Abstract This paper claims that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "Christabel," is an excellent illustration of the Gothic genre. The writer discusses the development of this style as a reaction to the "Age of Reason" and Enlightenment. The paper also discusses elements particular to the Gothic style and illustrates why "Christabel" is innovative, especially its fantastic and taboo topics. The paper explains that "Christabel" also serves to demonstrate Coleridge's impact on redirecting and revitalizing literature at the end of the 18th century.
From the Paper "Along with William Wordsworth, Coleridge had an active hand in changing the face of poetry forever when they published their Lyrical Ballads in 1798. In this work, as well as his future work, Coleridge explored "the development of the human person, on how selves are made and lost," by introducing fantasy and innovative story lines that developed as the poem developed instead of simply focusing on a static "picture" or event (Taylor 707). This is a reflection of the times in which Coleridge lived. Much of the focus at this time was on the various scientific ideas that were in their infancy. Psychology and sociology were all but unheard of at the time, and so Coleridge's exploration of the inner self is truly innovative, but it was also his interest in things even more mysterious than this that likely generated the ideas for "Christabel." Since The Enlightenment advocated reason and logic above all other modes of thought and philosophy, this interest in the spiritual and illogical seems a natural backlash to the psychological and social pressures The Enlightenment placed on its most creative individuals. "
Abstract This paper focuses on the poem, "Christabel", by Henry Coleridge, and demonstrates how the Romantics, and especially Coleridge, believed that by presenting paradoxes in literature, the reader will be forced to think and inherently grow. The paper shows that the paradoxical nature of Coleridge's "Christabel" makes the reader reach what Coleridge calls ?a reconciliation of opposites.? The contradictions in the first part of the poem create a raw agitation and force the reader to increase his or her perceptions in order to search for a conclusion.
From the Paper "However, Christabel's act of leaving the castle is suspicious because one cannot have impure thoughts while in a castle. Virginia Radley states: "What [Christabel] is doing in the forest had been explained, though why she felt it necessary to leave the castle to pray has not been" (68). Christabel's ties to her "knight" are as ambiguous as her reasons for interacting with the mystical ?night;? has she naively left the castle so that she can be closer to nature and God while praying, or is Christabel hoping that her mind will drift into a sinful, imaginary sexual encounter? A conclusion cannot be made about Christabel's character without considering the obscurity of the passage."
This paper discusses the characteristics of each female and their use of their power to achieve their ultimate goal in John Keats's poem, "Lamia" and Samuel Coleridge's ?Christabel?.
Abstract This paper relates that myth, mystery, and passion work together to create powerful creatures of deception in John Keats's poem, "Lamia" and Samuel Coleridge's ?Christabel?. The author points out that each poem is an allegory that depicts females possessing disdainful qualities to illustrate the power of women. The paper concludes that, by developing characters with mythological powers and human emotion, the poets create powerful creatures of deception.
From the Paper "James Boulger suggests there is a "semi-divine force" operating in the world of myth symbolism in Lamia and in these experiences the poet "projects on the highest imaginative level man's dream of permanence for his more hopeful psychological states of being" (Boulger 244) This coarse physical way is practiced by the ordinary sensual breed, not by the poet or his hero. Keats employs symbols taken from the world of nature, mythology, love, and art in Lamia. (255) "Love is the major focus for the major incidents in the poem, and these incidents are ordered and made meaningful by the mythological structure" (248). Lycius needed human love whereas Lamia needed a love of a divine kind. Lycius could never rise to the level of divine love between immortals. (248) "
An investigation into the possibility that Samuel Coleridge's poem, "Christabel," could be an autobiographical confession of his confusing and complex feelings toward fellow poet and friend, William Wordsworth.
Abstract The paper examines the possibility that Samuel Coleridge's "Christabel" character is a transgendered projection of his himself, written subconsciously to word out his conflicted feelings toward William Wordsworth, whom he felt was sucking him dry of his creativity in order to achieve his own literary immortality.
