ARTICLE

Revisioning Blake’s Oothoon

Harriet Kramer Linkin

Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 4, Spring 1990, pp. 184-194 184 BlAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

Revisioning Blake's Oothoon

by Harriet Kramer Linkin

n applying feminist p rspectives to / - ~.tu:~1 I Blake srudies critics continue to ex- plore the disparity between Blake's brlfl/. < larger advocacy of human liberation bl~'t. and his more limited representation of the female in his poetry. Arguing for a Blake who is alternately feminist, sexist, engender d, beyond gender or struggling towards a truly andro- gynous vision, tnost implicitly accept "OX'S general categories for Blake's portrayal of th female: positive/pas- sive, pernicious/active, and, in the rarest of instances, active/good. 1 Dis- agr ements occur in slotting specific figures into those categories, perhaps none quite as frustrating as Oothoon in Visions of the Daughters ofAlbion. arly modern critics hailed Oothoon as the perfect vehicle for Blake's psychosexual b Hefs, h aring the poet's voice resound in her cries for "Love! Lovel Love! happy happy Love! free as the mountain windr' (7:16, E 50).2 Although critics celebrated her imaginative awakening as active and good, th y still placed the poem within tl cycle of Experience beca Ise Oothoon remain d unable to share her newly ol'ganiz c1 desires with Theotormon.3 In 1973 Peterson broke with standard l' ac1ings of Visions by positing ilnperfections in Oothoon hers If as the source of her lack of fulfillment.'! Since then, lore and more critics fault Oothoon rath r than her situation for the seeming paralysis and p ophetic failure that ends her story, suggesting she adopts th strategi s of her oppressors to become pernicious or passive or, for orne, 1. William Blake, Visions oj the Daughters ofAlbion, 1793 plate 8. Courtesy of the both.5 This shifting characterization of Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. thoon foregrounds r · cent sociocul- t Ira} history in that the lib rated opted Oothoon of the 70s and 80s. out Blake's poetic career-in Visions, othoon of [he decad s culminating Because I believe Oothoon stands for Euirope, ,Milton, and Jerusalem-I in the 1960s is r visioned as the co- something uniquely positive through- hope to ,challenge current negative Spring 1990 BIAKF/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 185

estimations of her by questioning sisters, most critics envision her at message to the Daughters of Albion in the whether Visions ends in stasis as well tale's end locked in the static tableau final design.7 as in her complicity. Instead, I argue Blake illustrates in his frontispiece (pI. As Johnson and Grant indicate, Blake (1) that Blake concludes Visions with i, illus. 3). Even the more optimistic used the frontispiece as a tailpiece in two strategic disjunctions to prompt Johnson and Grant believe the bound the early (if not original) copy A of double vision: the emotive power of tableau scene eclipses the final visual Visions, but then consistently posi- Oothoon's language counters the impression of hard-won freedom: tioned it as frontispiece in every other narrator's assertion of paralysis, which Oothoon never actually escapes from the copy;B while shifting plates is the is subsequently undermined by the two warped lovers she is bound to. The easiest mode of revision for a poet illuminator's image of Oothoon in tl1ree appear locked in their situation in the who loves to play with textual order- flight, and (2) that Oothoon's exper- full-page frontispiece (or tailpiece in one ings, I believe Blake deliberately ience is ultimately progressive rather copy), plate i, in a sort of "No Exit" triangle, even though Oothoon has achieved presented the tableau scene as fron- than degenerative. psychological liberation and brings her tispiece to avoid leaving viewers with Assessments of Oothoon's general a closing image of paralysis. Neverthe- failure derive from a negative reading of the ending, where the darker visions of the narrator follow Oothoon's last joyous exhortations:

Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy! Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy!

Thus every morning wails Oothoon. but Theotormon sits Upon tl1e margind ocean conversing with shadows dire.

The Daughters of Albion hear her woes, & eccho back her sighs. (8:6-13, E 51)

By dramatically shifting both the tem- poral and emotional planes of the text, these concluding lines replace con- ventional narrative past tense with a continuing present and move from ex- ultation to resignation. Just as Oothoon reaches the apex of her awakening, the narrative reduces her culminating vision to daily activity; her resounding proclamations of liberty tum into the narrator's "wails," "sighs," and "woes." Given the narrator's disconcerting summary view of Oothoon's orations, many readers believe her prophetic insights conclude with failure, since she does not appear to free Theotor- mon or her sisters. Although the illumination that fol- lows the last three lines depicts Oothoon in flight (pI. 8, illus. 1),6 sup- planting the Urizenic pursuer illus- trated on the title page (pI. ii, illus. 2), 2. William Blake, Vistons of the Daughters ofAlbion, 1793, plate ii, title page. Courtesy and possibly bearing the word to her of tl1e Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. 186 BLAKE/AN IUUSTRA TED QUARTERL Y Spring 1990

