volume 2.1, 2001
Nancy Comorau - The Harlot's Curse: A Study of William Blake's Gender Politics in The Songs of Innocence and Experience
Most critical work on gender issues in William Blake's poetry focuses on his sexual progressivism and visions of androgyny in his later works. Searching for studies on this topic in Songs of Innocence and Experience can be a near fruitless task. On the surface, the cycle of poems seems to eschew issues of gender in favor of Blake's more prevalent interests in concepts of Innocence and Experience. In fact, the roles of women and men in the Songs of Innocence and Experience represent the status quo. There are times, as when he comments upon repression of female sexuality in "A Little Girl Lost," that Blake may seem progressive in the Songs. But with further scrutiny, the reader finds questions of female sexuality subsumed by the greater problem of a generally repressive society. Gender does not seem Blake's primary concern and any progressive notions of sexuality have not yet surfaced.
I contend that far from demonstrating an idea of progressiveness in the Songs, Blake traces the poems neatly along previously drawn gender lines. Susan Fox seems to agree with this, calling the sexual role divisions of the Songs "stereotypic." Fox does not, however, assign Blake much blame for his conventionality. She absolves him of agency, claiming that his stereotypes, "whatever their social and philosophical implications, are surely the automatic responses of a wary observer of human relations" (511). But I would argue that Blake takes a more active role in his conventionality, evidenced in the roles of women in the poems. Furthermore, I would argue that Blake's treatment of the Harlot in "London" demonstrates a serious anxiety about women whom he cannot fit into traditional roles.
In general, the women of the Songs lack agency, power, and effectiveness. Though at times females, in the form of "little girls," figure as the subject of a song, not one of the songs has a definitive female speaker. Neither mothers nor daughters communicate directly with the reader. In contrast, the male figures operate as both subjects and speakers of poems. Within their narratives, the daughters remain passive, merely reacting to or being acted upon by the male figures of the Songs. The mothers are not just passive but helpless, with nothing to offer their children but fleeting moments of comfort in their unfortunate lives.
The Harlot of "London" is the only woman of the Songs that does not fit this pattern. Though the Harlot does not act as the speaker of her poem, she does find a voice, unlike the other women of the Songs. And perhaps most importantly, unlike the other women of the Songs, the Harlot takes action, using her own voice to "blast" a "curse" at the infant of "London." With her curse she takes on "London's" one dual role as both victim and victimizer. Consequently, she distinguishes herself not only from the other women of the Songs, but also from the other victims in "London." With the curse, and the implied role of victimizer that goes along with it, she takes on a share of the guilt imparted on society by both the speaker of the poem and, I would argue, Blake himself.
It is not simply the Harlot's use of language, but the type of language she finds--a curse--that marks her for censure. Also vital are key words that Blake utilizes in conjuntion with the Harlot. The language Blake employs in "London," specifically the key words "ban," "mark," and "charter'd," is unique in the Songs, a work characterized by repetition, making this lyric stand from the rest of the collection. Each of these words functions in connection to the Harlot, distinguishing her from the other victims of "London" and other women of the Songs. These words, coupled with the Harlot's unprecedented act of cursing, impart upon her the brunt of the poem's censure.
Although Blake is often touted as progressive in the field of gender politics, Anne Mellor argues differently in her study of "Gender in Masculine Romanticism." She contends that despite Blake's explorations of androgyny and liberal view of sexuality, he "shared his culture's denigration of the feminine gender [. . . .] Blake consistently portrayed the female [. . .] as secondary to the male" (22). The Songs emphatically fit this pattern. Men dominate the realm, appearing more frequently and acting in a wider range of capacities than women. Along with the power of speaking for themselves, male figures on the poems have the power of mobility, existing both in relation to and outside the domestic structure. The Harlot is the only female in the Songs who has a similar mobility. Men appear as children and adults, beadles and priests, victims and victimizers.
