), he writes for plate 24. It is revolutionary to question the hierarchy his time since obeying the church was supposed to make a greater society. Yet it seems that William Blake is a major critic to institutions of religion. Through his analysis, the chains are linked to religion and law that constitute for the oppression of the lower class people of London. The second source of enlightenment is discussed in Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment where the power lies

If the current state is even inescapable, what chance do we have as people to escape the meta-level which is in its entirety “everlasting”? Immanuel Kant also asks himself the same question as honestly as he can stating that the person must take a “leap-of-faith” into the unknown in order to even get glimpse of freedom. Yet even though people succeed in casting of the physical shackles, it is the meta-level shackles that continue to be present as I quote, “Perhaps a fall of personal despotism or of avaricious or tyrannical oppression may be accomplished by revolution, but never a true reform in ways of thinking. Rather new prejudices will serve as well as old ones to harness the great unthinking masses.” The “domino-effect” of thought is the engagement of pre-thought from ideologies before reform for Immanuel Kant. Almost as if the mind of the individual is precious and can be tainted. In addition, another issue is that the tutelage is “paradoxical” (Kant, 10). The paradox in the text as stated, “A greater degree of civil freedom appears advantageous to the freedom of mind pf he people, and yet it places inescapable limitations upon it The limitation I find in William Blake’s London stems from the fact that his main argument is far too broad to critique. In order to truly look at his policy for reform or his literary output for reform against manacles you would have to look back to The Marriage of