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The poet William Blake refers to ‘the mind-forg’d manacles of man’. To what extent do nineteenth century novelists represent individuals as subject to psychological rather than social restrictions?
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| Submitted: Thu Jul 11 2002
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The poet William Blake refers to 'the mind-forg'd manacles of man'. To what extent do nineteenth century novelists represent individuals as subject to psychological rather than social restrictions? The 'mind forg'd manacles of man' refer to the psychological restraints placed upon the individual by his or her own mental processes. These may be normal restrictions such as love, that prevent the individual from behaving rationally, or they may be abnormal restrictions such as madness, which prevent the individual from leading a normal life. Society is, by definition, a group of individuals, each with their own psychological values and beliefs, and it is when this 'body' of individuals impose their psychological beliefs on individuals within that body that individuals become restrained by society. Society's class structures and by-products such as poverty and criminality impose on the individual's views and beliefs, and these impositions form the social restraints that complement those of the...
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