state of the union: Bi-gendered redemption in William Blake's "The Four Zoas"

Though William Blake's The Four Zoas is not a finished, illustrated work, it does present the complete story of the fall, death, and redemption of the eternal figure. Blake's characters, equal and interdependent in their gender, ultimately reabsorb into the Eternal Male, Urthona, who lives within the Eternal Female, Jerusalem. Jerusalem and Urthona together create the bi-gendered, eternal figure, or the ultimate eternal state. The original fall from Eternity creates a war against Eternal Death, in which the original eternal figure separates into zoas and emanations, and then into spectres and shadows; the further away from the eternal figures the characters move, the further debased and corrupted their characters become. The characters ultimately achieve bi-gendered redemption through interdependent cooperation and the use of states.