In contrast, nearly all of the women of the Songs function solely in relation to the patriarchal family structure, fulfilling the roles of mothers, daughters, and caregivers (the nurses). Aside from the Harlot, the women in the songs fit traditionally into relationships with the patriarchal family. The Harlot functions in the margins of familial relations. Prostitutes promote the double standard of sexuality, offering men a chance to gain sexual experiences before marriage without tainting 'respectable' women. Simultaneously, by connecting sex wth commerce, prostitution brings female sexuality to the forefront, disallowing the very concept of women's sex lives to be denied. Thus the Harlot plays a dual role, challenging traditional gender roles, while reinforcing them. She exists both in relation to the domestic structure and in direct opposition to it.
In the Songs, the word "man" appears five times, "men" four. There are numerous poems about little boys and countless fathers. Blake, however, uses the word "woman" only once, in "The Little Girl Found." But as woman she is not the subject of the poem. Nor does she function autonomously; she exists in relation to the lost girl, fulfilling the role of mother. The adult women who serve as the subjects of the Songs are nurses responsible for taking care of children: substitute mothers. Motherhood remains the dominant role for women in the Songs. Mothers also find their way into the Songs under the collective term "parents." The female characters in the Songs (with the exception of the Harlot) that do not serve as caretakers of children are labeled "little girls." Within their songs, the little girls do not appear without parents. Thus the women of the Songs, save one, are defined relative to the family structure, either as mothers or daughters.
Though men in general figure much more predominantly in the Songs than women, mothers and fathers receive almost equal representation. In Susan Fox's study "The Female as Metaphor in William Blake's Poetry," she finds that in the Songs, "the positive internal powers of the realm are female [. . . .] male adults are either helpless (weeping fathers) or pernicious (beadles with disciplinary wands and fathers who sell their children)--just as the female adults are in the fallen states" (Fox 509). While noxious and overbearing fathers abound in the Songs, mothers do not go without blame. In "The Chimney Sweeper" of Experience, the speaker asks the boy where both his mother and father have gone. The boy replies that "they" have wrapped him in "clothes of death" and taught him "to sing notes of woe" (lines 7-8). Not just the father, but both parents have abandoned him for the church, "thinking they have done [him] no injury" (10). Mother and father have deserted the boy to pray; they share equally the burden of guilt. There is no mention in the Songs of a father singularly causing physical harm to his children. There is however, dame Lurch in "the Little Vagabond" the caretaker (it remains unclear if she is a mother, nurse, or perhaps schoolteacher) who needs to give up the "birch" (11). The woman who does the most damage to children is the Harlot, blighting the infant, representative of the new generation, with her curse.
Pernicious fathers may then find pernicious mothers to match them, at least on occasion, in the world of the Songs. But the fathers whom Fox deems helpless are not nearly as prevalent as helpless mothers. In support of her claim that he female forces of the realm are positive, Fox states: "the little boy lost by his father is found by his mother, other mothers and nurses protect children from darkness and grief" (509). But the boy in "The Little Boy Found" is not found by his mother. His mother has the boy returned to her by God, who appears, "like a father in white" (4). Though "thro' the lonely dale" she "sought" her little boy, she does not have the power to bring him home. (7-8) Nor does the poem offer evidence of her comforting him once she is returned. Lyca's mother from "The Little Girl Lost" acts similarly; she attempts to find her daughter but, overcome by despair and exhaustion, she collapses into husband's arms. Again a male force, the "kingly lion," reunites mother and child and the "female forces" that Fox alludes to remain ineffectual.
Unlike the previous two, the mother of "The Little Black Boy" manages somehow to hold on to her child. Much more active than the other others in the Songs, she teachers her boy under the tree; she kisses him and (her son tells the reader) she provides him with words of comfort. She cannot, however, keep him from being "black," the fact of which brings the boy his greatest sorrow. Nor can she offer him relief from his cloud or the reunion he desires with the English boy. Though the Black Boy's mother provides the reader with the strongest positive image of motherhood in the Songs, she is ultimately impotent. Blake portrays the reunions of lost children and their mothers as joyous occasions. But mothers do not demonstrate any power to make the domestic realm a safe place, separate from the cruel world outside the home. Trapped within a domestic sphere over which they have no control, mothers have nothing to offer their children aside from requisite compassion.
