Note from Netrunner: Althought this essay appears
to be a comparison of William Blake's The Tyger and The Fly (because that
is what it is), it could hardly be more about Blade Runner if it tried.
While reading, think of it metaphorically referring to Tyrell, Batty,
Deckard and Rachael.
Fearful Symmetry
Supreme Power and Supreme Weakness
in Blake's The Tyger and The Fly
by Patrick Meaney
William Blake's The Tyger, and The Fly both use animal metaphors to discuss
the dual nature of God, and supreme power. The Tyger shows how God can
create a being that is a destructive force, while the fly shows how God
can create a being with virtually no power. Both use literary techniques
to prove their points.
William Blake's The Tyger shows the destructive force of God's creations.
The poem is structured in a series of couplets. Each pair of lines rhymes
with each other. Repetition is also used. The first four lines of the
poem are repeated at the end of it, but slightly altered. This slight
alteration of the speaker's previous logic shows how what he ponders in
the poem has altered his view of the world, and the tyger.
The Tyger itself is the primary symbol within the poem. The purpose of
the poem is to question God, and the creation of this clearly destructive
force. Throughout the poem, the speaker ponders what motive God had in
creating the tyger. The tyger is a symbol of all that is dark and evil
within the world, a physical manifestation of the darker side of nature.
The speaker cannot understand what would possess someone to put something
on the earth that would only cause pain and sorrow.
The speaker uses strong imagery to further elaborate on this theme. He
compares the tyger to a weapon being forged in the fires of hell, with
a furnace and an anvil. He wonders what "could twist the sinews of
thy heart," and "frame thy fearful symmetry." The speaker
clearly views the tyger as something that was made to destroy, not in
heaven, but in the fires of Hell, something that was devoted to pain from
its inception. Blake's fiery imagery proves this.
In the final couplet of the poem, before the repetition, the speaker
juxtaposes the creation of the lamb and the creation of the tyger. There
is a clear difference between the speaker's perception of these two animals.
He views the tyger as a symbol of all that is bad in the world, destruction
and sadness, versus the lamb, who represents life, purity and happiness.
With the juxtaposition of these two things, the speaker once again presents
the central conundrum of the poem, the idea that God could create something
so harmless, and something so harmful at the same time. The lamb is a
representation of life, and the tyger is a representation of death. The
speaker finds it strange that these conflicting things could come from
the same being. It's ironic that the same entity responsible for the genesis
of life is responsible for the genesis of death. This "fearful symmetry,"
the balance between life and death is an essential element for the perpetuation
of life on Earth.
A central irony of the poem is the fact that even as the speaker fears,
and hates the tyger, he sees beauty in him. Symmetry is accepted as the
primary component that makes someone beautiful. The speaker sees the tyger
as an example of "fearful symmetry," or a beauty that is scary,
and disturbing. The tyger, despite being evil, clearly holds some attraction
for the speaker. By presenting the tyger as a beautiful force, the speaker
demonstrates the attractive nature of evil. People are inevitably drawn
to it, even as they are repulsed. He hates the being that created the
tyger, but at the same time is awed by the sheer power of the achievement
of its creation. It's ironic that the speaker discusses the tyger with
hate, but seems to attracted to it, with an almost obsessive nature. He
hates it, but is drawn to it at the same time.
In The Tyger, the speaker uses the tyger as a symbol of evil. He juxtaposes
the dark of the tyger, with the good and pure qualities of the lamb, pondering
the agenda of God in creating both these animals. The speaker also shows
the irony of evil, that while everyone is ostensibly repulsed by it, each
person secretly sees it as an attractive force. He also uses fiery language
to discuss the creation of the tyger.
William Blake's The Fly also talks about God's agenda in creation, but
from a different perspective. Here, he shows man in the position of power,
pondering the implications that the casual destruction of a fly has.
The poem has a very loose structure. There is some rhyme, but no consistent
rhyme scheme. The poem chronicles the thoughts of a man who has just killed
a fly. He ponders the differences between the fly and himself, ultimately
coming to the conclusion that they are extremely similar, both living
out their lives, hoping to avoid death.
The primary literary technique used in the poem is the juxtaposition
of the fly, and the speaker. Throughout the poem, the speaker observes
the fly's situation, and compares it to his own. He sees the fly as powerless,
and utterly disposable at first, only to realize that another class of
being would perceive humans in that same manner. He questions his own
activities, living out his life "till some blind hand shall brush
my wing." The speaker goes on to compare the desires of the fly and
himself, realizing that they are strikingly similar. The speaker's ultimate
conclusion is that he and the fly; are the same, and that he will only
live "Till some blind hand shall brush my wing." Through the
use of juxtaposition, we realize the similarity of the fly and the speaker.
The fly is used in the poem as a symbol of those below the speaker in
society. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker casually brushes him
away, as people are likely to not care about the poor and disadvantaged.
Over the course of the poem, he realizes the danger in destroying things
without fully exploring what they are. The speaker realizes that as easily
as he destroys the fly, something can destroy him, and that there are
those above him who are more powerful. By the end of the poem, he has
realized that he is the fly to someone else, and even the most powerful
person cannot live up to the power of God. The poem's narrative arc shows
the speaker discovering this truth, and accepting it. When he says that
he is a fly, he realizes that like the original fly, to someone else he
is a meaningless thing that can be easily destroyed.
The Fly uses its language to present the speaker in a God like position.
He holds absolute power over the fly to destroy it or to let it live.
He was "thoughtless," and "brushed it away." His choice
has no consequence to him, but to the fly, it is life or death. The speaker
has been put in a God like position, with his ability to make that decision.
The imagery of the first stanza presents this image, but then alters over
the course of the poem. In the second stanza, the speaker realizes how
fragile he must be to another being, and wonders if someone "shall
brush my wing." The language alters to fit the speaker's new perception
of the world. Blake uses language in the poem to portray the switch from
Godlike power, to extreme weakness.
In conclusion, both poems use animal metaphors to discuss the nature
of God, and power. The Tyger addresses the paradoxical fact that God is
responsible for both life and death. He has created the lamb, something
that does not prey on things that are alive. It stays to itself, living
out a harmless life cycle. He has also created the tyger, which preys
on other animals, killing to survive. Very few animals can stand against
it. The speaker is clearly in awe of the tyger. The Fly addresses these
same issues, but from a different point of view. The speaker here is in
the role of the tyger at first. With the opening of the poem, he kills
a fly, with no thought about it. It is instinctive, like the will to live
that drives the tyger's killing. The speaker has seen what it is like
to be God, and have absolute power to end the life of another being. He
is to the fly what the tyger is to the speaker is in the other poem, a
menace, against which there is no defense. Ultimately, the end of the
fly provides a coda for both poems. In it, the speaker realizes that there
will always be beings who are more powerful than we are, but that to other
beings we are the same thing. At the same time, each one of us is both
The Tyger and The Fly.
Copyright © Patrick Meaney
Published by BRmovie.com in the
Blade Runner and DADoES Analysis Section
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