Reading Response Three

          Marriage: Visions of the Daughters of Albion is an article written by Diane Hume George.  This article includes George comparing the thoughts on women between Sigmund Freud and William Blake.  Throughout the article, George proves that Freud and Blake have very similar views on women, and the way they should be.  In the poem "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" by William Blake, in multiple sections, he implies that women should be a virgin when she becomes wed.  If the woman is not a virgin, the man does not have full possession of her.   Therefore, women must make the decision to either be a wife, or to be a whore.  The woman in "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" is called Oothoon, became pregnant from the man who raped her, named Bromion.  Oothoon is not a virgin anymore, and has to accept that Bromion is in her life, even if she does not want him to be.  Oorion's husband like figure, Theotormon, becomes jealous and angry at both Oorion and Bromion.  But, Oorion defends herself, like most women could not in this time, and tells them both off.  In doing so, she gained much needed independence and respect for herself.  The article also contains a lot of information about sex, like how men look down on women for it, but the women can not help it since it is so tempting.  George describes that women longing for sex are genuine, but how, as stated before, one can either be a wife or a whore.  A women has the choice of either being devoted to, and possessed by, one man, or she can choose to be looked upon as nothing more than scum.  In either circumstance, the woman does not fully understand true love, unless the woman actually loves the man she marries.  If she were to be a whore, then she would just be something to use for sex, obviously never seeing what true love is.  If she did not love the man she was with, she would basically just be a thing for him to possess and control.
          Marriage: Visions of the Daughters of Albion was confusing to interpret, and kind of irrelevant to the knowledge I was looking for.  This article mentioned William Blake, but it was mostly about sex, and the ideas of Sigmund Freud.  Although, the information that was included on William Blake was interesting.  In Blake's poem "Visions of the Daughters of Albion", Bromion argues, "Is there not one law for both the lion and the ox?".  This quote was very hypocritical, and contradicting.  I did not agree with Blake's thoughts on women, and how men basically control them.  Also, it is not right that women have to follow rules, if it is okay for the men to disobey them.  If a woman is to have the choice of either wife or whore, the men should have that choice as well.  If the women need to be virgins when they become married, the men should be virgins as well.  Overall, I disagree with Blake's opinions, but it is not a big conflict, because now, women are equal to men in most ways.  Another thing about this article that did not spark my interest was how George mostly talked about sex, masturbation, and Freud's beliefs on those two subjects.  I already know different views on sex as a sin before marriage, and this article could have sufficed without four pages about it.  Blake believes, "We are sexual beings and live our lives, think our thoughts, in a sexual context".  People do think about sex a lot, but not every single thing people think about it sex.  Not everybody's thoughts are on sex, or live their lives surrounded by sex.  When I read this quote, I thought Freud had said it, so I had to read it over again.  Freud and Blake had very similar thoughts, and were both thought of as weird or disturbed people by the public. George was comparing the two in some of her article so the reader could comprehend how alike they truly are.  The reason I chose this article is because it seemed interesting and full of Blake's ideas on marriage.  The article was actually very informative and not boring in any way, but if I could change anything, it would be to add more information about Blake.  Possibly including another annotated poem by William Blake would make this article more relevant to this topic.