From the Paper "Central to any critical understanding of a poem is the acceptance or formation of a well reasoned interpretation. Merely reading a poem as a collection of words, or even as just a story being told, doesn't help the reader appreciate the more subtle content contained in an original work of literature. All great poems, and many bad poems, are open to a variety of interpretations, and it is important to keep them in mind when reading the actual poem in order for one to gain further insight into the thematic composition at play within the poetry itself. Interpretive choices must be created from sources beyond the simple lexical meaning of the words themselves. It is equally important to examine the subtext, closely scrutinizing the nuance and imagery operating between the words. Beyond that, one would do well to consider the history of the poet, especially that history which goes into his psychological makeup and which therefore will determine various subconscious details included in the poem of which even the poet himself might be unaware. Further, a reader can often gain insight into an interpretive choice as to the meaning of a poem by being aware of such ostensibly mundane things as the poet's selection of names for his characters, or even his choice of setting or environment. Finally, one can even glean a great deal about the meaning of a poem by understanding the actual history of the poem itself. All of these choices must be considered when choosing to interpret Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Christabel," and in so doing one can very easily arrive at a perfectly valid interpretation of the poem which clearly finds that it is amazingly autobiographical considering the sensational subject matter, that it contains undeniable insight into Coleridge's own personal fears and desires, and even that the content of the poem itself may explain why the author was incapable of finishing it despite having said that the plan for the entire poem was complete in his head (Basler 48-49)."
Abstract This paper analyzes and discusses Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Christabel." The paper particularly focuses on the Gothic motifs that Coleridge uses to convey images and ideas within the poem. It presents parts of the poem to illustrate the images of vampires, moldy castles, dark moonlit nights and tragic heroines that Coleridge uses to convey his Gothic motif.
From the Paper "In any gothic work, it seems almost predestined that the motif of a dark and dank castle exists somewhere in the work. "Christabel" is no exception. Her elderly father calls a drafty old castle home, and the images of fires burning, dark rooms, and shadowy stairways almost always occur in gothic works. The elements of the poem are dark and dreary, and so the setting must echo these elements to set the stage for tragedy and evil."
"Finally, the motif of the dark, "bleak" forest is another gothic element of the poem. The owl screeching, the wind blowing, and Christabel praying for her beloved at midnight all combine into an eerie, unsettling image. Gothic works are dark and sinister, but there is always something "wrong" in them as well. Why is Christabel out alone in the dark woods on such a dreary night? The image is wrong, and yet, it occurs, which is another important element that all lead to a classic and dark gothic poem."
Abstract The central thesis of this paper is the meaning of the Platonic concepts of the forms and particulars as they relate to an understanding of the occult. The difference between the forms and particulars, it is argued, is equivalent to the difference between the unknown and the known, or the strange and the familiar. The occult is viewed as the knowledge of the unknown. This view of the forms and particulars is applied using Freudian and Jungian theoretical perspectives and is applied to an analysis of "Christabel" by Coleridge, the "Blair Witch Project", and "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Platonic Forms and Particulars
2.1. The Occult
3. Critical Perspective
4. Analysis of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Christabel"
5. Conclusion
From the Paper "In his philosophy Plato distinguishes between the world of reality and the world of illusion. The world of reality and timeless truth is that of the forms. The word of illusion refers to the world of particulars and everyday experience. We exist during our lifetimes in this world of the senses or the world of particulars. For Plato and Socrates, death is the escape from the imprisonment of the world of particulars which is the reason why Socrates in the Phaedo states that he welcomes death. He believes that the soul will continue after death and the knowledge that he seeks as a philosopher will be encountered in the death state."
Abstract The paper discusses how A. S. Byatt, in the novel "Possession", succeeds brilliantly in the monumental technical achievement of creating a deeply layered romance in which two twentieth century literary scholars, Roland Michell and Maud Bailey, become themselves romantically involved as they investigate a startling connection between the two Victorian poets of whom they have made specialized study. The author shows that Byatt's feat is an especially remarkable tour de force as she invents and adroitly interlaces the poetic works of both Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte into her narrative. This essay presents a critical analysis of Ash's poem "Swammerdam" as it reveals it's intricate intra textual roles in the novel.
