The Tyger (Sheila Hua)

The tiger in Blake’s poem seems to bear more likeness to Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein’s monster is not a purely evil being. From the scenes of assisting a group of poor peasants and saving a girl from drowning, we can see that the monster initially has gentle and kind nature. However, when he is abandoned by his creator and shunned by the society only because of his outward appearance, he begins to seek revenge and show his destructive evil nature. Similarly, the tiger is like Frankenstein’s monster in how it is feared and dreaded by man. Additionally, the tiger also has two-dimensional natures, it is beautiful, but also horrific in its capacity for violence. Both characters are symbolic center to express the idea of undeniable existence of evil and violence in the world besides beauty (or good). Blake uses plenty of questions to demonstrate how fearsome the tiger is and wonders once the horrible heart “began to beat”, how would the creator feel, “Did he smile his work to see?”, and whether its creator would have the courage to continue the job. It reminds me how the creator of the monster, Victor, feels and reacts to his creation. Victor is horrified by his fearsome creation, which leads him to flee instantly and refuse to make further contact. He feels immediately regrets as the creature comes to life, and feels guilty for the deaths due to the monster. In conclusion, both the monster and the tiger are formed in a terrifying way in use of questioning the world by their authors.

The Lamb (Morris Khafif)

I believe that the Lamb in William Blake’s poem resembles the Creature in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein more than the Tyger in Blake’s poem does. The question if the Lamb knows its origin directly relates to Frankenstein’s creature and if it knows where it came from. The phrase “Gave thee life” (line 3) in the Lamb poem can also be the dialogue between Frankenstein and the Creature since Frankenstein gave the Creature life. Also in the poem the creator of the Lamb says “Gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, wooly bright (5,6). This is comparable to how Victor Frankenstein created the creature with all the best body parts and features for the creature to utilize, just like the Lamb is created with optimal features like growing wool to keep itself warm. Another key comparison of the Lamb to the Creature is the line “He became a little child” (16) in Blake’s poem. Frankenstein’s creature was also like a little child. When the creature came to life, even though it appeared like a fully grown person, it was like a child inside. It didn’t know much about the world or why it was brought to it, just like a child doesn’t know or think about that either. I believe that even though from the outside it seems like the Creature resembles the Tyger more, it really resembles the Lamb more on the inside, which is where it really counts. If you would just look at the inside of the Creature you would see that it is really innocent and does not really want to cause harm to anyone, which could also be applied to a lamb. A Tyger however is a mean looking animal and you wouldn’t identify it as being innocent.