Poetry:The Tiger

The Tiger

By William Blake

1757-1827

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TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

HT:Question

Because Mrs. Sparsit’s metaphorical staircase most likely represents societal accomplishment and we’ve seen Louisa “fall” from it, is it possible Dickens wants to prove that in society during this time period often times the villains would triumph over the good? If this is true, was this triumph for the bad hearted only a result of how harsh the social expectations in Coketown were?

HT:Analysis

Throughout both book one and book two the audience gets to know Mrs. Sparsit and her unrelenting nature to make her hierarchy known. It is ironic in itself that Mrs. Sparsit comes from a wealthy aristocratic family but finds herself working as a housekeeper for somebody else because of the hard times. However, as book two continues we see her grow to have feelings for Mr. Bounderby and resent Louisa because of her relationship with Hearthouse. In book two, chapter ten, Mrs. Sparsit’s staircase, we see Dickens satirizing greed and snobbery through Mrs. Sparsit’s detestation towards Louisa described through a metaphorical staircase in which she sees Louisa traveling downwards on and eventually falling off. “Much watching of Louisa, and much consequent observation of her impenetrable demeanor, which keenly wetted and sharpened Mrs. Sparsit’s edge”(195) This wetting and sharpening of Mrs. Sparsit’s edge only further proves her distain and envy towards Louisa and her “impenetrable demeanor” Mrs. Sparsit goes on, “She erected in her mind a mighty staircase, with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom, and down those stairs, from day to day, hour to hour, she saw Louisa coming. It became the business of Mrs. Sparsit’s life, to look up at her staircase, and to watch Louisa coming down.” (196) Dickens uses Mrs. Sparsit’s jealousy of Louisa, a girl who is technically socially below the significant family Mrs. Sparsit comes from, to comment on the greed developed by her throughout book two. “to look up at her staircase, and to watch Louisa coming down.” The fact that the metaphorical staircase was referred to as “hers”, belonging to Mrs. Sparsit, this only proves that she wants the life Louisa is living for herself so she is consequently watching, you could even say enjoying, Louisa’s downfall from her societal place. Chapter ten concludes with this passage, “Hushed in expectancy, she kept her wary gaze upon the stairs; and seldom so much as darkly shook her right mitten (with her fist in it), at the figure coming down.”(199) To solidify the satirical commentary Dickens is making he ends the passage with a final moment of Mrs. Sparsit, a supposedly high class woman, waiting for Louisa to fall from her social rankings only to act with greed and out of envy so she can take Louisa’s place.

HT:Appreciation

 Nor could any such spectator fail to know in his own breast, that these men, through their very delusions, showed great qualities, susceptible of being turned to the happiest and best account; and that to pretend (on the strength of sweeping axioms, howsoever cut and dried) that they went astray wholly without cause, and of their own irrational wills, was to pretend that there could be smoke without fire, death without birth, harvest without seed, anything or everything produced from nothing(138)

HT: Appreciation

There was an air of jaded sullenness in them both, and particularly in the girl: yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression. Not with the brightness natural to cheerful youth, but with uncertain, eager, doubtful flashes, which had something painful in them, analogous to the changes on a blind face groping its way. She was a child now, of fifteen or sixteen; but at no distant day would seem to become a woman all at once. (19)

HT:Qustion

How does Dickens use Bounderby's character to criticize the society? What does he represent and what does the final revelation of his true upbringing reveal about Dickens' critique?

HT:Reference

The Importance of Being Earnest not only shares the purpose of satirizing Victorian Era life, but it also shares common thematic messages. In Importance, Wilde explores marriage and society’s pressures regarding marriage. Gwendelon’s courtship, or at least the advice given to her by Lady Bracknell who reflects the societal beliefs at the time,  parallels Louisa’s marriage to Bounderby. Marriage here is used as a vehicle for social mobility which is a trend seen in Importance. Louisa finds herself pressured to marry Bounderby by Tom and her father who are motivated both by Bounderby’s wealth and nature. Importance also satirizes the Victorian Era’s strict societal code of behavior. This is similar to Hard Times’s commentary on a fact-driven society, void of fancy in that both societal codes promote strict societal adherence which is demonstrated in the pronounced segmentation of social classes in Hard Times.