The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is an idea font by the English poet and graphic artist William Blake . It is part of a series of texts that imitate biblical books of revelation, but reflect Blake's own romantic and revolutionary views. Like other works by Blake, it was printed with etched plates containing prose, poetry, and illustrations. The 27 plates were colored by Blake and his wife Catherine Blake .
The work was written between 1790 and 1793, during the restless and conflict-ridden time immediately after the French Revolution. The title is an ironic allusion to Emanuel Swedenborg's theological work De Coelo et eius mirabilibus, et de inferno (German translation: Heaven and Hell ), which was published in 1758. Swedenborg is directly quoted and criticized by Blake in several places. Although Blake was influenced by his mystical views, Swedenborg's conventional morals and his Manichaean ones led himConcept of good and bad to create a deliberately depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos, in which the material world and physical sensuality and pleasure are also part of the divine order, ie a “marriage of heaven and hell”. The book describes a visit by the poet to hell; a remedy that Blake adapted from Dante's Inferno .
content
The work begins with an introductory argument that is written in verse and expresses the conviction that good and bad, reason and energy, are inseparable.
“Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion,
Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to human existence.
From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil.
Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing
from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell. "
“There is no development without opposites. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary for human existence.
From these opposites arises what the believers call good & bad. The passive that obeys reason is good. Evil is the active that springs from energy.
Heaven is good. Evil is hell. "
Swedenborg and the book of Isaiah are mentioned by name in the opening argument. Except for the final chorus a song of freedom (Engl. A Song of Liberty ) has written the rest of the work in prose. It is the close Proverbs of Hell (Engl. Proverbs of Hell ) to, a collection of aphorisms , a critique of religion is at its end. Unlike Milton or Dante, according to Blake's view, hell is not a place of punishment, but a source of unrepressed, Dionysian energy, opposite to the authoritarian and regulated heaven. Blake's intent is to create what he calls “unforgettable imagination” to show readers the oppressive nature of conventional morality and institutional religion .
“The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity;
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood;
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast. "
“The ancient poets animated all things of the sensory perception with gods or spirits, gave them names and equipped them with properties of forests, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, peoples and whatever their extended & numerous senses could perceive.
And in particular they studied the spirit of every city & country which they assigned a place under their respective spiritual deities;
Until a system arose from which some took advantage and enslaved the masses by trying to discern the spiritual deities or to draw them out of their things: so began the priesthood;
Who borrowed their forms of worship from the works of the poets.
And finally they announced that the gods had so ordered.
So people forgot that all gods dwell in the human breast. "
During a visit to a “print shop from hell” Blake learns that diabolical prints are made with caustic substances (so they are etchings). This method helps to “clean the gates of perception”. Blake promises to use this infernal method in his work as soon as he's back on Earth.
The book ends with a series of revolutionary prophecies and exhortations, which escalate into a grim appeal to the various people of the world to break the fetters of the religious and political oppressors. The final chorus, The Song of Liberty , was not originally part of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , but was always published at the end of this work.
Woodcock sees the Song of Liberty as a visionary, political poem that presents all of Blake's own mythology in miniature. The poem ends in summary and culminating with the line: "For everything that lives is Holy." ("Because everything that lives is sacred.")
interpretation
Blake's text has been interpreted in many different ways. It is an integral part of the revolutionary culture of this period.
The references to the print shop could well be an allusion to the radical printers who print revolutionary leaflets underground. Inky black workers were jokingly called "pressure devils" as revolutionary publications were commonly referred to as "the devil's work" by the church.
Much more obvious, however, is Peter Ackroyd's suggestion that Blake is celebrating his own method of printing with an allegorical account of the engraving and creation of copper plates.
The work is also at the forefront of the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung understood because the struggle between an oppressive superego and an amoral It vorzeichne.
Arthur Symons compares Blake and Nietzsche and works out similarities and differences in detail. In the introduction to his book on Blake, he states that Blake anticipates Nietzsche in relation to the most significant pairs of opposites in Nietzsche's philosophy.
Peter Ackroyd sees the work as a celebration of energy, an impulsive virtue and sexuality. In his opinion, Blake established himself here for the first time as an artist prophet.
