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La Belle Themes, Lamia Themes, Isabella Themes, Eve of St Agnes Themes -…
La Belle Themes
Love and Beauty
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the poem expresses warnings about the dangers of intense romantic love. First, obsession drains one’s emotional energy. ,
after the lovers' spiritual death they lose the ability to appreciate beauty in anything but the memory of what is lost.
The knight first describes falling in love with the Lady as a kind of enchantment that consumes him completely- "Full beautiful—a faery’s child."
the Lady says, "I love thee true." The knight’s response is to give himself over fully to the Lady
is she supernatural or is it the knight’s way of saying that the Lady was extremely, enchantingly beautiful.
the tensions between erotic love and seduction, and a ideal, chivalrous partnership
When we first meet the knight, he still has "a lily upon [his] brow," signifying his loyalty the courtly tradition. However, as the color quickly drains from his cheeks, he becomes vulnerable to the woman's charms.
Dreams vs. reality
By describing her as the child of a magical creature, he emphasizes that her ability to charm him is a supernatural force
fairy tale that sets up a colorful, imaginative world in opposition to the barren gray reality. By the end of the story, however, it is clear that the fairy-tale world is directly responsible for the knight’s exhausted desperation
the two worlds are bound together: the imagination can shape reality so profoundly that the two become indistinguishable.
Double exposure fantasy as the knight's story retells the dream he had during his encounter with the lady
The knight wakes from his dream "On the cold hill’s side" and surges back into the real world—that is, the world where the poem started. This moment raises the possibility that the knight was dreaming all along.
Unable to take his mind off this fantastical memory but also unable to return to it, the knight ends up trapped in the place where his imagination merges with his reality.
Death and Evil
When the object of obsession disappears, the lover left behind undergoes a spiritual death
The shape of the Lady’s cruelty suggests that anything one falls in love with or obsesses over can cause such pain, since anything can disappear in an instant
the knight learns from "pale kings and princes" (the Lady’s previous lovers) that he is in the deadly grips of a spirit
If the knight's experience of love and sex in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is so negative, that we wonder what it must that say about women?
The femme fatale is a seductive, beautiful woman who charms and ensnares men, leading them into dangerous situations
Betrayal and violence
a knight tells the story of how he becomes obsessed with, and then gets abandoned by, a spirit
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the knight sees the Lady’s former victims: "pale kings,". He sees the man he will become: someone deathly, starved, and captivated by memories of the Lady to the point of enslavement.
She abandons him without pity, and the knight's solitude becomes the framing image of the poem.
Sight and blindness
The Lady soon becomes the knight’s single focus—seemingly his single source of life. Besides the Lady, the knight sees "nothing else … all day."
Soon, the knight sees her in everything—he is obsessed. The flowers transform into suitable material for the Lady to wear.
Lamia Themes
Love and Beauty
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even if they had been able to share more time together, they would have fallen out of love.
Lamia seems to say that passionate love is an illusion and an enchantment, ultimately destructive
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The subject of Lamia is consuming love such as Keats himself was experiencing when he wrote the poem.
Death and Evil
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The poem has an equally dark view of love in showing that romantic love can involve power-play and even cruelty
Keats did not envisage the character of Lamia as the demoniac creature of tradition, it is far from clear whether she is a femme fatale or the fragile victim of Apollonius’s rationality.
The character of Apollonius is equally ambiguous: Is he the cold-hearted destroyer of beauty and joy or the good teacher of high ideals?
Apollonius in the story seems malignant and scornful of Lycius, whose death he is indirectly responsible for.
Dreams vs. reality
Lamia’s beauty is superficial and destructive. However, Keats seems ambivalent about the coldly scientific attitude expressed by Apollonius.
Lamia withers and dies under the cold stare of the rational philosopher Apollonius, who sees through her illusion. Lycius also dies as his dream is shattered
It is from Lamia’s imagination that the lavish decoration of the banqueting hall is created, which has such an impact on both guest and reader
it is disastrous to separate the sensuous and emotional life from the life of reason. Philosophy, if divorced from emotion, can be cold and destructive;
does Lycius hubristically reject human limitations to aspire to that pure pleasure known only by the immortals?
Sight and blindness
while their mutual blindness lasts they are perfectly happy. But when "sharp-eyed" Apollonius enters the house, even as the other guests marvel at its beauty, he sees through its illusions instantly
Lycius fails to see that she is supernatural when she tells him she is mortal because he is blinded by his love
Apollonius comments on the lovers' blindness showing how it takes a rational, logical person to see the toxicity in their love
When Lycius sees into a world outside their love he desires a wedding to showcase their devotion but this rejection of the blind world of love destroys them
Lamia, therefore, can be regarded as a warning against the all-absorbing nature of illusory, passionate love and a recognition of the claims of reason.