less, readers find the frontispiece an the frontispiece's primary image of the vision.l1 Are they "visions" because apt illustration of the poem's ending, trio recedes into these reflecting mir- textual narration differs from visual accepting verbatim the narrator's rors, frustrating efforts to "converge narration? Is the narrator also the il- vision of Oothoon. upon a critical center; Oothoon wails lUminator, as Blake's title page to The Imaging that bound Oothoon, critics on just at the margin of our compre- Book ojUrizensuggests (where Urizen tra k ba k through the tale to uncover hension."lo Instead of revealing the way writes with one hand and illustrates th character faults tha t account for her Oothoon's story ends, the frontispiece with the other, pI. 1, illus. 4), or do defeat. 0 some extent doing so re- diagrams how visions accrue through narrator and illuminator offer separate nacts Bromian's labeling of Oothoon individual perspective. and equally unreliable visions? Perhaps as harlot after he rapes her; the nar- The title page tllat follows similarly the visions are plural because internal rator tells us Oothoon wails daily, and comments on the nature of perception evidence offers the viewer more than rather than question how this is true, through its illumination and language. one way of seeing Oothoon's exper- we return to her story for th reasons The title emphasizes plural vision with ience, overriding any single reading of why. Why, howev r, do we so readily a grammatical ambiguity that caBs at- the conclusion. The motto warns, "The take the narrator's final despairing tention to the identity of the perceiver- Eye sees more than the Heart knows" description at face value? A work that (pI. ii, E 45): beyond its obvious ap- impugns the validity of individual per- plication to Theotormon, Bromion, c ptions and perspectives, notes their Oothoon, and her sisters, the motto d pendence on the identity of the per- speaks directly to readers whose eyes ceiv r, r frains from identifying th see more of Blake's composite intent narrator (unlike many other Blake than either the verbal or visual text books),!> and r peatedly points to the establishes.12 imaginative necessity of double vision Among the visual cues of the title r quires us to question the authority of page, tlle vertically and horizontally th narrative concllsion. centered "i" of "Albion" is augmented Rather than support or even describe by a figure crouching over the "bi"; th nding, the frontispiece establishes reminiscent of the bowed (unseeing) how individuals shape or frame what is head of Theotormon (pl. i) and an- seen. Circumscribing the primary ticipating the bowed (unseeing) image-Oothoon and Bromion bound Daughters depicted later (pI. 7), the back to back whil Theotormon covers figure implicates the unitary perspec- his head-is a cave whose outline tive of a seeing eye/I. Plate 1 (illus. 5) forms a human skull while the sun Similarly attacks the seeing eye/I abov Bromion's h d doubles as an through the annotated "i"s of "Visions": eye (in many copi s). As mere illustra- the first is dotted with a dreamy female tion of the txt, the image might refer figure on a cloud while an archer aims to two specific passag s: the natrator's 3. William Blake, Visions oftbe his arrow through the second. Other Daugbters ofAlbion, 1793, plate i, fron- d scription of how Theotormon tispiece. Courtesy of the Yale Center for figures on the top of plate 1 slyly I'folded his bla k j alous waters round British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. undermine the closure of narrative th adult rate pair / Bound back to vision: the illuminator frames the back in Bromions aves terr r & m ek- nan-ator by making us wonder whose printed word "Visions" with a curved ne~ dw 11" (2: S, 46) and Oothoon's visions constitut Visions oj the "V" on the left and a sinuously robed glan at th sun through TIlcotormon's Daughters of Albion. Does Blake use figure on the right-just as the narrator yes, wh re "Instead of mom arises a "of" a a possessiv indicating the frames Oothoon's story with introduc- bright shadow, like an cy "(2:35, E 47). Daughters who see these visions or as tory and concluding present tense As illumination, BI ke's sun-ey and pr position pOinting toward an ex- statements. That same "V" sets off the cave-skull indicate how p rspective ternal narrator who envisions the text's enlarged f1fSt word-"Enslav'd"- influ nces per ption; both the eye Daught rs? Why are the visions multi- when paired with the comma that nd I of the p rceiver (narrator and ple? The plurality of vision could refer follows. A robed figure also appears to reader) determin what is seen. W to the three participants in the tale, or drip paint or tears over the word look thr ugh ur own yes and skull the three days over which the tale en- "weep,"13 hinting, perhaps, at a narra- to se th mirroring eyes nd skull of sues, but the plurals still occur tive inability to see beyond enslave- th narrator pe ting back at us. And within a single overall narrative ment. As the illuminator suggests, the j Spring 1990 BlAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 187