According to Bruce Woodcock, it is a unique, experimental text that challenges the orthodox categories of morality. The acceptance of differences and individuality is a central idea of the font. It is not about reconciling the contradictions and opposites by merging them into a possible pseudo harmony, but rather a true relationship can only arise between different units that remain themselves.
Influences
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is perhaps the most influential of Blake's works. His idea of dynamic relationships between a stable “heaven” and an energetic “hell” has fascinated theologians , aesthetes and psychologists . Aldous Huxley called one of his most famous works, The Doors of Perception ( The Doors of Perception ), after a phrase from the book ( " If the doors of perception were Cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. " / " If the gates of perception were cleaned, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite. "). The band The Doors in turn named themselves after this title.
Huxley's contemporary CS Lewis wrote The Great Divorce (Engl. The Great Divorce ), a work about the divorce of heaven and hell, in response to Blake's book.
In 1938, shortly before the coffin was closed, the philosopher Georges Bataille placed pages of the text, which he had torn from the Nouvelle Revue Française , on the body of his girlfriend and lover Colette Peignot .
It also inspired many artists and musicians. Worth mentioning is the Norwegian band Ulver , who used it as the lyrical basis for their double album Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , or the Italian rock noir band Belladonna , who also used the book for their song Love Me Till I Die Basis used. The film Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch refers to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , the name of the protagonist, William Blake, even causing another person to consider him an incarnation of the British author.
Individual evidence
- ^ William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , Plate 3 . Translation by Thomas Eichhorn, in William Blake: Between Fire and Fire . Poetic works, bilingual edition, dtv: Munich (1996), p. 215
- ^ William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , Plate 11 . Translation by Thomas Eichhorn, in William Blake: Between Fire and Fire . Poetic works, bilingual edition, dtv: Munich (1996), p. 225
- ^ M. Esther Harding: Introduction , in June K. Singer: The Unholy Bible. A Psychological Interpretation of William Blake , Putnam, New York (1970), pp. Xiii
- ↑ Woodcock's Commentary, Bruce Woodcock (Ed.): The Selected Poems of William Blake . Would. Wordsworth Editions 2000, XXII, ISBN 1-85326-452-0 , p. 224.
- ^ Peter Ackroyd: Blake , London 1995, 1999, Vintage, p. 156.
- ↑ Jerry Caris Godard, Mental forms creating. William Blake anticipates Freud, Jung and Rank , Lanham / New York 1985, passim
- ^ Arthur Symons, William Blake , London 1907.
- ^ Peter Ackroyd: Blake , London 1995, 1999, Vintage, p. 156.
- ↑ Woodcock's Commentary on "The Marriage ...", Bruce Woodcock (Ed.): The Selected Poems of William Blake . Would. Wordsworth Editions 2000, XXII, ISBN 1-85326-452-0 , p. 191.
- ↑ Woodcock's Commentary on "The Marriage ...", Bruce Woodcock (Ed.): The Selected Poems of William Blake . Would. Wordsworth Editions 2000, XXII, ISBN 1-85326-452-0 , p. 193.
- ↑ Marcel Moré: "Georges Bataille" and Laures death. In: Bernd Mattheus (Ed.): Laure (Colette Peignot). Fonts. Matthes & Seitzs Verlag, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-88221-310-8 , pp. 223–227, here p. 225.
literature
- Harold Bloom (Ed.), William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell . Chelsea House Publisher, New York / New Haven / Philadelphia 1987. ISBN 0-87754-729-7
- Jerry Caris Godard, Mental forms creating. William Blake anticipates Freud, Jung and Rank . University Press of America, Lanham / New York 1985. ISBN 0-8191-4831-8
- GR Sabri-Tabrizi, The 'Heaven' and 'Hell' of William Blake . Lawrence and Wishart, London 1973. ISBN 0853152810
- June K. Singer: The Unholy Bible. A Psychological Interpretation of William Blake , Putnam, New York (1970)
- Arthur Symons, William Blake . Constable, London 1907.
Web links
- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (text and pictures of the records)
- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (text and pictures of the records)