Keats’ attitude towards women Essay

Q- Keats wrote that he struggled to settle his psyche on women, by turns adoring them as angels and reviling them as whores. Discuss Keatss attitude to women in at least three meters in light of this opinion.Keats once wrote in a letter to tin Brawne You provoke ravishd me absent by a Power I underside non resist and yet I could resist till I saw you and level off since I have seen you I have endeavoured often to reason against the reasons of my esteem- I fucking do that no more. The quote, from John Fords Tis favor Shes a Whore, ostensibly encapsulates Keats attitude towards women. Through the variation of unripened-bearing(prenominal) characters presented in his work, from the evil seductress in La Belle snort Sans Merci to chaste virgin Madeline from The eve of St. Agnes, Keats cultivates the impression of being concurrently enchanted and repelled by the foeman sex, enthralled by their sensuality yet wary of their seemingly un neckn quantity genius.This repulsi on is visualised rather clearly in La Belle razz Sans Merci or The Beautiful Woman With place Pity. Keats allusion to the medieval romance by French poet Alain Chartier immediately transports the indorser into a fairy tale setting. The poesy adopts the form of a folk ballad, yet merely mimics traditional shaft ballads as Keats fe anthropoid protagonist is picture as having a acold darker purpose. The logical argument between the traditional ballad form and the brutish nominal woman creates an ominous t one(a) that continues into the depression stanza of the poem. The poem consists of two speakers, the first of which hails the fed up(p)ly loitering nickname and asks O what seat ail thee.The eeriness of the poem is reinforced when the un write outn speaker asks a second time, O what can ail thee, knight at arms, the repetition of the question creating a ghostly refrain. The alliteration of the L endure in palely loitering creates a sense of listlessness that is furthe red through the bleak landscape where the sedge has witherd from the lake, and no birds sing. From this the proofreader can infer that the knight is a desolate emotional pass on, which is echoed, by his surroundings. Keatss mathematical function of pathetic phantasm is furthered when the first speaker remarks that the harvests done then leaving the knight in a literal winter as thoroughly as a figurative one.As knights argon often held as paragons of courage and great power, Keats throw aways the reader aware that something preternaturally powerful must be at work. This preternatural being is full beautiful-a faerys electric shaver, a tempestuous seductress who enthrals the hapless knight. So besotted is he, that he thinks vigour of following her to her elfin grot where she lulled him asleep. On the one hand, the verb lulled can be seen as a treacherous attempt to secure the knights affections and allay his suspicions about La Belles oppositeworldly nature, on the other it can be calculateed as a calming gesture, that has been misconstrued by the knight like every other aspect of the sprightly woman.Alluding to medieval mythology, Keats paints La Belle as a succubus, a femme fatale able to suck the life from the knightly knight through dreams. We, as the reader are scarce offered the descriptions and opinions of the knight-at-arms, and know nonhing of this lady save for his presentation of her. As such, feminist connoisseurs could betoken that unkind scene of her character stems from the inversion of patriarchal values depicted in the poem. The knight is not a helpless victim of fancy, for it was he who first approached La Belle, and it was he who made her a garland for her head, and bracelets too, and aromatic zone. These objects, seemingly tokens of their courtship can be seen not only to decorate but to bind, enslave and enclose.La Belle Dame Sans Merci deviates from popular literacy tropes by depicting a lovelorn potent in a put up of decline and anguish after being rejected by the cruel female who is the object of his believes. However, instead of creating a female character to be applauded, Keats turns La Belles rejection of the knight into a rejection of morality itself. La Belle is never fully described, a longhaired faceless beauty who enslaves the knight with her feminine wiles. As such, La Belle can be seen to represent all women, an idea that is furthered when Keats speaks of pale kings and princess too, pale warriors, death-pale they were all. The repetition of the sickly adjective pale in conjunction with the paradigms of masculinity found in kings, princes, and warriors furthers the idea of female gender corrupting the values of men, and then assuring their downfall.Keats creates a direct duplicate to the malevolent succubus in La Belle Dame Sans Merci through male protagonist Porphyro from his poem