The Voice of Female Characters in William Blake's Poetry : The Book of Thel and Visions of the Daughters of Albion

The Voice of Female Characters in William Blake's Poetry : The Book of Thel and Visions of the Daughters of Albion

One problem with reading English Romanticism is that too much emphasis is given on male-oriented views while ignoring the women's voice in the text. The ideas of British Romanticism should be reconsidered including women's voices. Blake was more self-consciously aware of the gender-exclusiveness of his revolutionary program. Most male radicals had little time for thinking seriously about this problem. However, Blake does attempt to find space for the women's voice. Blake is confronted with a stark image of women's dismal fate when hostile patriarchal and overtly sexist forces clash. One of his prophetic poems, Europe, is Blake's response to this situation in which women function as significant agents of the revolutionary spirit. Thel and Oothoon clearly show the internal conflicts involved in 'being a woman,' which have been largely ignored by male speakers in a male-dominated society. As the episode of Thel and Oothoon shows, Blake rarely deals with mature adult love, and his male characters are incapable of mature love. Blake's prophetic poems are predominant in describing honest female sexual desires and criticizing sexual oppression. Blake's female characters, however, call the legitimacy of patriarchy into question by pursuing their own sense of self-worth: Oothoon of Visions of Daughters of Albion and Thel of The Book of Thel. Oothoon's protesting voice in Visions of Daughters of Albion redefines femininity by pronouncing her as an independent being. Blake anticipated the liberation of women from sexual repression and patriarchal tyranny in spite of his culture's denigration of the feminine gender. My point is that Blake's expression of women's voice is an aspect of radicals. Blake believed that a utopia would be built when women freely and equally participate in a new world beyond masculine centered society.