William Blake often wrote poems that portrayed the oppression and alienation of the common people under the Industrial Revolution, the institutionalized Church and the elitist government. As a Radical, Blake responded to the vast social changes in the historical context by representing the negative aspects of society through his perception of reality and his system of beliefs. “London” and “The Grey Monk” are two poems which reveal what he conceives to be inequities in the political and social construction during the middle to late 1700’s. Their comment on the human psyche – that is, the human soul, spirit and mind – of the disenfranchised, empowers them as the appalling conditions under which they suffer are exposed.

During the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution was beginning in England. This historical event which dramatically transformed a previously agrarian, rural society was seen by Blake to have led to the oppression of the common people. His poem “London,” by its title, suggests the new urbanized world into which the disenfranchised labourers and farmers have been forced. Even the natural aspects of the industrial city have been bound – “where the charter’d Thames does flow.” This reflects the physical and metaphorical bondage of the people to a life of suffering and pain – “Marks of weakness, marks of woe.” Their enslavement in the system is further paralleled by the tight rhyming structure of the poem from which no word can deviate.

This sense of oppression is compounded by the repetition of the word “every” in the second stanza – “In every cry of every Man, In every Infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban” which demonstrates the all-encompassing despair and misery in the human psyche. This dark, pervading atmosphere of hopelessness is observed by a persona who wanders the streets of London. The fact that he sees and hears these examples of widespread degradation shows that his psyche, and hence also the poet’s, is sensitively attuned to the psyche of the masses. In showing the terrible conditions under which people lived, Blake has attempted to reform society.

The “mind-forg’d manacles” that had oppressed the people’s mentality from spiritual freedom and happiness are critically assessed by the poet. Some of these manacles, he believes, are the moral and religious sanctions exerted by the organized Church. As an institution from which Blake is alienated, it is given the condemning label of “black’ning” which demonstrates the Church’s corruption of God. Where Blake believed that God was a loving and benevolent being, the Church has used Him as a device to suppress the people. It has advocated that everyone should accept their suffering with the promise of a reward in paradise. It has also condoned the exploitation of child labour – “the Chimney-sweeper’s cry.” Both actions are shown to be opposite to the original Christian message of love for all and charity for the poverty-stricken.

The last stanza gives the final emphasis on the bleakest image of oppression and alienation. The joys of procreation and maternal love are horrifyingly lacking in this scene where a young prostitute, stripped of her youthful innocence, gives birth to an unwanted child. Forced into this vocation, her life of hardship and misery reverses society’s image of a prostitute as a shameless, seductive woman. Her plight is terrible as is the Infant’s whose innocence and purity will soon be tainted in this dark, loveless world. Their alienation from the Church is signified in the last words – “… blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.” Marriage, a ceremony conducted by the religious order, is only for the privileged. A symbol of eternal love and joy, the Harlot is barred from these for life. Hence, for her and the majority of the marginalised, these concepts are dead.

“And the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs in blood down Palace walls” refers to the French Revolution which began in 1789. Blake has supported the people’s uprising against the Crown, which disempowered those in the Third Estate in France. The middle, working and peasant classes were classified as members of this group, which was thoroughly oppressed by the Second (the aristocracy) and the First (the clergy) Estates. Yet, the Soldier, whose occupation is to defend the monarchy, dies in the mob rebellion. Blake sympathises with his cruel destiny – to have his blood smeared down the very walls he is protecting. The Soldier, as an individual, is not at fault – the system is but he has been sacrificed in the name of change.

This idea of sacrifice runs through the issues explored in “The Grey Monk.” The “greyness” of the monk points physically to his age and the connotations of wisdom and experience. Hence, his ensuing words would be philosophically and morally enlightening – “When God commanded this hand to write…” Also, the colour symbolizes the middle ground between the barren whiteness of the Church and the bloody blackness of the Revolution. As the French Revolution progressed, Blake saw excessive violence and bloodshed being conducted between the Revolutionaries, Counter-revolutionaries and the dictators. The noble cause of the Revolution had been corrupted as it now oppressed the same people that it had aimed to free. The Monk is the symbol of all who had been tortured and sacrificed for it. This is indicated by his wounds – “The blood-red ran down the Grey Monk’s side, his hands and feet were wounded wide” which are similar to the injuries Jesus Christ had suffered as he died on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice to atone man’s sins.

