Marxist Criticism In William Blake's London

Marxist literary criticism is used to reveal the ideological oppression that is characterised in a superior-inferior relationship, namely by the upper class over the subordinate classes in literary texts. Generally, people will assume that a Marxist ideology belongs only to a political scope. However, that is not the case. According to James H. Kavanagh in Ideology, this particular ideology in Marxism does not narrow down to it being “political” but rather, it is “a more comprehensive kind of theory that could understand the important relations among the political, economic and cultural elements in specific societies.”

In the poem London composed by William Blake, we can see how using a Marxist critique enables us to identify with the exploitation and injustice rooted in the political rule embodied in social structures and in organised religion during the 18th century. The reigning party comprises of the government and clergy. As the speaker enters into the city, he notices the streets are “charter’d”, including the River Thames that “does flow”, an ironical juxtaposition. It evokes an uncomfortable feeling of social restriction in subjecting to political mapping and legalism. Also, the disturbing repetition of “charter’d” brings an ideology of capitalism where “inhabitant...street...river...the entire city...[can be] contracted out, hired, expropriated, absorbed into an unrelieved commerce in things and people” (Tomlins, Christopher. “Revolutionary Justice in Brecht,