William Blake: A Marxist Before Marxism

In his poem, "The Chimney Sweeper", William Blake displays the despondent urban life of a young chimney sweeper during the coming of the industrial revolution in order to emphasize the theme of innocence through Marxism and to inform people of the harsh working conditions during the times of child labor promoting political reform. William Blake was born in London on November 28, 1757, to James and Catherine Blake. From early childhood, Blake spoke of having visions. He learned to read and write at home. Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. One of Blake's assignments as apprentice was to sketch the tombs at Westminster Abbey, exposing him to a variety of Gothic styles from which he would draw inspiration throughout his career. After his seven-year term ended, he studied briefly at the Royal Academy. He married an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher. Blake taught her to read and to write, and also instructed her in draftsmanship. Later, she helped him print the illuminated poetry for which he is remembered today. Reviewers criticized his physical representation of spiritual happenings and supposed visions as a part of theological insolence, Blake's love for creativity and imagination updates his conception of a personal cosmology that supports both his lyric and visionary poetry. Blake's poetry reflected early proclamations of Marxist topics even though Marxism had not even been documented as a theory.

In order to present the theme of innocence throughout the poem, the rhyming pattern of this poem is maintained in quatrain form allowing it to create a mood of innocence with the rhythm of a child-like song. Because the poem is being told from a child's perspective, Blake's diction remains rudimentary using words like "weep" (Blake) displaying the literary element known as onomatopoeia to convey a mood of unhappiness, and at the same time, bring sympathy to the reader informing them of the harsh realities of child labor. During the latter part of the 18th century and early 19th century, owners of cotton mills collected orphans and children of poor parents throughout the country, obtaining their services merely for the cost of maintaining them. In some cases children five and six years of age were forced to work from 13 to 16 hours a day. A Royal Commission investigated how children from the bottom of the social class ladder were forced to work in mines and collieries. The commission discovered that children began working in their very early years of life; however, most children began working at the ages of 5 and 7. The coal burning chimneys were so small that only young children could fit inside them. Starting around 5 years old, they had to learn to knee and elbow their way up the insides of these chimneys, always sore and bleeding until they formed protective callouses. Their heads were shaved to make it easier to get up and down, but many still got stuck and suffocated. They were even sent up lighted chimneys. By the time they were 12 or so they were useless to the master and to anyone else. Occupational hazards were bone-softening diseases, bowlegs from malnutrition and carrying heavy bags, and cancer of the scrotum. Many children were often critically injured, contaminated with serious illnesses or diseases and, in some cases, some children even experienced fatalities. These children suffered "twisted spines and kneecaps, deformed ankles, eye inflammations and respiratory illnesses, and were only allowed to bathe a few times a year". ("Factories and Mines: Report on Child Labor, 1843") An ailment known as "chimney sweep's cancer" commonly appeared on the scrotum from the constant irritation of the soot on their naked bodies. The commission also found that many children were even employed or forced into labor by their parents in an attempt to increase annual family income. Because the wages given to the children was not as much as that given to the other workers, many factories often extended their work days surpassing those of the regular employees. Consequently, many children were pushed away from education and forced into labor. Blake's poem accentuated this issue using many literary elements in order to signify the need for political reform.

His shift from dark imagery to light imagery develops a connection between the boy's seemingly imprisonment to the hopes of freedom assimilating the thought of death as the only known form of emancipation and escape. Blake's description of the dream is, in itself, symbolism for false hope, and the angelic character stands as an allusion to heaven or God which keeps the young boy's spirit alive. The ignorance of the boy's childhood does not allow him to recognize his own situation; therefore, he becomes unable to pursue a better future. In the second poem of "The Chimney Sweeper", Blake's rhyme scheme, diction, and imagery help to convey that the speaker in both poems is the same. Blake begins his first stanza in the same manner using the same form as the first poem, but as he continues his writing, Blake reveals a more complex rhyme scheme displaying the development and maturity of the child as compared to in the first. Now the child recognizes his position and has developed his own emotions toward the situation he is in. About the time Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" was being written, a law was debated in Parliament (it passed but was never enforced) that was supposed to curb the horrible exploitation of "climbing boys" by their masters, who pocketed the fees for their labor but kept them in rags, half-starved, perpetually unwashed, barefoot year-around, with no place to sleep except on top of their soot bags. Still many were kept as laborers working past the ages of fourteen up until even the age of eighteen. "Many old enough to know their situation, would often run away from home . . . " (Zimmer).

During the time this poem was written, the theory of Marxism had not even been distinguished as a theory. In their writings and work Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed the critical theory of Marxism. This theory required the working class to revolutionize their lives in opposing the bourgeoisie who have confined them in their own factories under harsh laboring conditions. Other various sustaining speculations were brought upon emphasizing the disadvantages of a capitalist system. Because they offer the people more services and attempt to balance the population, socialism and communism are seen as an instrument of progress. One must seek "repressed conditions of exploitation and oppression" when analyzing from a Marxist point of view. However, the illustration of conflict within social classes is the basis of Marxism.

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