English author William Blake was known for his anti-authoritative poetry that challenged organized religion during the time of the Industrial Revolution. Considered one of his most acclaimed works, his poem "The Tiger" brings together a series of rhetorical questions that seek to understand the meaning behind the creation of the ferocious tiger by a God with seemingly cryptic intentions. Using deliberate symbolism, the poem "The Tyger" written by William Blake criticizes the motives of a God who allows good and evil to coexist and supports the belief that creations are a direct reflection of their creators. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The narrator's fascination with a fearsome tiger, the main symbol of the poem, represents not only God's ability to create evil, but also hints at the idea that God himself possesses an evil side to him. From the first stanza, and repeated once again in the poem's final stanza, the unknown narrator says "What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame your fearful symmetry?", questioning the origin of such a wondrous creature and deciding that they might not have arisen by chance. The creator of such an animal, undoubtedly God, is described as “immortal” to underline the extent of his power. However what is noteworthy about this line is the recognition of the tiger's "fearful symmetry", a point that highlights the duality in the tiger's captivating beauty as well as its bloodthirsty nature. Combining these two characteristics into a single being seems like a cruel joke played by God because a dangerous animal is given power in its seductive appearance, which is an ill-intentioned mixture. Its existence alludes to the belief that an evil design requires an evil designer and calls into question God's reasoning for even allowing evil to exist. This is further considered when the tiger is contrasted sharply with the lamb mentioned: "Did he who made the Lamb create you?" The lamb is widely considered a symbol of innocence and kindness, which increases the impact of the tiger as a symbol of ferocity. This contrast between God's two creations is an example of the symmetry mentioned in the first stanza and is an attempt to explain the need for balance in the universe, letting the reader contemplate that without the existence of an extreme, the dangerous tiger, the other extreme, the gentle lamb, cannot exist. Likewise, the poem suggests that this was perhaps God's intention all along in that for good to prosper, evil had to first hinder it. This bold notion may seem beyond human understanding because the natural inclination of human beings is to desire infinite goodness, hence the hope of reaching a paradisiacal paradise for most religious individuals. However, the poem invites the reader to consider that God created the universe in such a way as to allow the existence of opposing forces to fully express his power and divinity, which does not require the understanding of God's subjects. another symbol of great impact used in Blake's poetry is the blacksmith which he uses to personify the creator of the tiger and assign additional characteristics to the purity of the creator's intentions. We see the introduction of the blacksmith's symbol in the fourth stanza when the narrator wonders if the creator used a hammer, a chain, a furnace, and an anvil to forge the deadly tiger, all tools typically used by a blacksmith. The theory that all these tools.