The experience of the chimney sweeper satirizes the hypocrisy of English society in William Blake’s poem “The Chimney Sweeper” because it pointedly draws attention to certain abuses and cruelty in England at the time.

Generally, satire is the use humor, ridicule, mockery, or irony to expose injustice and other wrongs in the world. In the poem, Blake uses irony to highlight the inhumanity of English society. It’s ironic that the speaker learns how to sweep chimneys before they could “scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” Blake's pointed use of irony continues when Tom dreams about “an Angel” who liberates the chimney sweepers from their miserable lives and lets them into a paradisiacal world where they can “wash in a river and shine in the Sun.”

Of course, the society these chimney sweepers inhabit is far away from that idyllic setting. The Edenic landscape of the dream satirizes the ghastly world that is reality for the chimney sweepers. Blake might be using satire to say that while England is no Eden, it can do a lot more to take better care of its children and workers.

In the final line, Blake mocks the idea that obedience and hard work are important virtues for the chimney sweepers when the speaker quips, “so if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.” They need real action that makes a material difference in their lives, not empty talking points and useless virtue.