From the Paper "Byatt introduces the word "possessed" (225) as Swammerdam considers his obsession with insects. From the title of the book it is obvious the Byatt herself is possessed with the ways in which humans throughout history become possessed by one thing or another. Scholars are possessed by long dead poets, men and women are romantically possessed by one another, mentally and physically and Swammerdam and Ash are possessed by obsessions to study "forms of life" (225). As Swammerdam "crucified" "frail dark wings," for his own knowledge and "amusement," the reader sees the analogy to Ash's poetic crucifixions of his poetic characterizations and even feels a foreboding knowledge of Christabel's fate as she will succumb to the pins and microscope of Ash's possession."
Abstract This paper examines how gothic texts use sensationalism, horror and prurient excitements to promote the work. It discusses how the poems of ?Christabel? and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge go further and deeper than just to sensationalise, horrify or sexually excite the reader. It also debates whether gothic texts fall too readily into mere sensationalism, into unmeaning horror and prurient excitements and whether they should be kept away from the acquaintance of young minds.
From the Paper "Coleridge does use sensational language and horror to get the more profound meaning of the story of the mariner. This meaning is that people cannot reason and justify every event or experience in their life, however desperately they try. Throughout the whole text, the mariner, the sailors, the persona as well as Coleridge himself with the gloss, try to justify everything that happens and give a precise reason for every occurrence. For example, they justify the arrival of Death and Life-in-Death by saying that it is their punishment for killing the albatross. Coleridge uses horror and sensationalism through the poem, with purposeful effect. They are not unmeaning and pointless."
Tags: sensationalism, horror, excitement, language
Abstract This paper reviews the novel, "Possession" by A.S. Byatt, which revolves around two contemporary scholars, Maud Bailey and Roland Mitchell, who are each immersed in the study of one of two Victorian poets and who happen to discover evidence of a previously unimagined relationship between their subjects, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel La Motte. In particular, the paper analyzes how the title works very well for the book, since the word "possession" appears in the book many times and has multiple meanings; it relates to the characters and the main plot of the novel.
From the Paper "The two scholars discover that Randolph Henry Ash, assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster secretly had an extramarital romance. They discover their poems; their journal entries and letters of other interested parties. The whole rediscovery of a long-forgotten romance begins when Roland Mitchell, finds two rough drafts of a love letter written by Randolph Ash, an acclaimed literary figure known to be married man, to an unknown woman. He finds these letters in Randolph Henry Ash's copy of Vico. Roland soon finds a vague link between Ash's letters and a 19th century reclusive poetess named Christabel La Motte. To find out more about Motte, he enlists the help of Maud Bailey who is a La Motte scholar. Initially, Maud is reluctant to get involved in Roland's investigation, as she doesn't believe there was any romantic connection between the two poets. But she finally agrees."
Abstract This paper outlines the qualities and criteria of romantic poetry and attempts to show how it is possible to compare and contrast the poetic style and subject matter of Coleridge's poems,to these criteria in order to determine the extent to which he fits the description ?Romantic poet.? The poems analysed are ?Eolian Harp,? "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" and ?Kubla Khan.? The paper then highlights Coleridge's Gothic credentials, focusing in particular on ?Christabel.?
From the Paper "An excellent example of innovation in the way that a poem is divided, and indeed of many other Romantic attributes, is This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison; it contains three sections of twenty, twenty-four and thirty four lines respectively, an irregular structure. The first section conveys a sense of lost opportunity; resigned to missing out on a walk with his friends, Coleridge, due to his heightened insecurities, initially wallows in self pity, an almost obligatory action in many of his autobiographical poems, ?Well, they are gone, and here I must remain / This lime-tree bower my prison!? This focus on, or reference to, the poet himself is an important feature of Romantic poetry and can also be seen in Lines, The Eolian Harp, and Reflections On Having Left a Place of Retirement. However, the second part of the first section and the entire second section show a complete change in spirits on the part of Coleridge, who begins to derive pleasure from imagining the natural beauty surrounding, and the enjoyment of, his friends as they walk. "
Tags: bower, christabel, eolian, gothic, harp, khan, kubla, lime, samuel, tree
Abstract This paper studies the Romantic period in English literature, from 1798 to 1832. The paper evaluates the lyrical ballads of Sir William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which were published at the turn of the 19th century. The paper first analyzes William Wordsworth's poems "Expostulation and Reply" and "The Tables Turned", to demonstrate how the Romantic poets turned to nature as their schoolroom and derived life's lessons from nature. Next, the paper examines three Coleridge poems: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel". The paper explains that each of these poems demonstrates the juxtaposition between nature and the sub-conscious, particularly the dream-state.
