William Blake’s poem The Tyger depicts the creation of a being that can be considered as both beautiful and horrific, and questions what kind of creator could have made such a being. Blake portrays God as a smith in the poem, using metaphors such as “hammer” and “anvil” to create the image of a smith laboriously working to finish his creation. This metaphor was chosen because a smithy represents a traditional image of artistic creation; and the act of forging is a very physical and deliberate kind of crafting. Which is why Blake’s interpretation of the “Tyger” as a “fearful” creation questions what kind kind of creator could design such a dangerous and terrifying beast. The tiger thus becomes a symbolic representation of the introduction/presence of evil in the world. Replacing “Could” with “Dare” in the last line of the first and last stanza in the question “Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”, challenges the idea that God is a benevolent being because he doesn’t just have the power to potentially create such an evil creature, Blake emphasizes that God “dares” to introduce such beings into our world. God’s creation of the tiger can be seen as a work of art, and Blake uses this concept to lead to the notion that art must display some vague reflection of its creator. Thus, the depiction of the tiger as an evil being questions what kind of God the world has, and directly challenges the religious view that God is benevolent, because the tiger is physical evidence that God has introduced evil into our world.