never seems to move beyond the rape what mountains / Wave shadows of in her relationship with Theotormon. discontent?" (3:25-4:1, E 47-48) by The illumination below the text presenting Oothoon chained in a provides a counter-image by depicting shadowy wave that not only hovers the glorious imaginative awakening over Theotormon's bowed head but "The Argument" omits: Oothoon not also irOnically rises out of his very only reveals and revels in double words "Wave shadows of discontent" vision by seeing the Marygold as (pI. 4, illus. 8). In viewing the con- flower and nymph (as do we), but also clusion's disjunctive components, we demonstrates her prophetic response should not reject the narrator's vision in kissing "the joy as it flies. "15 When for the illuminator's image or we view the entire page in context, Oothoon's words, but see how these "The Argument" shows Oothoon's visions oppose one another to effect enslavement and enlightenment as plural understanding: "Without Con- well as the need to connect emotional traries is no progression" (Marriage truths with physical experience. Most 3:6, E 34). important, it offers a holistic way of The preliminary plates establish her- reading the conclusion: just as "The meneutic principles that condition our Argument" requires text and image for reading of the narrative plates, where cohesion, the final plate of Visions narration and illumination often 4. William Blake, Ftrst Book of Ur/zen, achieves balance when we conflate present competing perspectives on 1794, plate 1. Courtesy of the Yale Cen- the illumination with the narration. how to interpret the physical and emo- ter for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Like Oothoon and the Marygold, we tional events in Visions. Rather than could welcome Oothoon as she flies. repeat the excellent critical accounts of narrator may well be locked in a vision To credit the illuminator with a true what happens in Visions, the symbolic of slavery precluding othervisions; the vision, and castigate the narrator for a identities of the main participants, and illuminator's efforts to undermine the limited one, however, abrogates the the nature of Oothoon's prophetic narrator'S vision here, however, larger implication of double vision. awakening, 16 I turn now to a brief sum- dangerously minimize the morally ir- Just as the narrator's perspective deter- mary of the criticism that tends to reducible fact of slavery. Both visions mines perception, so too the illu- blame 00thoon'5 ostensible failure on invite serious scrutiny. minator's. Oothoon's story contains her own imperfections. One group While the frontispiece, title page, more than rape, as "The Argument"'s sees Oothoon as flawed because (1) and annotating figures above the text illumination shows; at the same time, she depends so much on Theotormon on plate 1 incriminate unitary perspec- nothing mitigates the painful horror of for her identity that she becomes no tive, the third preliminary plate illu- rape or victimization or slavery, more than a reflection (Peterson, Lat- minates double vision. Almost evenly despite the illuminator's optimistic ef- tin, Anderson, Hilton), (2) she decries divided into text and image, plate iii forts here. And the illuminator is not the virgins and priests who use nets (illus. 6) provides another instance of always an optimist. When Oothoon and snares, is "snared" by Bromion, the discrepancy between various asserts she is "Open to joy and to but offers to trap girls for Theotormon views. Oothoon's first-person account delight where ever beauty appears" (Peterson, Cooke, Anderson, Haig- in "The Argument" summarizes the (6:22, E 50), she goes on to describe wood, Hilton), (3) she is inactive opening actions of Visions from a how she would "in evening mild. despite her prophetic stance on action, fairly physical perspective On what wearied with work; / Sit on a bank and neither forcing a relationship with critics identify as a flat, repressed draw the pleasures of this free born Theotormon (Peterson) nor leaving vOice14): she loves Theotormon, hides joy" (7:12, E 50); directly above her him (Peterson, Anderson), and (4) she in a vale, plucks a flower, rises to meet words the illuminator irOnically jux- reveals Urizenic traits through her him, and is raped by Bromion. Probab- taposes an image of the weary manipulative use of language (Haig- ly for Theotormon and Bromion, Daughters sitting on such a bank (pI. wood). A second group looks to Blake Oothoon's plot sununary accurately 7, illus. 7), bringing to mind the hard himself for Oothoon's shortcomings: describes her story; even the truth of the Daughters' enslavement. too engendered by his times to con- Daughters-and some critics-might Earlier the illuminator undercuts ceive of a truly liberated woman, he accept her eight lines as the shell of Theotormon's angUished "and in what does not make Oothoon powerful what happens to Oothoon, since she rivers swim the sorrows? and upon enough to change her situation (Fox, 188 BlAKE/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

Mellor, Ostriker). Although I share the critical bias of this s cond group, I disagree that Oothoon ultimately fails. Whil h r progress towards prophecy is not constant or direct, she under- goes what I outline below as a de- velopmental process that r suIts in her acquiring proph tic stature by the con- clusion of th poem; whatever dis- crepancies remain stem from Blake's histori al inability to se beyond fun- damental in qui ties in his system. On the first day her reactions to the rape demonstrate real psychological complexity: some instances seem to ugg st she accepts the gui1t thrust upon her by Bromion and Theotor- mon while ot1 rs lint at the begin- nings of a visionary response. Unlike the weeping, paralyzed Theotormon, Oothoon does notwe Pi the narrator's charact rizaUon of her writhing limbs and "howl inces ant" may point to ac- tive, Rinrrah-like rag .17 Although sh seeks to purify herself of someone else's pollution (despite the Marygold's asser- tion that lithe soul of sw et delight / Can n v r pass way" 1:9-10, ~ 46), she wants to cl ns the bosom bathed in the Marygold's glow and not her rent Joins: "Rend away this defiled bosom that I may reflect. / The image of Th otormon on my pur trans- par nt br ast" (2: ] 5-16, 46). efining Oothoon's desire to r flect Theotor- mon as limiting ignores its affirming dimension: rath f than replace Bro- mion's signet with Theotormon's eagl -inscrib d insignia, she hopes to revive the Marygold's glow througl Tl eotormon's image (although h r 5. William Blake, Vtstons oftbe Daughters ofAlbion, 1793, plate 1. Courtesy of the c Jl for rizenic, self-lacerating Yal Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. method of purification indicat s ~ el- ings of culpability . The narrator's accept the v lidity of the narrator's judg- senses, explaining how former teach- summary stem ot sh ds more light ment: can the narrator see her soul? It is ings falsely restrained her vision: on narrative perspective than the con- the narrator, and not Oothoon, who "They told me that I had five senses to sequences of Oothoon's demand; call- concludes the first day witl a simile inclose me up. / And they inclos'd my ing Th otormon's responding smile that represents her as no more than a infinite lfrain into a narrow circle" sever , the narrator de lares flher soul reflecting spring. (2:31-32, E 47). Moving beyond per- r fie ts th smile; / As the clear spring o.n the s cond day she surges be- sonal understapding, she offers the mudde 1with D t of beasts grows pur yond the lilnitations of the first by as~ first of the several glorious, image- & smile )I (2:18-19, · 46), but it is im- s rting h r essential pu rity and specific orations that decimate possibl for us to scertain mll h less rejecting Uri zen's d finition of the five Urizen's law of the senses: I Spring 1990 BIAKF/AN IUUS7RATED QUARTERLY 189

