In what ways does William Blake's 'The Garden of Love' show the constraints of Religion upon society?

In what ways does William Blake's 'The Garden of Love' show the constraints of Religion upon society?

William Blake expressed many views on constraint within his poetry, whether this be through love, abuse, sickness or as we will look into now- religion. William Blake had firm ideas on how religion affected society, we see opinions of it being an oppressive negative thing, which is often abused for the high-ranking positions of power and knowledge in society.

     'The Garden of Love' can firstly be linked directly to the Bible as we could trace this back to the Garden of Eden. As the title 'The Garden of Love' is at the beginning of the poem, in fact, the very title itself, this also acts as a similarity between it and the Garden of Eden, which too is at the beginning of something- the Bible. The definition of the word 'Eden' is found in the words 'delight' or 'a state of innocence or bliss'. Both of these definitions, whether derived from the Biblical story or not are very much similar to feelings of love. This could be what William Blake is touching upon in his poem. He may in fact be referring to a modern form of Eden, but perhaps in defiance towards religion refuses to use the Biblically acclaimed word 'Eden' and instead replaces it with 'Love'. This both gives the poem a more modern feel and could show an act of both breaking free of and undermining the Bible.

     The capitalisation of words shows a vast importance and emphasis upon them, and when looking upon these words more closely it becomes clear that the capitalised words are all in some form or another Biblical. The capitalisation of 'Chapel', 'Garden of Love' and 'Priests' all link back to the Bible very clearly. The fact that these words alone are capitalised over all the others can be reflective of how the church and everything linked to it is more powerful than the ordinary everyday society. This capitalisation can also be reflective of the influence of the church, too. The only other word capitalised in the poem is 'And', which is used with syntactic parallelism throughout the final stanza. This could be referencing the repetition of 'And it was good' throughout each stage of creation in Genesis, showing how religion goes on to judge people, perhaps unfairly in Blake's eyes. Or it could be a mere statement of how religion creates a form of monotonous order and simplicity to life, something which to Blake's imaginative and creative mind would have most likely despised.

     As a brief overview we read how the writer has returned to a place he knows as 'The Garden of Love', only to find a Chapel with 'shut' gates. The connotations of pessimism radiating from the poem and directed towards religion are extremely condemning. We see how religion and what we see as representations of freedom and happiness are set up as dichotomies 'I turn'd to the Garden of Love that so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it filled with graves' Blake shows the graves by the Chapel as the antithesis of the flowers that had once been there. This image of graves replacing flowers shows an idea of death replacing life, an entrapment or  constraint of the past holding back new life and not allowing it to progress or enjoy what the world holds for it. The 'Garden of Love' is a concept that seems to show a life of simple pleasures, freedom and innocence, yet the replacement of this area of emotion with a cold locked up Chapel shows not only how the Bible may condemn such an existence, but show how love can be ruined perhaps through religious constraints and rules. Love itself is a free emotion, something which Blake may well have felt as a writer, to have the rules of religion attempt to dictate how he should feel a free emotion would have created some form of conflict which may have been expressed in his poetry as a form of protest.

     It is clear that William Blake is seeing something fundamentally wrong with Religion in the poem as he talks of 'tomb-stones where flowers should be'. This sense of what things 'should' be shows not just a vision but the illusion of another more joyful world which has been lost. The idea that things are not as they 'should' be shows a stubbornness to the statement, too, that religion does not belong here and that it is overpowering an area in which it has no place and knows nothing of. It shows a bleak act of suppression, showing that instead of accepting differences, the rules of the church are seen as firm and unyielding, crushing imagination and young love.

     The image of the Chapel being 'shut' also show a coldness to the building, as if it is not welcoming to all, and that it may be somewhat selective about who it chooses to give its blessing to. To contrast this with the idea of a 'Garden', something natural which cannot be contained or controlled to which all beings may enter and exit as they choose, we see a true restriction on freedom. The line of 'Thou shalt not. writ over the door' is again referencing to the Bible fairly directly as we see links to the Decalogue. The idea of being told not to 'writ over the door' shows not just a lack of trust, but a sense of vandalism in the youth. This reckless feeling of mistrust between the church and the outsiders and the feeling that it may pass order onto those within and outside its community as it holds a divine authority is what may have driven Blake to question this authority in his poetry.

    The images of Priests in 'black gowns' seen as 'walking their rounds' shows a firm picture of order and routine. Where everything may be plain and ordered, none of the chaotic life that love and freedom may contain, but order and restrictions alone. Everything seems to be at a slow pace. The fact that the Priests are walking in 'rounds' again brings us back to the idea of monotony and repetition.

     The last line of the poem 'binding with briars, my joys & desires' brings us back to the Biblical imagery. We can see connotations of not just pain, but reference to Jesus' crucifixion with the idea of the crown of thorns. These 'briars' binding Blake's 'joys and desires' could show how the church is not just condemning them, they are being suffocated and killed by the rules of an autonomous leader. 'Binding' and 'briars' are both plosive consonants, incorporating both a sense of anger and emphasis on the words as if the final line of the poem is not ending on a conclusive note at all, but that of frustration at the sheer influence and power of religion as it seeks to control how society should be.