CAESURA 1.1 (2014) THE APOCALYPTIC TONE OF IRONY IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL ÉVA ANTAL * “… the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than [the Devil del.] he who dwells in flaming fire.” (William Blake) ABSTRACT. “(T)he (Devil) who dwells in flaming fire”—being the only and quite spectacular correction in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, it reveals (cf. apokalypsis) the truth of the tone of the work, Blake’s way of thinking and also of his working process. This correction can be re- garded as a visible—or, being engraved, a tactile—expression of Blake’s irony, an ironic un- dercut expressis verbis. The present paper is concerned with the possible interpretations of the ironical-satirical context of the apocalyptic work and, while paying attention to the figures of the text, it will basically focus on two facets of the tone—the apocalyptic and the ironic. I can promise that by the end of my paper we can learn more about him “dwelling in flaming fire”— toning with the Blakean irony. Although the Blakean vision operates with a disturbing multi- plicity of voices—namely, Rintrah, the Devil, the I persona, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Angel, and the illustrator—the first striking impression is the assured clear-sightedness which characterises all of them. On the one hand, while an apocalyptic writing always keeps some mystery in the core, the clear tone desired for revelation deconstructs the speculative and visionary discourse itself. On the other hand, this polytonality and the sudden change of tone seems to reveal, as Derrida argues, “the disorder or the delirium of destination”. However, in an apocalyptic discourse the destination, the end is (its) truth itself, and the text becomes—and actually every text is always already—apocalyptic. KEY WORDS: apocalyptic, ironic, tone, polytonality, truth In his Doubt and Identity in Romantic Poetry, in the chapter titled “Irony and False Consciousness”, Andrew Cooper emphasises the overwhelming ironic tonality of William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In the repetition of self-creation and self-destruction, due to the persona’s masks used in his works, the ironist is able to free himself from the limitations of self- * ÉVA ANTAL (PhD, Dr. Habil.) is Professor of English literature and Philosophy at Eszterházy Károly College, Department of English Studies in Eger, Hungary. She spe- cializes in Neoclassical and Romantic British literature and culture, and literary theory. E-mail: antaleva@ektf.hu.