Characterisation of Lamia

Beschreibung

Mindmap am Characterisation of Lamia, erstellt von Chloe Anderson am 03/04/2017.
Chloe Anderson
Mindmap von Chloe Anderson, aktualisiert more than 1 year ago
Chloe Anderson
Erstellt von Chloe Anderson vor mehr als 7 Jahre
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Zusammenfassung der Ressource

Characterisation of Lamia
  1. According to ancient myth, Lamia was a half-woman, half-monster... or a woman who became a monster, or gave birth to monsters... or a creature who ate children, or devoured men. Keats offers a single, coherent narrative that acknowledges these complex traditions and adds his own commentary on them.
    1. Opening of the Poem
      1. The opening of the poem (lines 1-34) establishes that its events took place long, long ago, in a forest far, far away. Its first events don't concern Lamia at all, but the god Hermes, who is pursuing a nymph whom he desires. It's quite clear that this is an intense and potentially destructive passion: Hermes is described as 'bent warm on amorous theft' (line 8). In setting the stage this way, Keats subtly critiques the misogyny, or prejudice against women, of some versions of Lamia's legend, demonstrating that sexually predatory beings can be male as well as female.
        1. Hermes, sulking, overhears Lamia say that she wants to 'move in a sweet body fit for life, / And love, and pleasure, and the ruddy strife / Of hearts and lips!' (lines 39-41). That means exactly what it sounds like. And it's worth noting that Lamia's sensual desires here are not about consuming others but about being who she wants to be
          1. The comparisons to multiple animals suggest possibilities about the snake's character (swift, dangerous, vain?). In the last few lines of this example, the mysterious nature of the snake is made even more explicit; Keats suggests that she might be a victim of evil, linked to evil, or the embodiment of evil.
            1. This ambiguity continues in subsequent lines. Lamia is compared to Proserpine, who, according to mythology, was kidnapped by the god of the underworld; but Keats also reminds the reader that 'her throat was serpent' (line 64), and she speaks with a sinister sweetness, as 'through bubbling honey' (line 65). In the ensuing exchange, Lamia and Hermes strike a bargain: she will help him find the nymph he wants if he will restore her to a woman's form, so that she can pursue Lycius, a young man of Corinth.
            2. Imagery represented through Lamia's characterisation
              1. Lamia herself symbolises any person or thing that seems to be attractive but is actually destructive. She is half-snake, half-woman – beautiful but deadly.
                1. Disguised by her ‘full-born’ beauty, Lamia entices Lycius into a relationship which is notable for its blissful obliviousness to the outside world and the house where they live becomes a symbol of retreat from the ‘real’ world
                  1. The main theme of the poem concerns the tension between appearance and reality. Lamia’s beauty is superficial and destructive. However, Keats seems ambivalent about the coldly scientific attitude expressed by Apollonius.
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