For Tuesday: Coleridge, Cristabel (pp.24-41)
Answer 2 of the 4
questions that follow:
1. In many ways, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a
poem about “experience,” since the Mariner is a man of the world who carries
the darkness of society into the unsullied Arctic . Cristabel, though unfinished, seems to
explore the idea of “innocence” through the unformed, child-like character of
Cristabel. How might we read her
character metaphorically, as a journey of childhood inexperience into the “dark
woods” of adult sexuality? (and yes, any
knowledge of Freud is welcome here!)
2. In Richard
Holmes’ book, Coleridge: Early Visions (1989),
he writes that Cristabel is “chant-like,
trance-like. Its power derives from a
haunting suggestiveness of atmosphere, an incantation of psychological symbols
and spells, which defy any normal narrative development” (287). How does the poem achieve these “trance-like”
effects? What sounds, images, metaphors,
or other features make it seem more like a spell or a dream than an actual
story or poem?
3. What is the
difference between Part I and Part II of the poem? Literally, Part I occurs during midnight , while Part II occurs the following
morning. Does this basic distinction
change the general tone/focus of each part?
Why do you think Coleridge separated the poem into two parts when the
entire poem was left incomplete? Does
something tangible change from one part to the next?
4. Why might
Geraldine the earliest form of a character that has since become extremely
popular in fantasy and horror fiction? What
kind of character is she, and what about her description, actions, or motives
might suggest other, more modern characters/types? Consider lines such as, “Deep from within she
seems half-way/To lift some weight with sick assay,/And eyes the maid and seeks
delay;/Then suddenly, as one defied,/Collects herself in scorn and pride,/And
lay down by the Maiden’s side!--/And in her arms the maid she took” (30).
Rocky Moore
ReplyDelete3. Despite the obvious difference that part I is during the evening and part II occurs during the morning, there is a different style or mood given off within the separate parts. The evening descriptions seem a little more enchanting and innocent, for example on page 24, stanza 4, Coleridge writes, "The lovely lady, Christabel, Whom her father loves so well, What makes her in the wood so late, A furlong from the castle gate? She had dreams all yesternight Of her own bethrothed knight; And she in the midnight wood will pray For the weal of her lover that's far away." This seems to be hinting at the innocence of Christabel that changes drastically during part II. I thought the most absurd part of part II was the descriptions of the serpent, and what comes to mind when thinking of the snake is in the bible, in the book of Genesis where the snake gets Eve to eat the apple. The snake in essence makes me feel a more dark approach to part II whereas part I wasn't like that at all.
4. I am not too sure about Geraldine, she seems mysterious and I would love to discuss who she is because like I said I am kind of lost about her. A part from the whole description of the snake in part II that seems tied to Geraldine in some way, there was a description of her getting undressed, again not really sure? On page 30, stanza 4, Coleridge writes, "Beneath the lamp the lady bowed, And slowly rolled her eyes around; Then drawing in her breath aloud, Like one that shuddered, she unbound The cincture from beneath her breast: Her silken robe, and inner vest, Dropt to her feet, and in full view, Behold! her bosom and half her side--- A sight to dream of, not to tell! O shield her! Shield sweet Christabel!". It seems that Geraldine symbolizes something that Christabel isn't ready for or shouldn't see. I mean it states "shield her!" and half of her name is Christ, so maybe she's a metaphor for pureness and Geraldine is your popular antagonist?
Great responses here; clearly the poet-narrator is terrified of Geraldine, since she represents something 'dark' that Cristabel has never been acquainted with. Of course, it might be a side of herself that she never encountered or knew existed, and once she lets it out, she is changed forever--as the poet laments at the end of Part II.
Delete2. Aside from the chilly and dark atmosphere of the poem, there’s questions that seem to coast a reader throughout the poem. When reading, “Is the night chilly and dark? / The night is chilly, but not dark,” (24), there’s immersion that Richard Holmes may be referring to as the reader almost seems to be asking a question only to be answered by the narrator. As I came across such questions that were answered shortly after, there was a sense that I had asked the question to begin with! Such experience may be a trance-like element that Holmes refers to. However, there is a question asked that doesn’t have a conclusive answer later in the poem, “Perhaps it is the owlet’s scratch: / For what can ail the mastiff bitch?” (28); the question may give an eerie, unresolved feeling and seems to push a reader to ask more questions, either breaking or inducing more trance.
