Abstract
According to the knight’s narrative in “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad”, “la belle dame” is a deceptive temptress, who has a mysterious tryst with him and forsakes him mercilessly. Apparently, in his narrative, he falls victim to the mysterious lady. However, the truth tends to be ignored that the lady is rarely heard in the poem since her voice of resisting the knight’s fantasy world is deprived and covered by his narrative. As to the motivations, critics usually attribute Keats’s deprivation of female voice to his fear of Fanny Brawne, his charming lover’s sexual beauty. However, a close reading of textual details in the poem provides more interpretations of the deprived female voice. First, through the deprivation, Keats suggests his resistance against the power of a female lover as well as a female reader, and thus exhibits his endeavor and ambition to establish a masculine poetic identity among women readers. Besides, it indicates his combat against the anxiety of influence from George Gordon Byron’s literary success.
Highlights
The “Odes” are usually regarded as John Keats’s greatest masterpieces, his poems concerning female images such as “Isabelle”, “Lamia”, “The Eve of St
In “La Belle”, the dual female traits of romance and anti-romance can be discovered through a close reading of every line
Many critics maintain that “la belle dame” can find its prototype in Keats’s young lover, Fanny Brawne, who possessed similar traits; the poet tries to express his fear of being captivated by her love through the knight’s plaintive tone. This view focuses on la belle dame’s threatening bewitchment, it fails to notice the tension between her anti-romantic idea of love and the knight’s romantic ideal of love
Summary
The “Odes” are usually regarded as John Keats’s greatest masterpieces, his poems concerning female images such as “Isabelle”, “Lamia”, “The Eve of St. In the early nineteenth century, the call for freedom of women was voiced by more writers and freethinkers They advocated female traits typical of anti-romantic heroines such as rebellion and independence. In “Oh, Blush Not”, he regarded “blush” as females’ natural response to sexual excitement instead of innocence As presented in his later poems like “Lamia” and “La Belle”, the female characters are portrayed as seducing, mysterious, demonic, and disastrous to the male heroes. Many critics maintain that “la belle dame” can find its prototype in Keats’s young lover, Fanny Brawne, who possessed similar traits; the poet tries to express his fear of being captivated by her love through the knight’s plaintive tone This view focuses on la belle dame’s threatening bewitchment, it fails to notice the tension between her anti-romantic idea of love and the knight’s romantic ideal of love. Further analysis will focus on how her voice is deprived in the love combat and Keats’s motivations behind it
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