Petr Crhonek

Professor Věra Eliášová

London in Literature

20. May 2011

                        London as a sad environment in Blake and Mansfield

William Blake and Katherine Mansfield are authors who were writing about London. Their London was
an environment for its inhabitants. In Blake’s poem, London is described as a very sad place which
has no future. Mansfield wrote that London is sad only for poor people, because they have not
enough money. There are both similarities and differences.

Blake wrote his poem at the end of the 18^th century – it is more than one hundred years earlier
than Mansfield. I consider his description of London to be very sad and pessimistic, because he
repeats the word “cry”. He wrote “in every cry of every man” (Blake) which can mean that there are
only sad people in London. People are crying because someone is dying as he describes “and the
hapless Soldier’s sigh.” (Blake) Death is a sad event, during which people are crying. Why was he
so pessimistic? In those times London was full of people who were living in poor conditions, there
was no sewerage system – thanks to the bad hygiene people were getting ill and dying. This may be
the reason why he wrote such a sad poem.

On the other hand, Mansfield is rather optimistic. She wrote a story about a girl who is working in
a shop selling hats. One day a rich man with his girlfriend come into the shop. The girl wants to
buy a hat. The shop-assistant called Rosabela shows her one hat, which the girl loves. She finally
buys it. But Rosabel starts to dream of him. She images how he is having a dinner with her and is
taking care of her. At the end she realizes that it was just a dream. Why is she dreaming if the
man?

She is dreaming of him, because she is lonely and poor girl who is only working without having a
fun. She is commuting to the shop by a bus and during her journey she can see advertisements for
different products which she probably cannot afford to buy. She is also watching the shops on the
streets, for example jewellers’ shops. But the man has enough money and is buying things for his
girlfriend. If Rosabel was his girlfriend, he would things for her. If she was with him, London
would be happier place for living.

As we can see these two works are similar, because they express sadness of the main heroes. On the
contrary, the reasons are different. Blake is sad because people are dying or crying, Rosabel is
sad because she doesn’t have fun, she is not buying things she wants and because of having no
boyfriend.

If we compare these two ways of expressing sadness, we will conclude that Blake’s sadness is much
worse. He isn’t expressing any kind of hope since he says “how the youthful Harlot’s curse blasts
the new-born infant’s tear, and blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.” (Blake) This means that
prostitutes are giving birth to children. These children are ill with a plague. People cannot hope
for better future when children are dying. Nevertheless, Rosabel is expressing some kind of hope
because she is dreaming of better future. This future may never happen, but still there is hope.
She is not afraid of death or an illness. She is afraid of being alone.

There is another difference which has to be mentioned – London itself. In Blake’s poem it is a
dreadful place where people are scared. In Mansfield’s story, London is happier, but only for the
rich people who have enough money. So there are two kinds of London – one is for the poor, the
other one is for the rich.

I have come to the conclusion that these authors have different opinions on London. Blake saw
London as a whole, but Mansfield saw it as two worlds. Blake was sad and maybe even desperate
because of the dying people, since death is very emotive. Rosabel was sad because of her
unfulfilled desire for love. The reasons changed because the society changed as well. Anyway, these
two pieces of art are providing us with different situations in London.