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Alana Kelley
Professor David Alff, ENG 319: 18th Century Literature
Spring 2016

Thels Adventures in Wonderland:

Existentialism, the Death Drive, and Feeding Desire

One is never happy making way for a new truth, for it always means making our
way into it: the truth is always disturbing. We cannot even manage to get used to
it. We are used to the real. The truth we repress.
Jacques Lacan

Section 1: Thel as Freudian Specimen

At first glance William Blakes The Book of Thel reads as whimsical and effervescent.
The imagery and essence of the storyline reads delightfully similar to that of Lewis Carrolls
Alices Adventures in Wonderland, with both texts radiating the charm and playfulness commonly
found within fairytales. Aside from being entertaining, both these texts also share hidden lessons
for realistic application, revealing substantial values such as the importance of self-identity and
the journey to discover that identity. Like Carrolls Alice, Blakes poem also focuses around a
young girl named Thel, the youngest of several daughters living in the valley of Har. Thel
wanders off from her family and encounters a series of beings, engages in conversation with
three of the four and eventually returns back to her native land. The outset of the poem begins

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with Thels longing to fade away like morning beauty from her mortal day, immediately
1

asserting the narrative desire towards death within the first stanza and inviting the reader to
connect this language more closely and, specifically, how it can be analyzed according to the
Freudian theory that theorizes the death drive. We will temporarily summarize the death drive as
The aim of all life,2 and elaborate on the term more appropriately later on. This death drive
acts as a foundational basis in Thels narrative journey, stimulated by her desire to find and
establish a sense of self, and how the eventual confrontation with death in the fourth and final
fragment of the book acts as a pivotal point in reverting her back to the conscious realm, placing
her back into a naive and innocent existence in the valley of Har.
The language in the first fragment radiates hypnagogic innuendo, indicating this block of
time as Thels transition into a sleep state, Ah! gentle may I lay me down, and gentle rest my
head / And gentle sleep the sleep of death. and gentle hear the voice / Of him that walketh in the
garden in the evening time.3 This presents Thels following journey as being one through her
psyche, accessible only through the unconscious dream-state, as endorsed by our featured
psychoanalyst, The study of dreams may be considered the most trustworthy method of
investigating deep mental processes.4
With this allusion to dream-visions there is another connection that can be made
regarding the role death plays in the narrative. It is reminiscent of when the subject of a dream
falls off a cliff and is awoken during this moment. This marks death as the mediator between the
conscious and unconscious realms. As mentioned before, death acts as Thels pivotal shifting
1 Blake, William. The Book of Thel, (Penguin Books Edition, 1958), p. 87, Line 3.
2 Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Group Psychology and Other Works), The
Standard Edition; Volume XVII (1920-1922), p. 38-39.
3 Blake, p. 87, Lines 12-14.
4 Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents, (U.S.: Norton Standard Edition, 1961, 89,
2010. Print) p. 13.

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point back to reality, and in respect to the tale being a dream, it is also supported in that the
realization of death at the end of the dream forces Thel to arrive back in her conscious reality,
the valley of Har.
Accompanying the setting of the dream realm are other surrealistic qualities. Her use of
the third person gives off a distant and almost eerie sensibility, But Thel is like a faint cloud
kindled at the rising sun / I vanish from my pearly throne, and who shall find my place? Thel
referencing herself, but referencing herself outside of her own ego, without the use of the
subjective I, building upon her desire for self-identity. Thel also seems surreal in its fantastical
personification of discursively mute creatures and inanimate biologies, both of which are
common occurrences among fables and childrens stories. Each of the four beings, aside from the
Worm, is given a voice; The Lily, the Cloud, and the Clod of Clay and all have reciprocal
conversations with Thel, alluding more heavily on the dream-aspect of the entire situation.
With the connection between the dream-state acting as an unconscious basis for the
journey Thel embarks on there is now a basis for prominent focus on the heaviness of her mental
condition, a condition which constantly questions her own purpose, thus, her self-identity, or lack
thereof. Thels lamentation5 seems to be provoked by the harrowing question regarding her
own mortality, comparing it to the fleetingness of a smile on the face, or music, or music in the
air, highlighting her extremely dramatic and melancholic existential crisis. She goes on to
describe herself as but a reflection and a shadow, alluding to her self-pitiful insignificance in
the order of things. She ends this introductory monologue by wishing to sleep the sleep of
death.6 Here again there reflects the similarity sleep and death share and, more specifically, the
point in the death drive theory that states humankind cherishes the act of sleeping because it is an
5 Blake, p. 87, Line 5.
6 Blake, p. 87, Line 13.

