This essay examines how William Shakespeare and William Blake depict the destructive effects of social stratification in their respective literary works. Through Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice, the paper analyzes how military rank, race, and class fuel Iago's jealousy and manipulation. It then turns to Blake's two poems both titled "The Chimney Sweeper," from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, exploring how poverty forces working-class children into dangerous labor. The essay also considers how each writer's chosen genre—dramatic play versus poetry—shapes the way social inequality is conveyed. Taken together, the two works demonstrate that social inequality was a persistent and damaging force in English society across centuries.
A prevalent issue in English literature is how social status affects individuals. Two writers who explore the negative aspects of social status are William Shakespeare and William Blake. In Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice, social status plays a major role in determining who does or does not get promoted within the military. This determination, in turn, leads to rebellion on the part of Iago, who is both angry and jealous after being passed over for promotion. Blake's two poems sharing the title "The Chimney Sweeper," from Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, highlight what children of the lower social classes must endure for the benefit of their families. Through their respective works, Shakespeare and Blake demonstrate the lasting impact that social stratification has on individuals.
Othello, the Moor of Venice is a dramatic play that focuses on Othello's tragic fall from a position of great honor and esteem. Othello's fall is set in motion by Iago, his trusted ancient, who manipulates everyone around him in an attempt to seek unwarranted vengeance after believing he was unfairly passed over for promotion. Instead of being promoted to the position of lieutenant, Iago is passed over in favor of Michael Cassio — "a Florentine, / A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife; / That never set a squadron in the field, / Nor the division of a battle knows / More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, / Wherein the toged consuls can propose, / As masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice, / is all his soldiership" (Shakespeare 1.1.20–27).
Iago contends that Cassio received his promotion because of social status and education. Iago believes himself to be more qualified for the lieutenant position based on his battlefield experience — experience that Cassio entirely lacks.
Iago also targets Othello directly, arguing that the only reason he follows Othello as a military leader is out of duty rather than genuine loyalty. Iago explains, "In following [Othello], I follow but myself; / Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, / But seeming so, for my peculiar end" (1.1.60–62). Iago continuously references Othello's heritage as though to insinuate that, because Othello is a Moor, he is somehow an inferior being. The issue of Othello's heritage surfaces when Iago attempts to infuriate Brabantio — Desdemona's father and Othello's father-in-law — by informing him of the relationship between Desdemona and Othello: "I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter / and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs" (1.1.126–127).
While Iago could have approached Brabantio more tactfully, by comparing Othello to a beast he reveals his true contempt. Yet, for all his scheming, Iago cannot escape his own social status. As the play makes clear, "there's no remedy" to social division, and "'tis the curse of service" that he must abide (1.1.35). Because he cannot change his standing, Iago has no genuine path to the lieutenant position he desires — a frustration that ultimately leaves him widowed and executed.
Written more than a hundred years later, in 1789 and 1794 respectively, Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" poems also highlight the impact of social stratification — this time in industrial England. Through these poems, Blake explores the issues plaguing society and how poverty shapes the lives of families. In Songs of Innocence, the chimney sweeper appears to find reassurance in his work and does not yet fully comprehend its dangers. As he cries "'weep, weep, weep'" to advertise his services, his cry is simultaneously a plea for others to weep on behalf of a child destined to die in that labor (Blake, line 3). The child's mispronunciation of "sweep" also signals his extreme youth — either he has not yet learned to say the word properly, or he lacks the front teeth needed to pronounce it.
Blake uses religious symbolism throughout this poem to underscore the innocence of the children performing such dangerous work. Tom Dacre, a fellow chimney sweeper, has "white hair" that "curl'd like a lamb's back" (lines 5–6, 8) — an image evoking the purity and vulnerability associated with religious iconography. Blake elaborates on this symbolism through Tom Dacre's dream, in which "thousands of sweepers… were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black. // And by came an angel who had a bright key / And he open'd the coffins and set them all free" (lines 12–14). This dream parallels religious narratives in which Christ descends into Hell and releases imprisoned souls.
The second half of Tom Dacre's dream extends the parallel further: the freed chimney sweepers, "naked and white, all their bags left behind, / They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind," and are promised that "if he'd be a good boy, / He'd have God for his father, and never want joy" (lines 21–24). The use of religious imagery to frame the children's daily suffering helps the reader understand that they work these jobs not by choice but out of necessity. Their only possession is the faith that the next life will be better than their present one.
"Poverty, parental desperation, and God's complicity in suffering"
"How drama and poetry shape each writer's social message"
As Shakespeare and Blake both write about social inequalities more than a hundred years apart, it is evident that inequality has long plagued England and that people have done whatever they deemed necessary to survive — whether that meant sabotaging others, as Iago did, or sacrificing a child's safety to provide for a family in the short term, as depicted in Blake's poems. Taken together, their works serve as a powerful reminder that social stratification carries real and lasting human costs.
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