With what sense is it that the chicken The second instance of regression is shuns the ravenous hawk? problematic, for Oothoon appears to With what sense does the tame pigeon bribe Theotormon with silence and measure out the expanse? With what sense does the bee form cells? uses images of defilement to establish have not the mouse & frog her purity: Eyes and ears and sense of touch? yet are their habitations. And their pursuits, as different as their Silent I hover all the night, and all day forms and as their joys: could be silent. (3:2-6, E 47) If Theotormon once would tum his loved eyes upon me; How can I be defild when I reflect thy Through language that evolves from image pure? the innocent, revelatOlY query Oothoon Sweetest the fruit that the worm feeds asks of the Marygold-"Art thou a on. & the soul prey'd on by woe flower! art thou a nymph!" (1 :6, E 46)- The new wash'd lamb ting'd with the to the powerful, rhetorical questions village smoke & the bright swan By the red earth of our immortal river: I offered to Theotormon and Bromion, bathe my wings. Oothoon's expanded sensory aware- And I am white and pure to hover round ness moves her further and further Theotormons breast. towards prophecy. (3:14-19, E 47) While they acknowledge Oothoon's increasing awareness, critics also note Like the dissembling virgin she attacks two instances of regression on this the very next day, Oothoon extends a second day. After Oothoon rejects the promise of silence in exchange for one 6. William Blake, Visions of the limited schooling of the five senses, look from Theotormon. Not yet a Daughters ofAlbion, 1793, plate iii. she turns to Theotormon to celebrate hypocrite, Oothoon actually might Courtesy of the Yale Center for British the new morningj because he fails to learn to condemn the virgin's silence Art, Paul Mellon Collection. share or confirm her perceptions, his because she keeps her promise when eyes take in a very different landscape, Theotormon finally responds. uniformly colored by his despair: "In- More disturbing than her promise, does provoke a response from the stead of mom arises a bright shadow, she seems to go back on her prophetic nearly paralyzed Theotormon demon- like an eye / In the eastern cloud: declaration of essential purity in as- strates the efficacy of her language. instead of night a Sickly charnel house king how she can be defiled when she When Theotormon finally I'turns his / That Theotormon hears me not! to reflects Theotormon's "image pure." loved eyes upon her" through his him the night and morn / Are both Given the linguistic ambiguity we do reply, she keeps her word and main- alike" (2:35-38, E 47). Worried by her not know whether she means tains silence. apparent dependency on Theo- Theotormon himself or his image of As the third day begins, Oothoon tormon's perception, some cite this purityj in either case Anderson con- concludes her vow of silence with an moment to show how Oothoon's siders her metaphors for purity defiled exponential leap of awareness, turn- vision fails. 18 Instead, we might see through external forces revelatory of ing her attention from Theotormon to Oothoon's desire for visual inter- how Oothoon continues to see herself Uri zen with a lamentation so sweep- course with Theotormon as confirma- in Theotormon's terms (5). I believe ing and long it constitutes roughly half tion of her double vision: her ability to Oothoon consciously adopts Theo- of the text. '9 Extending her basic de- see the world through his eyes indi- tormon's terms to focus her message nial of Bromion's "one law for both the cates a strength, rather than a weak- for his level of awareness. Just as lion and the ox" (4:22, E 48) to human ness. What she sees saddens her, but Oothoon's address on sensory dif- systems, Oothoon attacks Urizen does not destroy her progress towards ferentiation speaks directly to through a brilliant series of prophetic prophecy, her sense of her own iden- Bromion, her semantic choices here utterances that connect economics, tity or her independent vision of the disclose immense sensitivity in trying agriculture, religion, education, and landscape; it is after she looks through to lead Theotormon to her own posi- marriage: Theotormon's shadowy perception tion with images culled from his per- that she offers her powerful assertion ceptual system. Because the responses How can the giver of gifts experience of multiple sensory experience for dif- of Theotormon and Bromion echo the the delights of the merchant? ferent creatures. words Oothoon offers, they show how How the industrious citizen the pains of well she reads them. That her speech the husbandman. 190 BLAKFIAN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