From the Paper "The old regime in England took its stand in the face of revolutionary fervor based on the American and French Revolutions. For those who sympathized with the Revolution, they needed a new revolution directed against reason and toward something else, and that "something else" was imagination (Adams 363). Romanticism was a movement marked by a shift in feeling, a shift in sensibility, as well as a new concept of man's relation to the natural order and to Nature in particular. As with most movements, the perception that a group of poets exhibited this sort of shift in sensibility is something imposed after the fact by critics reading the works of Keats, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, among others, and finding that many of their sentiments and responses demonstrate a similarity in outlook different from the previous age. Romanticism was marked by certain attitudes, among them the following: 1) a growing interest in Nature and in the natural, primitive, and uncivilized manifestations of Nature; 2) a growing interest in scenery; 3) an association of human moods with the "moods" of Nature, leading to a subjective feeling for it and interpretation of it; 4) an emphasis on natural religion; 5) an emphasis on the need for spontaneity in thought and action and in the expression of thought; 6) more importance given to natural genius and the power of the imagination; 7) a tendency to exalt the individual and his or her needs and an emphasis on the need for a freer and more personal expression; and 8) the cult of the Noble Savage (Cuddon 814-815)."
Abstract Examines Coleridge's craftsmanship and definitions of poems and poetry. Analyzes "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Christabel." Considers the suppression of the power of human reason in both poems. Discusses the poetic ambiguity in "Mariner" and "Christabel".
From the Paper "A cursory glance through Coleridge's literary and dramatic criticism vividly illustrates that he valorizes the imaginative aesthetic faculty, much preferring it to constructing drama and poetry according to literary convention, still less rules of ..."
Discusses "The RIME of the ANCIENT MARINER" & "CHRISTABEL." Analyzes poet's use of the supernatural & the concept of good & evil in the two poems. Compares to Wordsworth.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 7 sources, 1989, $ 47.95
From the Paper "The purpose of this paper is to analyze Samuel Taylor Coleridge's use of the supernatural and the concept of good and evil in his poems 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and 'Christabel.'
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are two poets whose poetic endeavors are inextricably linked in the history of romantic poetry. Although Coleridge and Wordsworth collaborated in Lyrical Ballads (1798), both poets were considerably different in their approach to poetry. Wordsworth for instance, was not particularly concerned with the supernatural, while Coleridge was very involved in the subject. When the two poets decided to publish a volume of verse, they agreed on their personal poetic (...)"
Abstract This paper examines how historians have portrayed Emmeline Pankhurst in a negative manner mainly due to her apparent self-interest displayed during the struggle to gain votes for women. It analyses different points of her life such as her relationship with her family, her role in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and factors such as her autocratic nature to conclude that she was partly motivated by self-interest but the effects of her achievements were outstanding and clearly positive in helping other women.
From the Paper "Even though Pankhurst experienced much rough treatment directed at her, she carried out much of her own violence throughout her adoption of intense militancy. Militancy within the WSPU began in 1905 commenced by Christabel (she claims) after she interrupted a Liberal political rally in Manchester although the WSPU was not at first a militant organisation. Emmeline Pankhurst was, despite this, at the centre of militancy. Brendon argues she was the 'most notorious woman of her day by means of violence'32 and Pankhurst herself suggests this by stating 'I love fighting'33. This indicates its truth because otherwise such a statement would portray her in an unfavourable light especially since other suffragettes after a particular incident told Pankhurst 'we cannot bear this'34 militancy."
