Discrimination Against The Poor and The Impacts On Children

in the Poem “ London (1794)” Written by William Blake

Submitted as Mid-term Test Assignment in subject:

Literary Criticism

By:

Ghamamatul Adi Saputra

30801600258

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SCIENCE

SULTAN AGUNG ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

2018
 Discrimination Against The Poor and The Impacts
On Children in the Poem “ London (1794)”
Written by William Blake

Opening
Do you know oppression? Oppression is a form of human nature that is
inappropriate for every human being to imitate. This behavior can be a habit and
imbalance of social or physical power. This can be done manually, physically or
forcefully and can be used repeatedly against victims, perhaps on the basis of race,
religion, gender or ability. As we know, it still happens in various walks of life. Both
in the school environment and in the general public. Not only in Indonesia and even
abroad there are still many oppressive behaviors that occur. . In all of place,
sociologists rightly retain a special claim to illuminating processes of group
boundary maintenance, systems of racial inequality and supporting ideologies,
and attendant patterns of intergroup behavior (Lawrence 2).
On this occasion I will further analyze what oppression in the poem "London
(1794) William Blake" is. The poem has a bleak, terrible tone, and reflects Blake's
unhappiness and dissatisfaction with his life in London. Blake described the
troublesome socio-economic and moral decay in London and the extraordinary sense
of despair of the population.
Review Of Related Literature.
-interpretation
In the poem "London (1794)" writer William Blake. Explain a condition of a
person who is in self-deterioration because of the people around him who are always
afraid of listening to the cries or cries of children. Also explained is how the workers
always cry in doing their work. Many women became widows, because the soldiers /
men who were always mostly dead and their blood flowing on the walls of the elite
behind the scenes toying with the social conditions of the oppressed people in Blake's
time. Many women become prostitutes at night. Women who make prostitutes as
their work always condemn their newborn babies in the world. And they made
marriage the beginning of the misery in this world during Blake's time.
In the 1 and 2 lines in the poem explaining how someone walks in the city he
always sees someone who is weak. And then in lines three and four explain how the
look on a person's face seen along the way illustrates a disappointment, oppression,
and deterioration of a person. And here the reader must understand the economic
point of view that is clearly so very different from the poor and rich. So where the
poor always need mercy on the rich, even though they know it will be used by the
rich if they follow it. Where the rich become increasingly rich and the poor will
always follow the words of the rich.

In every scream of every Man who is afraid of misery in life, they try to rise in
adversity. But the results they can still get the same discrimination against the rich
around them. In every baby crying in fear, their parents realize how hard life is in
poverty and always get oppression, misery in the darkness of life in the city. This
explanation is explained in lines 5 and 6.

Lines 9 to 12. The speaker reflects and emphasizes how the rich or elite use the poor.
During Blake's time, a lot of money went into the church while children were dying
in poverty. Forced to sweep the chimney. This explanation illustrates a hypocrisy that
occurred in the Church and enslaved children as a tool for the work of the rich.
Nobles or rich people are held responsible for the war that broke out, which caused
the deaths of many innocent people and soldiers. Therefore, many women become
widows. And without anyone supporting them, many families starved at that time.
In the last verse line 13 to 16. Midnight road is a reference directly to the
place of prostitution or the red district area. Here, the speaker pondered about how the
curses of young prostitutes refer to his child born out of wedlock. In the last line of
poetry describes the destruction of women at marriage. Men use prostitutes who are
most likely children to do dirty work because of need, impregnate them and then
possibly spread the disease to their wives. This last line explains the theme of moral
decay of society.

-Theory
The writing, according thought, is the second metaphysic which is both
phonetical and alphabetical. The writing which has some advantages and
disadvantages is also a way that is applied in expressing a thought or a manner when
it cannot be uttered. In this sense the writing is perhaps an alternative for the saying;
and not the saying but the
writing deserves the priority in the expression or the language.
Derrida claims that the writing is prior, not the speech. He states that the
writing opens the history and the historical existence. He suggests that the source of
the language and the source of the writing cannot be separated from each other.
(Derrida 8)
The meaning needs the writing to live on. If the writing is
primary for the meaning, the writing always tells us that the existence has
already started. in the other hand even can be different ways to getor understand the
meaning of literary works, does no means that the reader can give a totality different
interpratation.
When someone reads or understands a poem, they are just writing in a new context,
and thus producing a new meaning for the understanding of the reader.

Analysis
In this poem, it explains the oppression of the poor by nobles or elites. Starting from
line 3 of poetry “And mark in every face I meet “. It mean, Blake is suggesting that
everyone is without power and in misery, a powerful statement indeed. The term
mark can be a metaphor for a brand, as if these people don’t like look tired, but are
branded with this look to show their place in society. this research is more consistent
with social psychological studies that suggest targets of discrimination often
underestimate the significance of discrimination in their own lives, even as they
recognize it as a problem facing their group (Devah 8).
And then in another line, line 9 “How the Chimney-sweepers cry” it mean but
also connection between the cries of children made to sweep chimneys and therefore
from the rooftop, and church bells which ring out is striking. Blake saw religion as a
tool to keep the people down and therefore was wrong.
Next in the line 14 “How the youthful Harlots curse “ prostitutes or low class
women. Blake is corrupting the idea of childbirth with sexual exploitation and hate
'curse' . the new born into a broken world.
What is also worth noting about London is the fact that are all concerned
about trying to vocalise something. 'London' is a decidedly oral poem, but it is
concerned with voicelessness rather than the voice. Blake may mention 'every voice',
but we never hear anyone's voice utter anything specific. The mouth is used for "cry",
"sigh", and "curse", but never to utter any meaningful objections or opposition to the
"manacles" that keep Londoners in their psychological chains. (The mind is a
breathtaking and 'sigh' running in blood down the Palace walls, is the best thing Blake
ever wrote.) Even the baby harlot is 'infant' - literally, someone is unable to speak,
from the Latin infans. But Blake, through writing like London, could give voice to
voiceless or rather, his voice to their voicelessness, to suggest that such misery goes
beyond words, at least for those suffering London’s hardships.
Told about the situation of women - women who are generally middle to lower class
money is constrained by the presence of men. At that time many women had losing
his job because of the influence of the industrial revolution in England. Women's life
at that time was very alarming. In the poem implied and him the lock is covered with
gray despair which describes the situation of women at the time It was so alarming
that they felt the despair of life. The impact of the work of the women - the women
ran a lot become prostitutes to fulfill their needs, or many who are become a mistress
of noble men. This makes it adding to the social shift in Britain and also reflecting the
moral decline of the British. At that time women also experienced a lot things that
made him suffer even more because of the impact of the industrial revolution. They
work hard to make ends meet. Not just working on in the house to take care of the
household and family, he also had to work at outside the home to make a living.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the oppression carried out by someone against a weak person
will have an impact where that period cannot be forgotten. Therefore events that are
based on the desire for wealth will result in a group or someone who will surely be
oppressed. So the conclusion is that a good society can tolerate between religions.
 References
Derrida. Deconstruction. International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425, Vol.
6, No. 2.2014.
Devah Pager. Identifying Discrimination at Work: The Use of Field Experiment.
Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 68, No. 2, pp. 221—237. 2012.
Lawrence D. Bobo. Race, Racism, and Discrimination: Bridging Problems, Methods,
and Theory in Social Psychological Researc. Social Psychology Quarterly,
Vol. 66, No. 4,319-332. 2003.