The Eve of Saint Agnes. St. Agnes Eve- Ah, bitter chill it was The bird of Minerva for all his feathers was a-cold the hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, and silent were the bus in woolly fold. Just like La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Keats through use of natural imagery depicts a desolate surrounding. However, in this case the frozen countryside is the result of a natural winter and not the spells of a cruel enchantress. This idea is further through the listing of animals the owl, hare and flock are amplely different from the birdless wasteland.Keats conjures in the reader the vision of a harsh winter through use of adjectives cold, frozen and chill. The depressed nature of this bleak landscape is at sea by Musics golden tongue and silver snarling huntsmans horn. The verb snarling conjures in the reader images of savage dogs or wolves and is a startling contrast to the muffled snow covered outside world. The harsh Ar sound in snarling creates a growling effect and effectively conveys the ferocity and irritation of the music being played. Keats use of precious met als gold and silver simultaneously emphasise the value of the music, and livens the frozen world female protagonist Madeline lives in.Discussing the presentation of Madeline, critic Bateman states that shes no Fanny Brawne, shes timid and piano. Paraded in front on numerous gentry who hold no appeal to her, Madeline longs to escape from the public eye and anxiously awaits the hallowed second of St. Agnes Eve. The adjective hallowed holds within it highly religious connotations that encapsulates the sacred nature of St. Agnes Night. The use of religious imagery is prevalent throughout the poem, and is expressed quite exquisitely through Madeline.Madeline is a paragon of virtue, a virgin so pious that she seemed a splendid angelsave wings for nirvana. Surrounded by the light of the wintry moon Madeline is transformed into an ethereal being, one with nomatch on earth. uttermost from evoking Diana, goddess of the moon and celibacy, the effervescing moonlight throws warm gules on M adelines breast thus brief attention to her body as she knelt, so pure a thing, let loose from mortal taint. The noun taint suggests contamination, a polluting stain that cannot be removed. afterwards the touch of a man, Madeline will no longer be pure, and as such loose that which makes her heavenly.Through use of aged creature Angela, Keats creates a counterpart to female protagonist Angela. The noun creature brings to mind something other, an alien entity that lacks humanity. Far past the age where she can enjoy the innocent and puerile rituals of St. Agnes eve, Angela is depicted as everything that Madeline is not. Old, frail and feeble, she is constantly shaking due to her palsied state and seems prone to fits of forgetfulness, reminding Porphyro that he she cannot trust her dizzy head. She lacks any potency of character and is easily manipulated by Porphyro, thus enabling him to carry out his seduction on Madeline. One the one hand, the constant listing of corporal and me ntal deficiencies allows Keats to create a strong contrast to thriving Madeline, on the other hand, Keats can be seen as conforming to overused stereotypes- the pious young virgin and the feeble elderly crone. As such, his female characters become a flat 2D portrayal, lacking any real depth of personality. bull Stillinger states regardless of the extent to which Keats identified with his hero, he introduced enough overtones of evil to make Porphyros actions wrong within the structure of the poem. On the one hand this statement can be held true, with Porphyros actions revealing him to be a cruel man and impious and on the other, Porphyros actions give on a quixotic light, and any indiscretions made can be seen to be the actions of a lovesick fool. Mirroring La Belles presentation as a succubus, Keats once again draws on medieval mythology. This time however, the male not the female entertains supernatural elements. As such, Porphyro becomes an incubus. Like succubae, an incubus hol ds power over the opposite sex, and often carries out their seductions through dreams.Unlike La Belle however, Keats does not demonise Porphyro for his sexualnature and portrays his fantasies of possessing Madeline in a romantic light. Despite their similar situations, the difference in the presentation of La Belle and Porphyro rattling illustrates Keats attitudes towards women. Keats wrote about empathetic identification, claiming if a sparrow come before my window, I take part in its existence and pick about the perplex. Keats is able to identify with the sparrow, yet seems unable to create female characters who are not enticing femme fettles like Lamia and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, or vapid feeble characters like Madeline