How different far Ih fat ~ d hireling with Theotormon's response through her Oothoon shall view his dear delight, nor hollow drum; does/then construction, which "doesn't e'er with jealous cloud Who buys whole com fields inlO wastes, ask Theotonnon what he thinks and Come in the heaven of generous love; and. ings upon the heath: nor selfish blightings bring. How different th ir eye and ear! how feels; she tells him, 'enslaving' his ex- (7:24-29, E 50) different the world to them! perience to her own 'system'" (88).20 With what sense d s the parson claim Haigwood's point is well-taken: Although her "silken nets and traps of th labour of the farmer? Oothoon not only exhibits Urizenic adamant" are meant to contrast with What are his nets & gins & traps. behavior through syntax, but also (5:12-18, E 48~49) the web of age spun by the jealous, .. adopts Bromion's reductive name- weeping lover in the section above, calling by conditionally branding her- "grey and hoary! dark!" (7:19, E 50), Just as the forms, habitations, and pur- self a whore and Theotormon a "sick Oothoon's apparent willingness to use suits of animals point toward multi- mans dream." these Urizenic tools awakens suspi- val nt exp rience, human systems In Oothoon's defense, however, let cions, given her denunciation of both demonstrate such vast differ nc s we us consider her self-righteous wrath. the parson and the virgin for their nets cannot unpose on cod of interpreta- Oothoon lashes out in justified anger and traps. Despite the negative con- tion. The giv r of gifts and the merchant after her description of the virgin notations nets and traps generally may perfonn the same basic function- hYPOCrite's decorous silence; perhaps bear, they may not be innately tainted transferring an item to a new owner- Oothoon has been made into "a whore in Visions: in measuring the parson's and ven reqUire one anoth r to indeed" if it is her silence rather than labor against the farmer's, Oothoon perfonn that function, but any effort to her gr at verbal sensitivity which final- suggests a legitimate use for nets and val late th ir actions d mands com- ly prompt Theotormon's longed-for traps: "With what sense does the par- pI tely s parat sales. response. That the two lines describ- son claim the labour of the farmer? / No one disputes the depth and ing how the hypocrite virgin brands What are his nets & gins & traps?" (5:17- r ng of Oothoon's prophetic state- sexuality with "the name of whore" 18, E 49). At the same time Marriage m nts on human systemsj some be- and keeps silent constitute the exact insists that "All wholesom food is caught com uneasy wh n Ooth on moves enter of Oothoon's one hundred and without a net or a trap" (7:13 E 36). from her broad analysis of limited 1 two line oration on the third day high- Even more troubling than her rizenic morality to r focus attention lights their importance to 1 er ex- means, the offer itself alerts many on her own situation. scribing how perience. Potentially co-opted by critics to a weakness in Oothoon. Most the child's natura) sexuality is furth r rizen's system, Oothoon recoils from wonder why Oothoon intimates she and further repressed until that child her similarity to the virgin with rage. would be content to watch Theotor- grows up to be a virgin hypocrite, Although she quickly retracts the names mon copulate with other girls, as it Oothoon express s her frustration she calls herself-" ut Oothoon is not exemplifies the voyeuristic sexuality through a dif ct attack on Theotormon: so" (6:21, E 50)-she never corrects her Oothoon condemns in attacking "The nomination of Theotormon as a "sick self enjoyings of self denial" (7:9, E 50). TI1 n com'st thou fOlth a modest virgin mans dream." In fact, she perpetuates Several points bear consideration: first, knowit g to dissemble th image later on by describing some- Blake's lines are sufficiently equivocal With nets found under thy night pillow, one who closely resembles Theotonnon to calch virgin joy, to suggest that Oothoon lies beside And brand it witl the name ofwhol' ; & as sickened with self-love (7:17-22, Theotormon "in lovely copulation" s 11 it in the night, SO). while tlle pair watch the wanton play In sil'nc '. ev'n without a whisper, • nd What critics cite most frequently as of the girls; second, Oothoon never in seeming sleep: proof of Oothoon's downfall is her says she will only and always watch. ... And does my Th O[ormon seek this o fer to catch girls for Theotormon: hyp crit mod sty! Third, the entire episode sets up an This knowing, artful, secr"t, ~ arfuJ, antimony to the kind of looking the cautious, trembling hypo fit . But silk n nets and traps of adamant will jealous lover performs in the ection Then is OOlhoon a whoI' indeed! and all Oothoon spr ad, above, whose "lamplike eyes watch- And catch for thee girls of mild silver, or the virgin joys ing arountl the frozen marriage bed" Of life are harlots: an I Thcotonnon is a of furiolls gold; sick mans dream I'll Ii beside thee on a bank & view their (7:22, E SO) lock lovers into fruitless And Oothoon is the crafty slav of s lfish wanton play relationsrups. ourth, and most impor- hoHn 5S. In lovely copulation bliss on bliss with tant, she clearly follows the p th Blake (6:10-20, E 9-50) Th otormon: demarcates for enlightened Emanations Red as the rosy morning, lustful as the first born beam, byadvo ating a form of polygyny;:!1 as As I Jaigwood points out, Oothoon's Damon }Vrit 5, 'To save tl e mafri ge, languag Ii its ratl '1' than invit s Spring 1990 BLAKEIAN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 191

the Emanation must renounce her thirst for dominion and sacrifice her selfish- ness" (Dictionary 122). Oothoon's offer to trap girls for Theotorrnon justifiably distresses recent critics, but perhaps we should be troubled by Blake himself. Oothoon goes on to end the third day's lamentation with a rousing finale that validates her tremendous progress towards prophetic stature. Rather than seize upon the negative aspects of her experience, I propose we consider that progress is not always swift and direct. Like the Los of Milton who suc- cumbs to Satan's pleas only to recall that pity divides the soul, or who first joins Urizen to block Milton's journey before he remembers the prophecy of Eden, Oothoon must work through the obstacles in her path towards prophecy. Not at all static, Oothoon's language and experiences reveal in- creasing visionary awareness through leaps and surges. Although at first she addresses Theotormon alone (after the rape), she soon includes Bromion and then moves outward to Urizen, ex- panding the range of her commentary from sensory differentiation to human systems. She begins the second day with a call inviting Theotormon to "Arise," bu t by the end of the third, she broadens her scope immeasurably: "Arise you little glancing wings, and sing your infant joy! / Arise and drink your bliss, for every thing that lives is holy!" (8:9-10, E 51). The narrator's conclusion not only . , undermines the emotional affect of .r. UJ!fl'!nl:. (J/t flu: _. 'C'- Oothoon's visionary exhortations but also reverses any sense of progress: "Thus every morning wails Oothoon. 7. William Blake, Visions of the Daughters ofAlbion, 1793, plate 7. Courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. but Theotormon sits / Upon the mar- gind ocean conversing with shadows dire" (8:11-12, E 51). Because Oothoon 03). Does the narrator merely echo 48), the narrator tells Oothoon's imagines turning into such a shadow Oothoon's despairing possibility? Like story sympathetically but finally through Theotormon's continued rejec- Bromion, whose second speech ini- denies the larger truth of her progress tion, "Till beauty fades from off my tially supports Oothoon's vision- through time: "the true meaning of shoulders darken'd and cast out, / A "knowest thou that trees and fruits time lies in its identity with the spirit of solitary shadow wailing on the margin flourish upon the earth / To gratify prophecy, for by speaking out, the of non-entity" (7:14-15, E 50), Hilton senses unknown" (3:14-15, E 48)- prophet can reverse the cycles of rus- wonders if Theotormon's dire sha- and then abruptly rejects it in asserting tory and make time an agent of mercy, dows might be Oothoon herself C1 02- "eternal fire, and eternal chains" (3:23, rather than of destruction. "22 192 BLAKE/ANIllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

