Blake's God is Capable of Great Extremes

Throughout history humans have struggled with the idea of how God is capable of both awesome love and hate, good and evil. God is seen as the creator of everything. Unfortunately, that includes evil. This conflicts with the popular opinion of God, who is usually associated with light and love. William Blake's "The Tyger" addresses the issue of God's creation of evil. The major question the speaker poses involve God's ability to create evil, good, and his intention of those creations.

In this poem the speaker is directly asking the Tyger what divine being had the ability to create him. The speaker begins by asking, "What immortal hand or eye / could frame thy fearful symmetry." The speaker follows this up by asking a series of questions, further refining the first question about the Tyger's creator. The speaker asks about the creator's physical nature, to be so great as to create something, like the Tyger, which is so powerful. Then the speaker compares the creator to a blacksmith, and asks about the power and strength of the tools used in the Tyger's creation. In the penultimate stanza the speaker wonders about the consequences of the Tyger's creation and how the creator felt about his own work.

One of the major questions asked by the speaker concerns the creator's ability to create such incredible evil. The fact that the Tyger is "burning bright" indicates that the evil is extraordinarily great. We know that the Tyger represents evil because it is burning, a word and image that is often associated with Hell. Forests have a tendency to be dark, even on moon lit nights. Not only that, but it is unlikely the speaker is going to get too close to a tiger, burning or not. For the speaker to be able to see this tiger at night in a forest from a distance tells us that this creature must be pretty lit up. The Tyger's visibility indicates that the flame, and evil, is very intense.

The words used to describe the Tyger's creation brings to the reader a less than pleasant mental image. When the speaker asks the Tyger how the creator "could twist the sinews of thy heart?" an image of some sinister being is created. The fact that the heart is twisted seems unnatural, when it should be full and pumping blood. The word "sinews" is not one that people like to associate with the heart. They prefer a word like "heartstrings," or something similar, which conjures up an image of tenderness.

There are other words used to describe the Tyger that are much more readily understood. At the end of the first stanza, without having described the Tyger's creation yet, the speaker tells us that the Tyger has a "fearful symmetry." The speaker does not beat around the bush when he tells the reader that the Tyger is not some nice little animal that belongs in a petting zoo. By reading such words as "dread," "deadly," and "terrors" the reader knows that this is a creature to be feared.

The other indication we have that the tiger is a fierce being not to be reckoned with is the process the Tyger's creator goes through just to produce the Tyger. This creation was hard work, even hazardous. In the process of making this tiger the creator used his hand to "seize the fire." The strength is not only present in the creator's hand. We know that it must extend all the way up the creator's arm because when the speaker asks, "what the shoulder," he is pondering the strength contained in that part of the creator's body as well.

It is the creator's mental strength as well as his physical strength that made it possible for him to create the Tyger. The creator had to have courage and determination to go through with the process of creating the Tyger. In order for the creator to "dare" to create such a fearsome creature the creator had to have a great resolve to complete his task. If the creator had been weak hearted he would have given up early on in the process, perhaps stopping before the "heart began to beat." But, even when the Tyger's "deadly terrors" become clear for all to see, the creator sees his project through to the end.

The tools the creator utilizes in the creation of the Tyger is important in understanding the power of the Tyger. In regards to the making of the Tyger, the speaker questions, "What the hammer? / What the chain?" These are tools normally used to create tough, strong objects. This tiger was built to last and endure through time. The creator may use Scotch Tape or Elmer's Glue (or something else a little more historically accurate) to create cute and cuddly creatures like kittens and puppies. But fire and metal were used in the creation of the Tyger, making it a ferocious and terrifying beast.

While it is apparent that the creator is quite capable of creating a powerful and terrifying creature, the creator is also capable of creating good. It is after describing the process of the Tyger's creation that the speaker asks, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" By asking this the speaker is saying that whoever created the Lamb was also strong physically and mentally. The speaker is also saying that the creation of the Lamb must have been just as difficult and labor intensive as the creation of the Tyger. With the same amount of work being done on it, the Lamb must be as equally powerful as the Tyger, yet good and tender instead of evil.

As would be expected of a terrifying creature, the Tyger brought to the world the horror promised in it's creation. After the creation of the Tyger "the stars threw down their spears, / And water'd heaven with their tears." The spears bring to mind the idea of war and death, which is followed by the tears which would naturally be shed for those who died. The Tyger caused pain and suffering, all of which could have been avoided if the Tyger had not been created to begin with. The most heavily weighted question the speaker poses, without ever really asking, is why the creator would create such a horrifying creature in the first place.

The speaker wants to know what the creator was thinking when he set out to create the Tyger. The speaker asks, "Did he smile his work to see?" The speaker wants to know if the aftermath of the Tyger's creation is what the creator had intended. Considering the type of work it took to produce the Tyger, the creator must have known what the end result was going to be. The Tyger being evil and bringing with it pain and suffering was no accident. The fact that the creator was responsible for both the Tyger and the Lamb being equally strong shows that the creator felt both were equally necessary. That the creator did not give up on producing the Tyger shows that the creator felt it was imperative that there be a creature in existence to counterbalance the Lamb.

Blake successfully addresses the issue of God's creation of evil through the thorough examination done by his speaker. The speaker's main concerns included God's ability to create evil, good, and his intention of those creations. The creator has the ability to create an intense type of evil that should be feared. He does this through his sheer physical and mental capacity. The creator is also capable of creating a good creature as a counterpart for the Tyger, which brought about the intended consequences. There had to be an equilibrium in the world, good could not exist without evil and vice versa.