para 2

Question 1

how does Blake criticise the complacent attitude of British institution?

Answer 1

-through the imagery of suffering and despair

Question 2

why does the tone of anger and condemnation intensify?

Answer 2

-intensifies with Blakes example of the impotence that moral authority had towards ‘chimney sweepers’ who ‘cry’

Question 3

until chimney sweepers act of 1834, what was not effective?

Answer 3

-there was no effective legislation to protect children from this dangerous work and Blake expresses anger at the church in 1790s for not being ‘appalled’ by this child labour

Question 4

ironically while preaching charity what would the church do?

Answer 4

• would allow employment of innocent, underprivileged children as chimney sweepers, treating them very much like slaves
• this is an economic oppression that robs children of their childhood, forcing them into the adult world of work and imposing severe health problems

Question 5

what did Blake hold the belief of?

Answer 5

-that people are born with everything they need to live a happy, joyful and spiritually fulfilled life, but the adult world of work corrupts them from an early age

Question 6

what does Blake utilise his poem for?

Answer 6

-to take aim at the collective failure to cherish life, exemplifying his anger at the injustice for children being forced into such a perilous condition

Question 7

blakes religious beliefs?

Answer 7

-despite Blake being deeply religious, he was highly critical of organised religion, specifically the church of england, due to his belief that the institution oppressed society

Question 8

what is the ‘chimney sweepers cry’ a disgrace to?

Answer 8

-a disgrace to Christianity that the church of england promulgates, with this woeful cry blaming the church for its blindness to social injustice

Question 9

what does the religious imagery of the ‘blackening church’ refer to?

Answer 9

• metaphorically refers to the churchs reputation being increasingly tarnished by their deliberate lack of reaction to the corrupted society with its subsequent interest in child labour
• or the colour black could simply be a reference to the pollution of an industrialised city, due to the industrial revolution being prevalent at the time