Much more than a shadowy reflec- Given Theotormon's corresponding Rather than castigate Oothoon's tion of Theotonnon, Oothoon actually fall, does Oothoon err in her efforts seeming dependence on Theotormon, presents a mod 1 that Theotormon to awaken him? Those who see let us recognize the depth of her re- shadows; not only rent by Bromion Oothoon's failure in her inability solution. Just as Los must work with after Oothoon is r nt, heotormon to free herself from dependence on his Spectre to build Golgonooza, also mimes Oothoon's rhetoric, as the Theotormon neglect to consider Oothoon must bring Theotonnon to a following call by Oothoon and Oothoon's real options and prophetic new level of awareness. And just as Los respons Calbeit reductive) from commitments. As Theotormon's "built the stubborn structure of the Theotormon r veals: Emanation, she must effect reintegra- Language, acting against / Albions tion with him; choosing another melancholy, who must else have been They told me that the night & day were partner unleashes devastating conse- a Dumb despair" (Jerusa/em36:59-60, all that I could se ; quences for other pairs in The Four E 183), Oothoon moves beyond dumb They told me that I had flv senses to Zoas or jerusalem. Nor does Blake despair- beyond embracing her own inclose me UPi present Oothoon with any options: in silence and Theotonnon's- to use the And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a ord r to fulfill her desire she can only stubborn structure of language for en- narrow circle. turn to Theotormon or Bromion the lightenment. Taking action through rapist (who Gillham argues is Theotor- words, Oothoon never surrendersj al- mon).23 If anything binds Oothoon, it though Theotormon, Bromion, and And then tell me [he thoughts of man, is lake's system of Emanations. Urizen fail to comprehend her prophecy that have be n hid of old. Beyond the constraints imposed by by the end of Visions, she embodies the (2:30-3:13, E 47) that larger, later system, however, lies healing mercy of time: in describing an the compelling responsibility of the Oothoon who continues to wail, the Tell m what is the night or day to one true prophet. Oothoon's daily lamen- narrator provides evidence to support o'erflowed with wo ? tation signifies her wonderful deter- the possibility of change. While the Tell me wh t is a thought? & of what mination to awaken those around her, narrator does not yet understand, as substance is it mad? T 11 me what is a joy? & in what gardens providing an early version of the per- Oothoon does, how "they inclos'd my do Joys grow? sistent visionary Blake clearly endor- infinite brain into a narrow circle" ses injerusalem: (2:32, E 47), narrative disjunction en- ables readers to go into and out of the Tell me wh r dwell the thoughts circle Blake's Notebook taunts God forgott n till thou call them forth Of the Sleep of Ulra! and of the passage T 11 m where dw 11 the joys of old! & through with: "If you have formed a Circle to wh re the ancient loves? Eternal Death! and of the wakening to go into / Go into yourself & see how (3:22-4:4, E 47-48) Eternal Life. you would do" ("To God," E 516). By framing the narrator's despair with his theme calls me in sleep night after Already a shade when w meet hi m, night, & ev'ry morn two positive instances in the text- Th otormon's p st grace and glory Awakes me at sun-rise, then I see the Oothoon's triumphant calls for exist, like Ahania's rizen 01' Ophelia's Saviour over me freedom and the illumination depict- Spreading his b ams of love, & dictating ing her in flight-Blake enables alter- IamI t, in th memories of thos who th word of this mild song. Jov d him. The txt's final image of nate viewings of th conclusion. Theotonnon suggests he becomes a sha- Awake! awake 0 sleeper of the land of Jumping back and forth between the dow conversing witl shadows, fulfill- shadows, wake! expandl image of Oothoon called up through ing th dictum of lake's prophecy on I am in YOLl and you in me, mutual in the narrator's words2 and the illu- love divine: r strain d desir : "being restrained it by minated Oothoon in flight25 effects the degrees becomes passive till it is only the double vision Oothoon possesses shadow of desire" (Marriage 5:4-5, when she first sees the Marygold: "I see 34). s it the nalTator's grim sum- thee now a flower! now a nymph!" maty view of Theotonnon, Oothoon's Tr mbling I sit day and night, my friends Although I believe we should follow are astonish'd at me. 00tho09's prophetic response and insist nt qu stioning fn cts some small Yet they forgive my wanderings, I rest but real progress. On the first day he not from my great task! kiss 'the joy as it flies" ('Eternity," stop we ping to smile s v r ly)j on To op n the Eternal Worlds, to open the E 470), the ill~minator 's final image the se ond day Oorhoon lieits a verbal immorta 1 Eyes does not correct the narrator's version response fr: m him. By the nd h no (4:1-7, 5:16-18, E 146-47) ~o mu h as balance it. Eyes may see more than hearts know, but hearts longer w cps in front of his cave but I en ges in conversation. Spring 1990 BIAKF/AN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY 193

