Literature rarely shows power being used well’

Both Blake’s poetry and Webster’s The White Devil seem to offer only warnings against the immorality of power whenever used. However the term ‘well’ can also be taken to mean effectively, and when interpreted as such it could equally be concluded that the opposite of the statement is in fact true; whilst the powerful often use their position at the cost of others well being, as the statement claims, their effectiveness in doing so; in suppressing those below them, runs parallel.

This immoral usage of power to oppress can be seen in Blake’s poetry, specifically in Holy Thursday, both in Songs of Innocence and in Songs of Experience. Here, Blake contrasts the descriptions of orphan’s beneficiaries when, in the Songs of Innocence version, he calls them, “wise guardians of the poor”, to having, “cold and usurious hand”, in the Songs of Experience version. Not only does the language in these sister poems offer a bleak insight into how experience brings an awareness as to the immorality of power, so too does the poem’s opposing structures; whilst the Songs of Innocence version contains regular rhyming couplets throughout its three equal stanzas, the Songs of Experience version contains three irregularly placed rhyming couplets on alternate lines. The effect of the first poem’s structure is that it gives a song-like feel to the reader, whilst the second poem’s broken rhyme scheme reflects the corrupt nature Blake sees and is criticising in the use of power and its wielders. This interpretation of Blake’s poetry therefore supports the statement at least to some degree.

Similarly in Webster’s The White Devil, several of the central characters can be viewed as morally corrupt, especially when considering the pivotal role religion played in people’s lives at the time in which the play was written. Possibly the main