Exploring Marginalization and Social Injustice: A Critical Discourse Analysis of William Blake's “The Chimney Sweeper”

This research applies Norman Fairclough's model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to critically analyze the themes of marginalization and social injustice in William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper. The research qualitatively analyzes both versions of the poem, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience by William Blake. This study employs a close reading of both the texts in order to find out the forms that power constructions around issues of child labor, class exploitation, and religious ideologies in 18th-century England take, using CDA in three stages: textual analysis, discursive practice, and social practice. From the textual analysis, metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and irony are used in order to symbolize both literal and figurative entrapment into child labor, disparity, and marginalization. The change from the voice of innocence to the voice of experience reflects the growth in class consciousness and institutionalized criticism of power. The discursive practice stage unpacks how Blake condemns the role church and state play in the role of maintaining social stratification and exploitation of labor, stripping to light the religious discourse that makes the oppressed meek. Social practice analysis highlights how Blake's poetry acts as resistance to the broader social systems that function as models of exploitation and fall in line with institutional practices of exclusion. Thus, Blake's use of language is not simply a reflection of social injustice but rather a critique and call for reform. This shows that the issues that Blake portrays in his writing are indeed the issues that society is concerned about today regarding debates over labor rights and institutional power. It can therefore be argued that language has the capability of questioning social inequality and marginalization.