On Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Alternative Perceptions

The readings were very interesting, but I was particularly drawn to Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake argues that the contraries of attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, and love and hate are necessary elements for human existence and progression. Blake categories these contraries according to the religious constructs of good and evil, respectively. Blake rejects the separation of these contraries, particularly of the body and soul, arguing that the body and soul are inextricably linked and form a whole. The body and soul, as well as the contraries mentioned above, are interconnected aspects that govern human nature. Blake rejects the limiting religious constructs of good and evil and the Enlightenment’s privileging of reason above energy and imagination. The erroneous notion that the body and soul are distinct limits our understanding of human nature and the forces at work within us and around us.  Blake advocates a change in perception from the finite and senses-based to the infinite. Blake states “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite” (26). Blake challenges the reader to step outside the confines of religious and Enlightenment constructions of human nature and explore alternative modes of perception. In order to fully understand the seeming dualities of human nature, Blake argues that one must converse with angels and devils alike. For this reason, I loved the challenging Proverbs of Hell.

            The Proverbs of Hell were very complex and insightful. Blake makes an explicit connection between man and nature stating, “Where man is not, nature is barren” (20). I am still wrestling with this proverb and what exactly Blake means by nature. The proverb is a bold statement that immediately triggered the query: If a tree falls but nobody is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? Is there no nature if human beings are not there to witness it or partake in it? Does our energy and vitality contribute to Nature in such a significant way for it to be barren without us? I am I missing the mark completely? Perhaps nature and man are two seeming contraries that are really interrelated like reason and energy.

            Another proverb I found interesting was “No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings” which reinforces Blake’s assertion that we should use our creative energies in conjunction with reason and not be afraid of intellectual and creative freedom (14). The proverb “improvement makes strait roads, but crooked roads without improvement made, are roads of Genius” contrasts the Enlightenment notion of progress with the innate Genius of Nature (19). A road is strait if it is man-made or manipulated through improvement, whereas the crooked or “natural” roads are “roads of Genius.” Blake aligns the “crooked” with the “natural” and with Genius, whereas the strait road is not inherently strait but made so. Religion and the Enlightenment impose artificial constructions of human nature, preventing the recognition of innate contraries that make human nature appear “crooked” but are really marks of Genius.

Blake advocates altering our perceptions in order to move toward more sophisticated ways of understanding ourselves and our surroundings. The episode of the protagonist who finds himself “sitting on a pleasant bank besides a river by moonlight, hearing a harper” whose theme “[t]he man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breads reptiles of the mind,” reinforces the need for mankind to alter our perceptions (34). As the Proverb of Hell has taught us, we should “[e]xpect poison from standing water,” or West Nile virus. Stagnant ideas and imposed religious and cultural constructs limit our perceptions of human nature and the natural world. We need to use our energy and not let our creative forces atrophy in the name of reason or religion. Ultimately, we need to accept the union of contraries as part of the natural world and human nature.  

Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Boston: J.W. Luce and, 1906. Archive.org.The Library of Congress, 31 July 2009. Web.