know that at the end of Visions, 1 Susan Fox, "The Female as Metaphor Webster, "Blake, Women, and Sexuality," Oothoon remains without Theotor- in William Blake's Poetry," CriticalInquiry Critical Paths: Blake and the Argument of mono The determined expression on 3 (1977): 507-19. Along with Fox, keyar- Method, ed. Dan Miller, Mark Bracher, and ticles discussing Blake's representation of Donald Ault (Durham: Duke UP, 1987) Oothoon's face warns us not to con- the female include Irene Taylor, "The 204-24. done her lack of fulfillment; at the Woman Scaly," Blake's Poetry and 2 All quotations of Blake's poetry are same time we should heed her DeSigns, ed. Mary Lynn Johnson and John from The Complete Poetry and Prose of words-"Arise and drink your bliss, Grant (1973; New York: Norton,1979) 539- William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman for every thing that lives is holy!"-to 53; Anne K. Mellor, "Blake's Portrayal of (Berkeley: U of California P, 1982), here- Women," Blake 16 (1982-83): 148-55; after cited as E followed by the page number. joy in her progress towards prophecy. Alicia Ostriker, "Desire Gratified and Un- 3 S. Foster Damon identifies Visionsas a While Oothoon does not and cannot gratified: William Blake and Sexuality," poem of Experience in his Wtlliam Blake: approximate a contemporary feminist Blake 16 (1982-83): 156-65; and Brenda S. His Philosophy and Symbols (Boston: ideal, she comes closest to bridging the curious gap between Blake's belief in human liberation and his poetic rep- resentation of the female. As the best (and perhaps only) active, good female figure, Oothoon occupies a special place in Blake's canon; unlike his more conventional portrayal of females as positive through self-sacrifice (Ololon, TheIs Lilly) or perniciously manipula- tive (Enithannon, Vala) , Oothoon acts through prophetic speeches that render the philosophical principles generally stated by male figures. After Visions Blake offers limiting images of women; the feminist possibilities Oothoon embodies seem to disappear. Oothoon herself, however, periodically resur- faces as if Blake means to hold on to the fleeting possibilities she embodies; the rebellious daughter who goes against Enitharmon's reign of sexual delusion in Europe, the guard who enables the fulfillment of Leutha's desires after Elynittria brings Leutha to Palamabron's bed in Milton,26 she is, finally, a way into Beulah injerusaiem:

There is a Grain of Sand in Lambeth that Satan cannot find Nor can his Watch Fiends find it: tis translucent & has many Angles But he who finds it will find Oothoons palace, for within Opening into Beulah every angle is a lovely heaven (37:15-18, E 183)

In our current revisioning of Oothoon, I propose we view her through that It ' translucent angle of vision that opens into Beulah. 8. William Blake, Visions of the Daughters ofAlbion, 1793, plate 4. Courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. 194 BIAKFIAN IllUSTRATED QUARTERLY Spring 1990