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experience that comes closest to that of death. Thel also wishes to hear the voice of him that
walketh in the garden in the evening time,7 making an allusion to an ambiguous figure that
speaks when one reaches the sleep of death. This line hints that the him being addressed can
be constituted as God, further alluding to the concept of death and the afterlife. Thel desires a
transcendental liberation from her moral consciousness and heavily considers death as an outlet
for this liberation.
The first fragment introduces us to the first being Thel encounters. A Lily of the Valley
hears Thels lament and attempts to advise her in her questioning. The Lily speaks of a he that
whispers to her, impressing meaning upon her that she too will live eternally for a higher cause.
The he the Lily speaks of is similar to the him Thel mentions in the first stanza, especially
considering the reference to eternal life the Lily makes and also the similarity between Thels
him who walks in the garden to the Genesis depiction of God walking through a garden in the
evening. Here there is again the self-alienation through the use of a third person narrative. When
Thel leaves the Lily of the Valley she again verbalizes herself as Thel and not I,acting as a
continuous form of non-identification and adding to her existential crisis. Thel eventually
separates from the Lily after their brief conversation, unable to relate, and is introduced to the
second being.
When a Cloud is directed to her by the Lily, Thel shows the same complacency towards him as
well. Unable to relate to his logic that discusses obscure sexual references, but ultimately, the
purpose of producing life (rain) for other creatures, which again alludes to the heavy sexual
references the Cloud makes, Thel determines that, like the Lily, she cannot relate to the being. In
her woe is me attitude Thel does agree that she will also fade away like the Cloud but she
7 Blake, p.87, Lines 13-14.

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quickly states that she will not have given life to anything, asserting her life as even more
pointless than his. The Cloud reputes this declaration by telling Thel that she will become food
for the Earth and all its inhabitants when she dies, Then if thou art the food of worms, O virgin
of the skis, / How great thy use, how great thy blessing! Every thing / that lives / Lives not alone
nor for itself.8
The kinetic progression towards Thels realization of death begins when the Cloud calls upon the
Worm in order for Thel to see what kind of organisms her body will provide for when it decays.
To say that this aspect of existing was not what Thel had in mind of discovering would be an
accurate and sadly humoral assumption. Seeing the Worm, who is the only being of the four that
cannot speak, Thel calls him an image of weakness helpless & naked.9 Unable to
communicate with Thel, the Worm is then mediated through the appearance of the fourth and
final being, the Clod of Clay, who heard the Worms voice & raisd her pitying head to talk on
behalf of herself and in defense of the castrated Worm.
The Clod of Clay acts as a key-note speaker on behalf of both the Earth and death. Knowing this
the Clod of Clay says to Thel, Thou seest me the meanest thing,10 indicating the Clays selfawareness that she is a representation of lifes ultimate villain. The Clay does not insinuate
Thels death but does offer her a glimpse of where the body goes, in the physical sense, and also
challenging Thels previously noted recognition of the souls eternal life, Wilt thou, O Queen,
enter my house? 'tis given thee to / enter / And to return: fear nothing11 With the Clays
invitation Thel enterd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown.12 Through the eternal gates
8 Blake, p. 90, Lines 68-70.
9 Blake, p. 90, Lines 76 & 79.
10 Blake, p. 91, Line 85.
11 Blake, p. 91, Line 103.
12 Blake, p. 91, Line 105.

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that lift upon her arrival, Thel enters into the land beyond life, the land of the other, the land of
death.
Another aspect of Freuds death drive can be deduced from the closing fragment of the
poem. Thel is standing in this land of the unknown when ...to her own grave plot she came, &
there she sat down, / And heard this voice of sorrow13 These lines are spoken to Thel from an
obscure, unidentified source, evoking a sort of meta-narrative taking place within the psyche of
Thels already unconscious state. In the lines that follow we can take notice of the relation
between Blakes choice of language and self-destruction, an overtly associated quality in the
death drive, "Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?... / Why a Nostril wide
inhaling terror, trembling, and affright?14 The structural syntax of these last lines, as questions
targeted towards Thel, act as the denouement of her internal conflict. Taken as a meta-narrative,
we are able to compare the nominative subject of the Ear in receiving the destruction, to the
subject of Thel and her inability to resist her own destruction. In her callow, Thel has sunken
into the heart of the Earth and been confronted with inevitable destruction. A destruction
voluntarily and vehemently sought. She has inhaled this terror through her desires. Once exposed
to the ultimatum of death, however, Thels awareness materializes and with this realization, The
Virgin started from her seat, & with a shriek / Fled back unhinderd till she came into the vales
of Har.15 She falls off the edge of the cliff and wakes up right back where she started, in a grass
bed Down by the river of Adona,16 and back into the conscious realm of the valley, sheltered in
her delusional youth and heedlessness.

