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How Does William Blake Use Of Archetypes

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Tiger
The Lion and the Lamb
(A Critique of William Blake's Use of Archetypes in The Lamb and The Tyger)

Throughout history, authors have found many creative ways to express ideas and messages. Some popular ways include similes and metaphors, as they invoke a deeper level of thinking. Another popular technique to present an idea or message is through the use of archetypes. An archetype is a example or symbol of something. This can be another way to get the reader thinking at a deeper level. William Blake used this technique effectively in his two famous poem The Lamb and The Tyger. Both poems contain numerous archetypes he uses to represent the message he is portraying. In William Blake's The Lamb and The Tyger, he utilizes the use of archetypes to represent ideas and themes.
One archetype Blake uses in his poem The Lamb, is obviously the lamb. The lamb is the archetype, or symbol, he uses to represent innocence. This poem by Blake represents what innocence is. In the first stanza, Blake discusses with his reader all …show more content…

This archetype is the connecting feature between the two poems. The questions he asks portray his differing messages of innocence and experience. When discussed in The Lamb, God is a symbol of goodness. It states in the poem the attributes of Christ, describing how he was childlike, meek and mild. These are all qualities associated with innocence. The archetype of goodness Christ represents in The Lamb is symmetrical with the archetype of innocence the lamb represents. However, in The Tyger, God is used as an archetype of something else. Blake asks an intriguing question about God in this poem stating, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (line 20) in this poem he question how God could represent goodness if he could create something as evil as a tiger. In The Tyger the archetype of God that Blake uses ties in with the archetype the tiger represents which is

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