11230392
Description
Mind Map by Caitlin McFadyen, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Caitlin McFadyen
about 7 years ago
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La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballard (184)
- Portrayal of Women
- She is the cause of his
ailment; his
preoccupation with
what he cannot have
- 'She looked at me as she did love, and made
sweet moan. I set her on my pacing steed'
- Feminist criticism: Rather than a temptress,
she is a victim: 'moan' could be interpreted
as a resistance rather than a consensual /
sexual moan.
- 'And there she wept and sighed full sore, and there I shut her wild wild eyes'
- Is she weeping because she was taken advantage of? Repetition of wild could be wild in fear
- Is she weeping because she was taken advantage of? Repetition of wild could be wild in fear
- 'And there she wept and sighed full sore, and there I shut her wild wild eyes'
- 'as' Is perhaps 'as if' - the knight is the
Speaker at this point therefore it is his
interpretation and he may be
manipulating the scenario. Similarly, this
may just be a poetic device by Keats so
that there are the correct amount of
syllables in the lines to fit the form
- Feminist criticism: Rather than a temptress,
she is a victim: 'moan' could be interpreted
as a resistance rather than a consensual /
sexual moan.
- The woman as the TEMPTRESS; leading the knight astray
- 'Full beautiful - a faery's child, her hair was long,
her foot was light, and her eyes were wild'
- An emphasis on her physical beauty
- Traditional folk lore
- Ethereal and otherworldly - a symbol of allegory
- Delicate and feminine mixed with the 'femme
fatale' - wild implies her ability to invite danger.
Strange combination with the usual presentation
of women in the medieval world
- An emphasis on her physical beauty
- 'she found me roots of relish sweet...
and in language strange she said - 'I love
thee true'. She took me to her elfin
grot...Lulled me asleep
- Active verbs; a switch in pronouns from I, I, I, She, She - change in control
- Giving him gifts; temptation with gluttony
- 'took me' - she has control of the situation; invites him to her domain
- However, if she spoke in a strange language how would he know what she said? He's interpreted it therefore its likely untrue
- Active verbs; a switch in pronouns from I, I, I, She, She - change in control
- 'lulled me asleep' - Victimising himself,
a vulnerable uncontrolled state
- 'Full beautiful - a faery's child, her hair was long,
her foot was light, and her eyes were wild'
- She is the cause of his
ailment; his
preoccupation with
what he cannot have
- Love: link to portrayal of women; chivalric love; love causing suffering
- J. Barnard (2006): 'young lovers whose love is opposed in
the real or everyday worlds' & 'La Belle Dame is an
ominous, perhaps demonic, lover.'
- DISAGREE!!!
- DISAGREE!!!
- J. Barnard (2006): 'young lovers whose love is opposed in
the real or everyday worlds' & 'La Belle Dame is an
ominous, perhaps demonic, lover.'
- The Medieval World
- Unusual depiction of the 'knight-at-arms' - as he is
'palely loitering'. Usually presented as strong masculine
figures. This description contradicts Keats's other
knights
- 'I saw pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death pale were they all
- Characters representing the feudal order
- Characters representing the feudal order
- K. Sharkey (1927): Keats's knights often have an
effeminate aura and are stripped of power.
- 'I saw pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death pale were they all
- Potential 'chivalric love' - 'I made a garland for her head,
and bracelets too'; 'I set her on my pacing steed'
- Unusual depiction of the 'knight-at-arms' - as he is
'palely loitering'. Usually presented as strong masculine
figures. This description contradicts Keats's other
knights
- Mortality
- His suffering is so intense it is even felt replicated in the lack of life and
movement in Nature
- 'The sedge has withered
from the lake, and no
birds sings'
- There is an absence of
life, almost deathly still
- There is an absence of
life, almost deathly still
- 'The sedge has withered
from the lake, and no
birds sings'
- Imagery related to death: 'lily', a flower of death
- 'I saw pale Kings...pale warriors, death-pale
were they all; they cried - 'La Belle Dame
sans Merci'
- Repetition of pale compounds the
sickly after-effects of men that
have loved the lady (extent of
suffering)
- K.Sharkey (1927): Keats uses the Med
World to transport his reader away
into far distant lands [...] fairy
creatures haunt the minds and
feelings of men and women
- K.Sharkey (1927): Keats uses the Med
World to transport his reader away
into far distant lands [...] fairy
creatures haunt the minds and
feelings of men and women
- 'Cried' = anguished, they
are a collective all
sharing an experience of
suffering - they all
decide to name her 'The
Woman who has no
mercy'. Are they blaming
her for their pain and
warning other men of
her danger?
- Repetition of pale compounds the
sickly after-effects of men that
have loved the lady (extent of
suffering)
- His suffering is so intense it is even felt replicated in the lack of life and
movement in Nature
- Poetic Devices
- Ballard; Quantrains;
cyclical structure:
beginning mirrors the
end to create an
affect of never-ending
suffering
- 2 Poetic Personas: 1st Speaker is unnamed, unknown, framing the story as in a narrative form - because there is a lack of identity I assume this Speaker is more objective and therefore can be trusted
- 2nd Speaker: IV: The Knights voice recollecting the ordeal of falling in love with the beautiful lady - his own story and version of events (Fem. Criticism)
- Ballard; Quantrains;
cyclical structure:
beginning mirrors the
end to create an
affect of never-ending
suffering
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