1 / 7

Archetypes and Social Commentary and Critical Perspectives

Archetypes and Social Commentary and Critical Perspectives. William Blake Mrs. Cumberland. Archetypes. Symbols that reveal universal truths Archetypes hold strong emotional power Blake’s poetry is filled with archetypes They helped put his mystical visions into words

obelia
Download Presentation

Archetypes and Social Commentary and Critical Perspectives

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Archetypes and Social Commentary and Critical Perspectives William Blake Mrs. Cumberland

  2. Archetypes • Symbols that reveal universal truths • Archetypes hold strong emotional power • Blake’s poetry is filled with archetypes • They helped put his mystical visions into words • They consist of plot patterns, character types, and themes that transcend time and culture.

  3. Examples of Archetypal symbols • Lamb • Meaning Jesus Christ • Fire • Meaning Jesus Christ • Swaddling bands • Meaning The baby Jesus • Child • Meaning innocent • Anvil • Meaning place where human fates are created • Angel • Meaning messenger • “my father sold me” • Suggests that Blake wanted to point out the desperate lives of the poor • “got with our bags and our brushes to work” • Suggests that Blake wanted to highlight the problem of child labor

  4. Blake often expressed archetypes in paired poems such as “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”

  5. Social Commentary • Commenting on social injustices of his time • He critiqued events and popular beliefs in his social commentary. • Historical and political references support his opinions and add credibility to his writing

  6. “The Chimney Sweeper” • Criticism of the ills caused by the Industrial revolution and political tyranny

  7. Critical Perspective • A critical perspective is a way of looking at a work of literature. • Two types: • Archetypal perspective: looking at the universal symbols in the work • Images, details, and patterns that seem to have a strong emotional charge and appear across many different cultures • Historical perspective: looking at the political, economic, and cultural background of the work

More Related