Let's talk it out...

During Blake's rather Faustian tale of his journey through heaven and hell with the "Swedenborgian Angel" (Plate 17) in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he asserts that without one the other could not exist, meaning that--as humans--we could not understand good without evil. As he writes, "Opposition is true friendship," we come to understand how one serves the other and the nature of their inherently hostile yet symbiotic relationship. Though he does not appear to look fondly upon the Christian Church, his intentions are not to dismantle it. He merely attempts to dismantle the hierarchy of the two realms: heaven (piety) OVER hell (earthly delights). His faith resides in the practice of dialogue: an angel and man show each other their personal perspectives of heaven to hell, only to find that the other's view of either is his opposite. Herein lies the disintegration of order and the birth of confusion. Which way is up and which way is down? Which view is right and which view is wrong? By melding--or marrying--the two, Blake negates the comfort of institution. Heaven and hell, good and evil remain separate but become equal. Neither has greater value. When the angel who rises as Elijah only to become a devil can now converse with Blake about the institution of religion and the beauty of spirituality (embodied by the Bible of Hell), Blake illuminates the rampant sanctimony and hypocrisy of either side and posits the advent of accepting polarity and using it to gain a multidimensional--and superior--perspective.