Aside from the Harlot, the females of the Songs whom Blake does not relegate to the role of caretaker fall under the title "little girls." Although the little girls, unlike their mothers, can be differentiated form each other as distinct characters, they share a number of traits. As with little boys and (young male) chimneysweeps, Blake devotes entire poems to little girls. In contrast to their male counterparts, however, the little girls do not take on their role of the speaker in their poems. Like the mother of the little black boy, the girls who do have the capacity for speech may not use their own voices. Instead, the few words they have are relayed for them by the (presumably male) speakers of their songs.
After three songs about boys ("The Little Black Boy," "Little Boy Lost," "Little Boy Found"), Blake introduces the three little girls in "Laughing Song." "Mary and Susan and Emily" of "Laughing Song" have no dialogue with the reader like the lost boy and the black boy do; they can but "with their sweet round mouths sing Ha, Ha, He," making them nearly indistinguishable from the laughing chorus of nature. (7-8) The first individual "little girl" of the Songs appears shortly thereafter in "Spring," accompanied by another little boy. In the second stanza, Blake characterizes the little boy as "full of joy" and the little girl as "sweet and small" (10-13). Blake imbues the boy with emotion, but the girl is merely described by her appearance. The speaker of the poem thus reduces the female to the (visually) descriptive, thereby constraining her within the male gaze. This trend continues with the 'little girls' Lyca and Ona of "The Little Girl Lost," "The Little Girl Found," and "A Little Girl Lost," the three poems that focus on little girls.
"The Little Girl Lost," "The Little Girl Found," and "A Little Girl Lost" are all found in Experience. These songs concern sexuality-a quality not attributed to the mother figures in the Songs. To Blake's credit, these poems offer a progressive view of female sexuality. He does not define the young women by their virginity, but instead offers them at least the consideration of sexual freedom. In "A Little Girl Lost," Blake places himself in direct opposition to the patriarchal obsession with chastity, denouncing it for its oppressive nature. Blake does not, however, offer Ona, the poem's subject, any agency. Thus the song itself becomes oppressive, holding Ona's sexual freedom firmly within the grasp of the speaker. The script of the poem portrays Ona as completely passive in the face of patriarchy. After her affair she comes to her father, but stands mute in his presence. She does not even tremble of her own power; it is her father's "loving look" that "all her tender limbs with terror shook" (27-29). Near the end of the poem the speaker calls for Ona to defend herself, but he does not give her the opportunity. Instead of leaving room for Ona's voice, the last stanza focuses on the effect Ona's repression has on the speaker, making him and his reactions the true subject of the poem.
The case of Lyca, the subject of "The Little Girl Lost" and "the Little Girl Found," is a bit more complex. Lyca begins lost, like Ona. However, unlike Ona, in her second song, Lyca is found. Nonetheless, Lyca remains, like Ona, completely passive. Unlike Ona, Lyca does speak, but she does not do so directly. The reader hears Lyca's words through the speaker's narrative, instead of in her own voice. Like the unnamed little girl in "Spring," the beasts of the forest appropriate Lyca with their gaze: "the beasts of prey / Come from caverns deep, / View'd the maid asleep," then, "The kingly lion stood / And the virgin view'd" (34-38). From this point on Lyca does not act; she is merely acted upon. And as with the final stanza of a "A Little Girl Lost," the end of the poem shifts its focus from Lyca herself to the actions and reactions of her parents and the beasts surrounding her. This shift contrasts the "little black boy" who uses the final stanza to speak, and the "little boy lost" who weeps in the final stanza of his song.
In her study of Lyca's songs, Norma Greco claims that Lyca "achieves an expansive and creative self" at the end of them poem, locating her at the threshold, "ready to make her way out of Experience" (147). If this is Blake's intent, he does not succeed. Lyca may not achieve a self, especially one that has the power to expand and create, without action. And though she may be ready to enter a world beyond Experience, her passivity evidenced by the text suggests that at least while she is still in the world of the Songs, she will not be able to take the step forward.
