Insanity As Depicted In William Blake's The Tyger

In “The Tyger,” Wiliiam Blake uses cacophony, euphony, and implied metaphor to bring forward his question as to whether or not the creator is evil, as shown through the evil of his creation, the tiger. Blake uses cacophony often in “The Tyger” to point out the violence or fearfulness of the tiger. Blake’s usage of cacophony to make the tiger appear terrible and monster-like is shown when he asks the tiger, “What the hammer? what the chain?/In what furnace was thy brain?/What the anvil? What dread grasp/Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” (ll. 13-16). The explosiveness of these lines through the alliteration and general usage of cacophonic consanents shows Blake’s fear for the tiger and misunderstanding as to how the creator of the tiger could
think to create such a “deadly” (l.
16) animal. This same puzzlement from Blake is shown earlier in the poem when Blake questions, “And what shoulder, & what art,/Could twist the sinews of thy heart?” (ll. 11-12). Blake, once again, is questioning what sort of creator could create such a fearful creature. He wonders what kind of higher being could artfully create the tiger’s “fearful symmetry” (l. 4) and could give life (“the sinews of thy heart” (l. 10) to the viciously acting tiger. Blake also uses euphony in “The Tyger.” The most prominent use of euphony in the poem is in refernece to the creation “the (llllllll),” reading, “Did he smile his work to see?/Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (ll. 19-20). The soothing, euphonic sounds used in these two lines in refernece to “the Lamb,” such as the repeeated hissing sounds in the words “smile,” “his,” and “see” and the hum of “made” and “make” (llllllll.13,13)create a happy feeling for the reader of “The Tyger.” In comparison to the cacophnic sounds used in refernece to the tiger, the description of “the Lamb” creates a contrast between the two, where the tiger is seen as a fierce and vicious animal and “the Lamb,” possibly Jesus because of the
capitalization of “Lamb,” is seen as harmless. Blake is questioning whether or not the creator of “the Lamb” also created the tiger, and whether or not the creator of the tiger was proud in his destructive creation. In “The Tyger,” Blake also uses implied metaphor to compare the creator of the tiger to a blacksmith.
Blake asks the tiger questions about his creator and about the conditions in which he was created: “What the hammer? what the chain?/In what furnace was thy brain?/What the anvil? What dread grasp/Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” (ll. 13-16). The key question in this excerpt to draw the comparison between the creator of the tiger and a blacksmith is the question, “In what furnace was thy brain?” (l. 14). This line, specifically, creates the comparison between the tiger’s maker and a blacksmith. Blake asks what furnace was the tiger’s brain: the driving force of it’s life created. Was it the furnace of an evil creator? Was it the God’s furnace? Who created the malicious ways that you act: an evil force or a force of good? Like how a blacksmith can create a “hammer” for good or a sword for sin, were you created for destruction and rage or are you just another creature? Blake also questions whether or not the creator can be deemed evil or upright based on their creations. Blake concludes his poem by asking the tiger once again about his maker, asking, “What immortal hand or eye/Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (ll. 23-24). Blake is saying that whoever created the tiger had “dared” to do so. He is saying that the creator, for some reason, had chosen to carefully compose the “symmetry” of the tiger. This leaves the question of whether or not the creator himself is evil because
he chose to make the tiger. Like a blacksmith who creates swords for killing, could the tiger’s creator be deemed wicked for creating a vicious animal? Or was it simply the tiger’s creator’s job to create animals of all intents and appearances, like a blacksmith who must create horseshoes, swords, and hammers as part of his or her duties?
Blake’s many questions are intentionally left unanswered: Blake does not know the answers and nor does anybody else. The poem’s consistance of only questions points to the readers’ and Blake’s own unknowing.