Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Summary of Europe: A Prophecy by William Blake Part 1

The prophecy was written in two parts a preludium then the prophecy. After analyzing the preludium I came to the conclusion that it doesn't sound like it should connect to the prophecy. The preludium sounded like it completely changed halfway through and I don't know why Blake did that, it made me really confused and I ended up with a lot of questions. I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this prophecy, but it definitely wasn't talking fairy's. What I understood from the preludium was how the cave man connected to nature. Demonstrating how man used to be before colonization and the existence of material things. He was amazed by a singing "Fairy" showing how open minded people were before society formed prejudice. The "Fairy" dictates EUROPE while the cave man writes it down. I wonder why Blake made the “Fairy” speak and dictate the prophecy, also why he had to put a “Fairy” in there and not something else.

A nameless shadowy female comes into the story. She starts complaining about being brought to life in this world with other people, because she feels like "Mother Enitharmon" is going to forget about her. “Mother Enitharmon” represents God or some higher power. The nameless female brings evil to the world shown by “all-devouring fiery kings”. They bring horrible terrors to the world devouring everything. Then she realizes what she did was wrong and asks "Mother Enitharmon" for forgiveness and to stomp the evil kings and take them away. By asking for forgiveness it shows that everybody has a good side and everyone has a choice, most of the time its our experiences that make the choices for us. Once “Mother Enitharmon” sees that she is genuinely sorry and really regrets what she did, she pardons her. The shadowy female dies in peace after being forgiven.

I was confused about what this shadowy female had to do with anything and why she had to be a “nameless shadowy female”. Did Blake make her nameless and shadowy so that it would be easier to visualize her as a bad person? Or a person who made a mistake and wanted to take back what they did?

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