Lyca and Ona share the distinction of names, but both lack the agency that comes with speaking. As they are circumscribed within their poems, the adult females in the realm of the Songs are bound within the domestic sphere. The Harlot of "London," however, breaks free from this mold. Instead of being described by physical appearance, like the other women of the Songs, the Harlot is defined by her action: working as a prostitute. She may lay claim to the (perhaps dubious) distinction of being characterized by her profession outside the home. Her unequalled position, functioning both in response to and outside of the patriarchal family, provides the reader with a unique example of womanhood in the Songs. The Harlot obviously does not repress her sexuality in the face of patriarchy as Ona does. Instead, she trades on it, earning money in the public sphere. The censure that the Harlot receives stems from her unique relation to both commerce and the familial structure.
"London" is the only poem in the Songs to mention prostitution, a widespread problem of eighteenth-century London. With the possible exception of "Holy Thursday," which does not address gender issues, "London" is more deeply rooted in time and place than the rest of the poems of the Songs. In her landmark article on "London," "The Poet in Society," Heather Glen argues that the poem is more than just an image of society as a whole but an important view of the poet in the city. Glen argues that since "London" is about the poet in society, Blake indicts himself along with the institutions the poem condemns. But Glen does not consider who else in the poem receives Blake's censure. I believe that the Harlot of the final stanza bears the brunt of Blake's scorn.
Similarly, Michael Ferber, in "London and its Politics," considers the characters of "London" together as a group of victims: "throughout the poem it is the victims, however woeful and hapless, who are the active ones and the institutions which are passive. The victims, or rather the victims' outcries, do all the work, govern all the verbs" (326). He argues that the poem creates a cycle of victims with the Harlots finally cursing the next generation, thereby bringing the poem full circle: "young victim's sufferings infect other victims and so perpetuate a causal chain" (311). But I find the Harlot distinct from the other victims of the poem for the same reasons she distinguishes herself from the other women in the songs: her agency and her language.
The Harlot does not simply emit cries of sorrow at the woes done to her by the world. Instead, she actively sounds a curse. The other victims have been cursed by society; the Harlot, acting as an individual, victimizes another. Though the Harlot may be a victim like the other, with her curse she injures the infant, bringing upon herself some of Blake's censure. Unlike the other victims who only receive a few lines, or Lyca and Ona who are ultimately subsumed by the thoughts of others, the Harlot holds the final stanza of the poem for herself. The image of the Harlot unites the work. instead of bringing the poem full circle as Ferber suggests, I would argue that she, and her act of cursing specifically, alters gives the poem its definitive ending by offering someone to blame.
One of Glen's main arguments for Blake as the speaker of "London" comes from what she sees as Blake "working upon the language of his group" (3). Michael Ferber too points to language, finding that "sound, syntax, [and] breakdown of stanzas enter fully into the meaning [of the poem]" (311). Thus both critics suggest the language of "London" to be the key to understanding the poem. Ferber notes repetition of words in "London," calling it "almost a theme of the poem" (311). But he fails to mention that repetition characterizes the entire body of songs, not just "London." Blake uses similar characters and titles throughout Innocence and Experience. Not only are many words repeated in specific poems, like "London," but also there is much repetition from song to song. Like the Harlot, a number of words that are vital to the poem make their only appearance of the Songs in "London."
The Harlot is the only woman in the Songs who actively uses her voice. And, like her dual position inside and ouside of the domestic realm, her curse has a dual nature: it is both language and action. The reader hears not her actual words, but her act of saying them: she blasts a curse at the infant. Hers is the only curse in the Songs. The words "ban," "mark," and "charter'd," are also unique to "London." These words are among the most forceful of the poem, and the meanings of these words all intersect in relation to the Harlot, imparting upon her the loudest voice of "London."
In "London" the speaker states that, in the face of all of the other atrocities, what resonates the loudest is "how the youthful Harlots curse / Blasts the new-born Infant's tear / And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." Unlike the other victims of the poem, who are merely hapless or woeful, the Harlot blasts the newborn infant with her curse, making the child the one figure of the poem who is a victim of and individual, not an institution. The Harlot's curse is the only one that sounds in the Songs; its uniqueness within a cycle of repetition further emphasizes its importance.