13 Blake, p. 92, Line 112-113.

14 Blake, p. 92, Lines 114 & 122.
15 Blake, p. 92, Lines 124-5.
16 Blake, p. 87, Line 4.

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Section 2: Enhancing the Psychoanalytic Lens

With a close literary analysis fleshed out, we can now assess Blakes poem more
thoroughly with the assistance of Sigmund Freuds theory of the death instinct, established in
his 1920 publication Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Extending on the earlier definition
mentioned, Freud originates that The aim of all life is death If we firmly maintain the
exclusively conservative nature of instincts, we cannot arrive at any other notions as to the origin
and aim of life.17 With this concept he situates that the animate, individual object, in this case,
Thel, is always driven by a desire to retract to a state of inanimacy. Freud eventually substitutes
the term instinct with drive when addressing this particular theory, highlighting the assertion
that the death drive is not essential to the life of the organism or subject, unlike the role of an
instinct. He concludes that the drive actually denatures the subject and causes it to behave in
ways that are sometimes counterintuitive. Freuds expression that the aim of all life is death
illuminates Thels aim-inhibited narrative through the unconscious realm. With the verbalization
of her longing in the first fragment, Thel claims death as her aim-inhibited object of desire.
Freuds use of the word aim can also be seen as interchangeable with the initial term drive,
both indicating a sense of kinetic, guiding energy. His statement that the drive behaves as
counterintuitive to the subject supports the concept of self-destruction as damaging to the wellbeing of the subject. Because drive can substitute the word aim it can then be re-appraised

17 Freud, p. 38-39.

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that Thel claims death as her drive- inhibited object, making her trajectory motivationally
death driven.
Another recognizable correspondence between Freuds psychoanalytic theories and
Blakes Thel derives from a passage in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, ...it regards reality as the
sole enemy and as the source of all suffering, with which it is impossible to live, so that one must
break off all relations with it if one is to be in any way happy.18 This correspondence is
presented in the similarity between Freuds language and the established plot analysis of Thel.
The it being referred to here is what Freud calls the pleasure principle, which, as is stated,
regards reality... as the source of all suffering, acting as contrast to the reality principle. The
occurrence of Thels narrative as a dream-vision can be connected with the execution of the
pleasure principle. Due to the insufferable recognition of a non-identity, Thel detaches herself
from reality and breaks off all relations with it by accessing an internal, psychical reality in the
dream realm.
Since this section elaborates on the clinical psychoanalytic terms used by Freud, we will
substitute the formerly addressed conscious realm of Thel as the pleasure principle and the
dream-realm as the reality principle. Freuds definition of these two terms are defined in
Civilization and Its Discontent in which he states that the pleasure principle is a drive that seeks
to avoid pain at every cost and the reality principle as the deferment of pleasure, where the
subject accepts the pains of reality.19 Thus, applying these definitions to Blakes narrator, Thel
exists in the valley of Har according to the pleasure principle, avoiding pain and maintaining a
familiar homeostasis. When she transitions into the dream-realm she transitions into the reality
principle due to the confrontation with the idea of an ultimate un-pleasure, death.
18 Freud, p. 28.
19 Freud, C & D. p. 13.

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Section 3: The Effects of the Material and the Immaterial

Although her death-drive is determined at the very beginning of the poem in the
comparison of herself to impermanent objects such as a parting cloud, a reflection in a glass,
and a smile upon a face, it seems curious as to why she is so thrown aback by the idea of death
at the end of the poem if she has already recognized herself as something short-lived. Here we
can highlight the initial and continuing presence of her youthful naivet and the misconception
she has of herself as a fleeting object. In the beginning of the narrative she simply romanticizes
her current existence. She only gives note to her own temporality through intangible
visualizations. The objects of comparison dont actually have personal tangibility. It is only when
she is physically presented with the material aspects of her comparisons, that she rejects them. It
isnt Till to her own grave plot she came20 that she comes in contact with the concrete object,
or at least the closest thing that can represent the concrete object of death while she is still a
living organism.
Though she does originally accept the concept of morality in the beginning of the poem,
she doesnt do so with a thorough understanding. Her narrow minded desires are only selfrealized once she is confronted, physically, with her own mortality. We can use another
psychoanalyst in explaining this distortion Thel has about the concept of death. Ferdinand de
Saussure contrives a three term system in which he describes what is needed for a complete
20 Blake, p. 92, Line 112.

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mental understanding between an object and its function or concept, I propose to retain the
word sign to designate the whole and to replace concept and sound-image respectively by
signified and signifier.21 With Saussures model applied, there are grounds to determine that
Thel, initially, has no physical image to complete the sound-image part. Due to this the sign
or the whole, is deformed and maintains itself in a misunderstanding. When Thel finally finds the
image pair of the sound-image, the whole (sign) is then fully understood and, in this
understanding, she rejects it. Thus, in her naively misguided desires, she becomes confronted
with the actual conceptions of death, and not death as she had fantasized it, causing her to retreat
back to her comfortably sheltered valley.

21 Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed.
Julie Rivkin. Michael Ryan. Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2004. 62. Print.