Blake approves of the Monk as he lives a cloistered and austere life – “Stone Bed,” in meditation and to communicate with God. Though Blake abhors the Church and all its Priests in black, he believes that the Monk, also someone connected with the Church, as a “the hermit,” is closer to God than the hypocritical Priests. In many ways, Blake is like a monk as he lived an isolated, simple life, consolidating his theological beliefs and attempting to attain spiritual enlightenment.

The poverty and despair are common in both this poem and “London” – “My Children die for lack of Bread.” However, where the people are alienated from each other in “London,” in contrast, the Monk’s intensity of feeling for the oppressed masses, has united them as a family – “My brother starv’d… His Children’s Cry my Soul appalls… Thy Father drew his sword… Thy Brother has arm’d himself… To avenge the wrongs thy Children feel.” This kinship of pain and cycle of never ending injustice and violence has paid a terrible price on all involved. The suffering is collective, brought about by the destructiveness of the Revolution. It conveys the message that war is futile.

In the eighth to ninth stanzas, the Monk reveals his inner psyche, criticising the depravation of the idealistic cause. Despite his excessive wounds, he still voices his opposition to the bloodshed and the fighting, “vain the Sword and vain the Bow, they never can work War’s overthrow.” His spirit is still undaunted, he will fight to the very end for the purity of his ideals – “the bitter groan of the Martyr’s woe is an Arrow from the Almightie’s bow.” He speaks metaphorically on what he deems to be the philosophical truth in the struggle between life and death, war and peace. A tear shed in sympathy and love, the prayer made in sincerity and the dying sigh of the Martyr are all weapons connected with God as the “Angel King” and the “Almightie.” These arms stemmed from God as the creative force are by far more superior to the physical death-dealing weapons of war. Hence, Blake is stating that war is not the solution, it does not resolve anything but instead is the harbinger of greater oppression and turmoil. Intellect and reason are the only tools to bring about justice and peace.

The poem ends with Blake’s view of the legacy of the Revolution. The oppressed masses, having arisen as the “hand of Vengeance,” sought to avenge the injustices of the French absolute monarchy. King Louis XVI, as the “Purple Tyrant,” had tried to flee once he was deposed but the “iron hand” of justice had found him and “crushed his head.” The King was guillotined, but after his execution, followed the Reign of Terror when many were massacred, tortured and executed, with prominent men of the Revolution engaged in a power struggle. Therefore, the Revolution that had sought to achieve equality, liberty and fraternity for mankind had conversely brought about death, persecution and war – “And became a Tyrant in his stead.” On the biblical level, the “Purple Tyrant” can be equated with the serpent, whose head could be crushed by the seed of woman. The monarchy then was associated with Satan and evil. Yet a question is posed now, as to how the Revolution can be compared with this biblical symbol, when it also has established itself as another Tyrant, that is, another Satan.

In these poems, Blake has, in establishing the general psyche of the masses and the human psyche of an individual (the persona in “London” and the Monk), commented on the developments of society at the time. Both revealed the oppression and alienation of the people as important issues in the historical context. The poet had lived in a time of gargantuan changes where the rise of science and rational thought had spawned the Industrial Revolution, which disenfranchised the poorer classes. Not only have these people been socially and economically inhibited, they have also been spiritually restrained by the Church that had corrupted the Christian message. In addition, the French Revolution, though initially supported by the people, now perpetuated strife and death. Blake deplored the great suffering of the people and through “London” and “The Grey Monk” has demonstrated these dark elements of society in order to reform it.