"Blast," however, appears in "The School Boy," as "Blasts of winter" that will destroy the summer fruit mentioned in an earlier stanza. The OED lists a secondary definition for blast as "a sudden infection, blight," which reinforces the above reading. This definition of blast also reinforces Michael Ferber's tying of "blast" to the verb it parallels, "blight" Ferber reads "blast" in concurrence with "its almost invariable association, in both Blake and the Bible, with disease" (328). Blake's use of the word "plague" in conjunction with the "Marriage hearse," of the next line, strengthens the suggestion of disease. These connections support the oft-cited theory that the curse the Harlot imparts upon the child is venereal disease1. The Harlot's blasting the infant with a curse suggest that Blake imparts guilt upon her for profaning the newborn with both words and illness.
While Ferber's quick look to the Bible for an explanation of "blast" may seem like a bit of a stretch, examining the word "mark" offers the opposite problem: presenting the critic with too many referents. E. P. Thompson questions Harlot Bloom's identification of Ezekiel as the work's (and thus the poem's) primary biblical referent2. Thompson, like Ferber after him, finds the most likely biblical allusion to Revelation (better word and better explain this), linking eighteenth-century London to biblical Babylon. This reading reflects the poem's interest in industry signified by the use of the word "charter'd" which is "clearly a word associated with commerce" (176). With the use of charter, commerce invades the personal; each of the victims of the poem is in some way a victim of commerce. The chimney sweep's cry refers to both his cries of pain and his cries for business. The soldier, like the Harlot, essentially sells himself, being paid to take the lives of others while risking his own. The blackening of the church suggest the institution's guilt, if not in actually employing the young chimney sweeps, then at least in condoning the practice. In the poem, commerce also affects nature, as the Thames is chartered as well, its path both traveled and changed by mercantile traffic.
Thus, it seems that in "London," as in the Babylon of Revelation, "the main abomination here is the buying and selling, the commercialism of the imperial capitals of London and Babylon. London in fact seems closer to the Babylon of Revelation that to the Jerusalem of Ezekiel" (Ferber 318). The reflection upon Babylon, like the existence of the Harlot herself in the poem, connects commerce with sexuality. Thus, the word "mark" leads us to "Harlotry, the synoptic evil of London," which "is Babylon's emblem" (Ferber 318). And the Harlot's profession of connecting sexuality and commerce place her squarely between the words chartered and mark.
Another word unique to "London" is "ban" which offers another direct path from "charter'd" to the Harlot's curse. Thompson notes that "ban" evokes both meanings of execrations (which would tie the word ban literally to the Harlot's curse) and prohibition. He also mentions the banns of marriage, the institution placed in direct relation to the Harlot within the poem. The OED defines ban as both a "public proclamation or edict" connecting the word to the state, which creates laws outlawing or bans placed upon prostitution, and also as "formal ecclesiastical denunciation" as the church would denounce prostitution and excommunicate harlots: "this one word, then, effectively anticipates most of the institutions and the victims of the next stanzas: church, state, marriage (itself a hybrid of church and state); soldier, wedding couple, and Harlot (who utters a curse, and is under a legal and moral ban)" (Ferber 320). While "ban" does perform all of these functions, I believe the word rests most squarely on the shoulders of the Harlot, since she can be located in association with all of these readings.
Once she is connected with the key words "charter," "mark," and "ban," the reader may find reference to the Harlot in nearly every stanza of the song. She becomes not only the voice the speaker hears the most, but also the point at which the entire poem comes together. Initially, the weight of her image may seem to reside in its connection between sexuality and commerce. Thompson notes the importance of "the image of the harlot, whose love is bought and sold, which was necessary to complete 'London' and make it 'shut like a box'" (189). Thompson, however, extends the image beyond the Harlot as an individual to prostitution in general: "hence the harlot is able to unite in a single nexus the imagery of market relations and the image of ideological domination by the agency of a State Church, prostituted to the occasion of temporal power" (192). But in reading the Harlot as the figure who simply completes a cycle, Thompson overlooks the Harlot herself, and her unique and resounding curse.