Houghton-Mifflin, 1924) 107 and A Blake of Urlzen, in "A Note on William Blake's scribed categories, the person addressed Dictionary: The Ideas andSymbolso/Wfll1am Visions of the Daughters of Albion," Vt- can only be mute" (88). Blake 0965; rpt. Shambhala P, 1979) 437, stons of the Daugbters of Albion, repro- 21 In Milton, for instance, several of Northrop Frye considers it part of the duced in facsimile (London and Toronto: Blake's figures promote polygyny, such as doomed Orc cycle in Fearful Symmetry: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1932) 11. the Divine Voice: A Study of William Blake 0947; rpt. New 12 W. J. T. Mitchell writes "For Blake, Jersey: Princeton UP, 1969) 245, and Harold writing does not move in a straight line She shall begin to give Bloom notes that Oothoon achieves Or- toward a single version (or vision) of the Her maidens to her husband: delighting ganized Innocence but 111eotormon never story. It traces the clash of contraries and in his delight receives her message in Blake's Apocalypse: subv rts the tendency to settle into the And then & then alone begins the happy A Study In Poetic A1-gument (New York: fix d oppositions he calls 'Negations,' Female joy , Cornell UP, 1963) 113-16. whether these are the moral antitheses of As it is done in Beulah, & thou 0 Virgin 4 Jane E. Peterson, "77,e Visions of the law and prophecy, the sensory divide be- Babylon Mother of Whoredoms J Daughters ofAlbion: A Problem in Percep- tween eye and ear, or the aesthetic gulf Shalt bring Jerusalem in thine arms in the tion," Philological Quarterly 52 (1973): between word and image" in his ·"Visible night watches; and 252-64. Language: Blake's Wond'rous Art of Writ- No longer turning her a wandering 5 1110ugh the following critics condone ing," Romanticism and Contemporary Harlot in the streets aspectsofOothoon's in aginative awaken- Crltfcism, ed. Morris Eaves and Michael Shalt give her into the arms of God your ing, they find fault as weB; the li ting is not Fischer Qthaca: Cornell UP, 1986) 80. Lord & Husband. meant to be exhaustive but to r flect recent 13 Erdman (Illuminated Blake 130) (33:17-23, E 133) critical trends: Michael G. Cooke, Acts of likens the figure to an "apocalyptic angel [who] pours liquid from a thin vial to drip Inclusion (New raven: Yale UP, 1979); 22 Mollyanne Marks, "Time as Hero in VernonE. Lattin, "Dlak 'sThelandOothoon: beside 'weep,'" while Johnson and Grant Blake's Major Prophecies," Stud1es in Sexual Awakening in th Eighteenth Cen- see lIa draped figur [whol holds out what Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 5, ed. tury," The Literary Crtterion 16 (1981): appears to be a dripping paintbrush" (71). Ronald C. Rosbottom (Wisconsin: U of 11-24; Mark Anderson, "Oothoon: ailed 14 S e Harold Bloom, "Commentary," The Wisconsin P, 1976) 59. Proph t," RomantiCism Past and Present 8 Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, 23 Unlike the heroines of numerous (984): 1-21; Laura Ellen Haigwood, d. David V. Erdman, Berkeley: U of Califor- 1960s and 70s novels, Oothoon cannot "Blake's Visions of the Daugbters ojAlbion: nia P, 1982) 901 and Peterson 255. walk out on Theotormon to find a more Rev! ing an Interpr tive Tradition," San 15 D. G. Gillham points to Blake's enlightened man. Jose Studies 11 (1985): 77-94; and Nelson Notebook entry on "Eternity" to gloss 24 Gillham sees the three figures on the Hilton, "An Original Story," Unnam'd Oothoon's response to the Marygold in his bank in the fmal plate as Oothoon, Theotor- Fot7nS: Blake and 1'extualtty, ed. Nelson Wtlltam Blake (Cambridge: Cambridge mon, and Bromion (195). r U Tilton and Thomas A. Vogi (Berkeley: UP, 1973) 210: "He who binds to himself a 2S See Janet Warner, Blake and the lan- of California P, 1986) 69-104. joy / Does the winged life destroy / But he guage ofArt (Kingston and Montreal: Mc- 6 All ilIustr tions of Blake's illuminations who kisses the joy as it fl ies / Lives in Gill-Queen's UP, 1984) 94-95 and E. B. ar from The Illuminated Blake, annot. by eternity'S sun rise" (E 470). Murray, "A Pictorial Guide to Two-Fold David V. Erdman New York: Anchor P, 16 Excellent accounts abound; readers Vision: Copy '0' of VDA," Sparks of Fire: 1974), and follow 'rdman's plate numb rs. might turn to Anderson, Gillham, or Peter- Blake in a New Age, ed. James Bogan and 7 Mary Lynn Johnson and John '. Grant, son for a start. Fred Goss (California: North Atlantic ds., Blake's Poetry and DeSigns New 17 WhiI we cannot blindly accept the Books, 1982) 165, among others for very York: W. W. Norton, 1979) 69. narrator's interpretive statements (does different discussions of how to view the 8 rdman (Illuminated Blake 125) sh "howl" or "scream" or "cry"?), we must, final image of Oothoon in flight. argues that copy C is the firsr because of at some pOint, work with the basic physical 26 Oothoon also hovers with Leutha over ~ the ang 1 sitting on the mal rider's lap; outline of events (that, for instance, Orc "Opening interiorly into Jeru alem & ev n so, only one of the e l'li st copies of Bromion intercepts her flight towards Babylon shining glorious / Into the Visions used th frontispice as tailpiece heotormon). Lik I aigwood (81) I dis- Shadowy Females bosom" (18:41-42, until Blake changed his mind. agre with Bloom's vi w that Oothoon's E 112) to suggest the kind of female form 9 While the issue of who actually nar- writhing limbs indicate her need for sexual Orc would have the Shadowy Female \ rates what in Blak 's works is a ompl x fulfillm nt from Theotormon ("Commen- wear. Although many read her appearance on ,Blak oft n provides an ostensible talY," 901 . as negative, I believe she initially repre- narrator, such as th piper of the Songs of 18 See Hilton 100 and Peterson 259. sents the possibility of a polygynous mar- I Innocence, the bards of Songs of Exper- 19 Visions comes to two hundred twen- riage that the Shadowy Female rejects; that ience and AmericCl, or the Blakean per- ty-two lin s if we include "The Argument" r jection accounts for the tum towards sonae f tbe Marriage ofHeaven and Hell, and th mottoi Oothoon's final lamenta- perverSity. Oothoon appears again in the Europe, l1Je Book of Urlzen, !It/i1ton, and tion goes for on hundred two of those poem's cbnc1uding movement toward Jerusalem. Visions contains no compa~ lines. apocalyp e: "soft Oothoon / Pants in the rable figure or persona. 20 Earlier Haigwood identifies how Vales of Eambeth weeping oer her Human 10 Mary Lynn Johnson, "William Blake," Oothoon's " ith r/or construction slams Hatvest" (42:32-33, E 144). 77JeEnglf.sbRomanflcPoets, ed. rankJor~ shu rhe door of dialogue at the same time dan, th d. (New York: MIA, 1985) 218. th t it seems to pen it: that is, the possible 11 John Middleton Murry suggests there respons s are limited in such a way that if w r to b' oth r Visions, perhaps a . there th nswer do sn't fit the asker's pre- w r t b books b y nd 77,e [First) Book