Abstract
This article aims to interpret dreams in John Keats’s narrative The Eve of St. Agnes from different perspectives: the Beadsman’s, Porphyro’s, Madeline’s and John Keats’s, the poet. We will analyze their functions respectively, and then draw a conclusion of Keats’s purpose in structuring such a way of weaving dreams. After summarizing studies and theories on dream and soul from the perspective of psychoanalysis and scholars’ views on The Eve of St. Agnes, we will continue to illustrate the ways in which John Keats constructs three layers of dreams with the pertinent approaches by Freud, Fromm, Lacan, Rank, Žižek, etc. so as to reveal John Keats’s viewpoints on life and death, dream and reality, and pleasure and pain.
Highlights
Rather than perform as a fleshy human, he seems like a specter that lingers in the human world
Here comes the questions: how does he die and why does he still linger and haunt in the human world? His descending into this world on such a holy day can date back to the essential reasons
Agnes’ Eve— / Yet men will murder upon holy days” (Keats, XIV: 118-119)
Summary
The Eve of St. Agnes (1819) is an important and representative work among Keats’s five influential narrative poems, the four others being Endymion (1818), Isabella (1818), Hyperion (1819), and Lamia (1820). Many highlighting features exist in The Eve of St. Many highlighting features exist in The Eve of St Agnes, such as the beautiful imagery, the profound atmosphere, the mysterious legend and the intriguing dream. Among these highlights, the dream is an essential part to be discussed unceasingly, as it functions as the main framework throughout the entire narrative with strong connotations for concessive interpretation. The significance of dream in The Eve of St. Agnes is supposed to be taken into further consideration
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