and Angela.Keats treatment and depiction of his written characters is highly similar to his treatment of Fanny Brawne, finding in her aspects of that which disgusted him in La Belle Dame Sans Merci and enchanted him in The Eve of St. Agnes. In a letter to her he wrote I cannot live without you, and not just you but chaste you virtuous you. As such, that which drew Porphyro to Madeline alike drew Keats to Miss Brawne. Keats however, also echoes the obsessive yearning of the knight from La Belle Dame Sans Merci, writing to Fanny you are to me an object intensely desirable. This desire is shown most strongly in Ode To Fanny, one of the last poems Keats wrote after despicable his first lung haemorrhage.As Keats drifted closer towards death, his infatuation with Fanny became something of an obsession with critic Richardson claiming that Keats had transfigured Fanny in his imagination, his passion creating in her the beauty which for him became the truth. Keats ascribes Fanny with miraculous healing abilities, imploringly asking her to let my spirit dividing line O ease my heart. Bloodletting was an ancient practice said to experience the body of ill humours and cure maladies. Is this case however, it is not Keats blood that is causation his ailments but his damaged soul. Only Fanny can cure his heartache, reservation him entirely dependant on her.Throughout the ode, Keats is intensely focused on Fannys virginity, painfully aware that he will never be able to claim her sexually. Keats calls her his silver moon and asks that she stay unravished by anothers amorous curve. Through mentioning moonlight, Keats invokes Artemis, Greek Goddess of chastity entreating Fanny to remain pure. The long vowel soundsin amorous burn speak of consuming passion while the verb burn contains connotations of fiery lust, thus furthering the idea of Keats fixation with Fannys sexuality. Whilst the colour silver is typically linked to purity and the moon, it will also tarnishes over time thus loosing its lustre. Keats knows that Fanny, like the silver, will one day no longer be pure, yet he still asks that no other with a ill-mannered hand break the sacramental cake. The use of the religious illustration sacramental cake to rather crude ly refer to the hymen, reduces Fanny to zero point more than a body for a man to sate himself in. Keats discounts her charge as a person in favour of highlighting her cost as a sexual object meant only for the pleasure of men.Keats employs the use of simplistic rhyme when stating must not a woman be, a feather on the sea. The juvenile rhyme scheme brings to mind that of a nursery rhyme, an idea that is corroborated by the equally infantile rhythm. seemingly scornful of her emotions, and rather unable to comprehend that women are able to know their own minds, Keats wrote to Fanny you do not feel as I do- you do not know what it is to love. It is perhaps this view that nurtures Keats surmise and envy which prompts his rather hyperbolic proclamation may my eyes close, Love On their last repose. The use of the rather clichd I would die without your love conjures in the reader images of powerful emotional manipulation. The reader has to question if Keats is really in love with Fanny like he claims, or if his obsessive infatuation has created an idealised image of what love is, and project it on the object of his affections.Despite what other characteristic or personality aspects they may possess, Keats paints women as seductresses, entrapping the hearts of unsuspecting men. In regards to the women he writes about, even pure chaste Madeline is presented as having ensnared poor Porphyro. Whilst some of this can be excused due to oppressive patriarchal paradigms that presented women as objects to be obtained, the vast majority of the unfair presentation stems from Keats own feelings and opinions. Keats is seemingly unable to view women as fully autonomous human beings, and treats even Fanny as a succubus that has enthralled him, yet even so he elevates her into an ideal. The paradoxical nature of their relationship- characterised by both love andloathing can be seen to be reflected in his attitudes towards women, leaving him simultaneously enchanted and repelled. Bibliographyhttp//feminism.eserver.org/ scheme/papers/lilith/labelle.htmlhttp//www.keatsian.co.uk/keats-poetry-belle.phphttp//www.mibba.com/Reviews/Book/4500/John-Keats-La-Belle-Dame-sans-Merci/http//www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetry_ccea/loveanddeath/labelledamesanmerci/revision/1/http//www.englweb.umd.edu/englfac/JRudy/Keats-letters.pdfhttp//www1.umassd.edu/corridors/bestessay259.htmlhttp//literarism.blogspot.co.nz/2011/03/eve-of-st-agnes-keats.htmlhttp//research.library.mun.ca/353/3/sensuous_embodiment.pdfRichardson, Joanna. Fanny Brawne A Biography. Norwich Jarrold and Sons, 1952. Print.