Heather Glen, in response to the last stanza of "London" contends, "Blake's 'attitude' is irrelevant: the poetry focuses not on his own feelings of outrage, but on what is" (11). I posit that the language of the poem that Blake the poet uses clues the reader in to his personal outrage. By using the strongest words of the poem, the words used to make all of his points, to censure the Harlot, he indicts her specifically. The words Blake employs in this poem are not the only unique feature of "London." The Harlot's language itself is another anomaly in the Songs. The Harlot sets herself apart from the other women of the Songs and the other victims of "London" with the curse that she blasts upon the infant.
The Harlot's act of cursing distinguishes her from all of the other women of the Songs, imbuing her with the faculty of speech, the capacity for anger, and the power to victimize. Michael Ferber considers all of the figures of "London" together as victims of commerce: "sold into slavery as chimney sweepers, impressed into the army or navy for a few shillings or hired for a few hours as harlots" (312) but the Harlot does not fit so neatly into this category. In the first two cases, the voice of the victim is met with an image of an institution to blame. The chimneysweeper's cry is followed by the church blackening, either figuratively from its guilt in condoning the institution or literally from the soot of chimneys which suggests that the church uses chimneysweeps itself. The soldier's sigh is answered by blood running down the palace walls. The poem does not offer the Harlot an institution to help shoulder the blame. Instead, the speaker hears how her curse destroys other institutions: family--blasting the new-born infant's tear--and marriage--blighting with plagues the marriage hearse. Thus while the cry and sigh of chimney sweeper and the soldier demonstrate their dejected states, the Harlot's utterance imparts upon her a portion of the guilt that the church and state bear. Nor does Blake mitigate her participation in the practice of prostitution, as he does with the soldier, describing him as hapless, thereby releasing him from blame in his compliance with armed conflict and imperialist oppression.
Also, Blake offers no mention of others involved in the Harlot's fallen state. Ferber considers the Harlot "hired for a few hours" but Blake mentions neither client nor brothel (as he had the church and palace) to moderate the Harlot's guilt. Thus Blake condemns the Harlot herself, not merely the institution of prostitution and the people who comprise that institution. By selling her body, the Harlot is not simply a victim of circumstance like the other characters in "London," she actively victimizes herself and others. The Harlot bears the brunt of Blake's censure not because she simply marks the point where the victimizing institutions of marriage, commerce, church, and state intersect, but because she subverts the patriarchy by actively converging her female sexuality with male commercial practices.
Glen contends that "'London' shows us what it means to be both at odds with and yet conditioned by one's cultural ethos" (4). The Harlot is the only woman of the Songs who does not follow traditional patriarchal gender roles. Also, the Harlot exhibits not the passive sexual awakening that Blake portrays positively in Lyca's tale, but a woman taking control of her sexuality and trading on it. As evidenced by Blake's traditional and narrowly drawn roles for women throughout the Songs, Blake has not escaped societally espoused views of women. The Harlot resists conscription within the domestic, answering the condition of the patriarchal family from a position of opposition to it. Unable to classify her in a traditional female role, Blake indicts her--condemning her first and foremost in "London."
Notes
1 Ferber offers a fairly comprehensive discussion of this on pages 328-330.
2 "And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof" (9:3-4) See Ferber 180-183.
Villanova University, PA
© Nancy Comorau, 2001
Works Cited
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence an Experience. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Ed. David V. Erdman. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Ferber, Michael. "London and Its Politics." ELH 48 (1981): 310-338.
Fox, Susan. "The Female as Metaphor in William Blake's Poetry." Critical Inquiry 3 (1977): 507-519.
Glen, Heather. "The Poet in Society: Blake and Wordsworth on 'London.'" Literature and History 1.3 (1976): 2-28.
Greco, Norma. "Blake's 'The Little Girl Lost': An Initiation into Womanhood." Colby Library Quarterly 19 (1983): 144-155.
Mellor, Anne K. Romanticism and Gender. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Thompson, E.P. Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law. New York: New Press, 1993.