Betrayal and violence
Lamia deceives Lycius about her identity, telling him that she is just a woman, when in fact she is a creature with supernatural powers.
The poem has an equally dark view of love in showing that romantic love can involve power-play and even cruelty
Lamia enjoys her power over Lycius when he thinks she is a goddess. She pretends she is too superior to him to love him back
Lycius also acts cruel when he has the upper hand. Given power over Lamia, he acts like a tyrant and refuses her requests:
Isabella Themes
Death and Evil
Isabella’s brothers are ruthless capitalists and Keats lists their mines and factories, their cruelties and the poor people they exploit
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a reminder that we need to let go of grief eventually and move on if we are to avoid the fate of Isabella.
The brothers are almost symbolic of the devil: their purpose during the poem is to take everything away from Isabella that she cared for, despite her subsequent death
Dreams vs. reality
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Her contradictory character which is immediately introduced gives us a sense of mystery and confusion.
Keats used emotions over logic to reinforce the ongoing battle between Isabella and Lorenzo, and the brothers
Isabella feels ‘urgency’ in regaining Lorenzo’s love and battles for his reawakened physical body, rather than just the spirit, or the memory of him.
Sight and blindness
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when chasing after the Christian it is clear she has lost sight of what is true moral and religion as she is devoted to the pot
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Lorenzo visits Isabella, as a vision, after his death- is he really there or is it part of Isabella's grieving and eventual madness
Betrayal and violence
heart-felt sympathy for the victims of the brothers’ greed but also there is a fascination with gory details, as when the brothers unearth Lorenzo’s head
the brothers are aware of the vulnerability of Isabella, and therefore take advantage of it
The way that they gave Isabella the false reason as to where Lorenzo has gone eliminates their part in the crime – as far as Isabella knows, they are just the messengers.
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Eve of St Agnes Themes
Death and Evil
in a Romeo and Juliet dilemma: they come from families whose hatred for each other is as icy-cold as the winter snows outside.
Madeline’s “hyena”-like and bloodthirsty family, and the “bitter chill” of the winter night outside, the couple live in a pretty unforgiving environment.
readers never learn whether they make it to their new “home” or merely disappear into the storm, and the poem ends with the ugly, lonely deaths of Angela and the Beadsman
“The Eve of St. Agnes” surrounds its lush, sensuous romance with stark images of death
even beautiful young lovers like Madeline and Porphyro end up old (if they’re lucky!) and dead—and encouraging them to embrace life while they can.
Dreams vs. reality
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He becomes “entranced,” pulled out of normal reality into a world of beauty.
as the two embrace and “melt” into each other, they share a moment of heavenly passion that does seem to make them briefly immortal, taking them far away from the cruel reality of death.
Dreams and the imagination, the poem suggests, may be more enchanting and enticing than real life, but they’re also more fragile
The two young lovers’ dreams do have a real-world power, giving them the courage to get out the door into the world beyond.
Love and Beauty
Keats’ poem is a meditation on desire and its fulfilment, on wishes, dreams and romance.
When Porphyro first appears his intentions appear chaste, seemingly wanting only to ‘speak, kneel, touch, kiss’. His first thought is to gaze upon ‘her beauty’, the abstract noun reinforcing the chaste nature of his desires.
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Love can create moments of pure beauty and warmth within a harsh reality—and maybe even make life worth living.
The world might be beset with death, disease, and hatred, the poem suggests, but love can create moments of enchanting consolation
Betrayal and violence
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Porphyro manipulates Angela getting her to trust him that he will only care and love Madeline so he can spy on Madeline but by revealing himself and forcing her out of her dreams he hurts her
Madeline feels betrayed by her dream as Porphyro is a "pallid, chill" version of the one she wanted
Porphyro, totally unbeknownst to her, sneaks his way into the castle, figures out her plan, and then makes his own plan around it.
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Sight and blindness
Porphyro sees her lit up “like a saint” and is sensuously hypnotized by the thought of her “warmed jewels” and “fragrant boddice.”
when she wakes up and sees him, while she’s at first upset to find that he’s mortal after all
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He manages to sneak into the castle unseen except by Angela and then out again, with Madeline now his bride. This suggests that the fulfillment of his spiritual longing was providential, or occurring at just the right moment and aided by the divine.