ReplyDelete4. Firstly, Christabel is unique, and doesn’t seem to conform to traditional flight-response, a quality that most characters in modern fantasy tend to have. For example, in “How to Train your Dragon”, Hiccup encounters an entrapped Nightfury dragon. As any Viking of his town would attempt—to deliver a killing blow, he does the same but stops himself and fails. Hiccup shortly discovers reciprocated qualities with the Nightfury, and his attitude shifts to acceptance and eventually friendship with the dragon. Coleridge’s poem isn’t as elaborate, but Christabel accepts and invites Geraldine over to her home only after a small interaction on first meet, “[Geraldine] Have pity on my sore distress, / I scarce can speak for weariness: / Stretch forth thy hand, and have no fear! / ... / “Then Christabel stretched forth her hand, / And comforted fair Geraldine:” (26). In this way, the more fantasy-like qualities in my opinion are from Christabel rather than Geraldine. When Geraldine is undressing and something isn’t quite right on her side, Christabel once again doesn’t immediately flee. “A sight to dream of, not to tell! / O Shield her! shield sweet Christabel!” / … / “[Geraldine] Collects herself in scorn and pride, / And lay down by the Maiden’s side!— / And in her arms the maid [Christabel] she took,” (30). The supportive qualities for someone like Geraldine to be more ominous are present through Christabel. Both characters seem to work harmoniously like Hiccup and the dragon to support modern fantasy. Rather than strictly Geraldine, Christabel too plays a vital fantasy role as someone who doesn’t ever seem to stammer in the midst of creepiness!
Great responses: the use of questions makes you think 'you' asked the question, but it also makes the narrator another character, one whose questioning becomes a gloss on the poem itself. He intrudes into the story to deflate it, and perhaps make us realize that the story isn't real--it's a metaphor, or a legends, representing something else. This is important in interpreting the sudden appearance of Geraldine in the forest when Cristabel is dreaming of her beau--having midnight dreams of love (and sex, perhaps?). Not coincidentally, this is when her "demon" appears.
Delete1. I understand that Christabel represents innocence, and that Geraldine is the evil in the poem, but everything else is a little blurry. Christabel is innocent and naïve, and also out alone in the woods in the middle of the night. Geraldine takes advantage of Christabel’s kindness. She knew that Christabel would help her. I had to read the first part several times to finally realize that Geraldine was the antagonist. I think it finally hit me that she must be evil because she couldn’t cross the threshold to Christabel’s home without her carrying her in. (This might be totally off topic, but isn’t there some rule that vampires can’t come into a home without being invited in?) Anyways, from there I just pictured Geraldine as an evil vampire that wanted to take away Christabel’s innocence.
ReplyDelete2. I thought this entire poem flowed seamlessly, but it was eerie. In the first part especially, I noticed a “spell like form” to the stanzas. There is never a consistent rhyming pattern, but it always rhymes. I liked this because it kept me on my toes and kept the poem from sounding childish. The overall flow of the poem was entrancing, almost like being hypnotized. Coleridge gave a lot of good images in the first part. I particularly liked the description of Geraldine. I could picture her being so white she was glowing, almost transparent because as readers we can mentally picture the blue veins in her bare feet. (Also another reason I think Geraldine is a vampire: ghostly white complexion, preying on people in the middle of the night?)
Great catch with the vampire reference: as in traditional vampire stories, Geraldine's role is to attack a virgin and drain her blood, changing her into something 'foul' and corrupted. The poet-narrator seems to suggest this has already occurred by the end of Part II. Of course, it is tempting to see this as all metaphor--that Geraldine is Cristabel herself, a dark half that balances the bright, innocent portrait she offers to the world. The poet is at pains to show her as completely bright, but we all have that dark half, and not surprisingly, Cristabel finds it in the woods, at night, dreaming of her beloved. She finds herself in the woods, though it is a 'double' who is not afraid to act on her impulses.
DeleteAshley Bean
ReplyDelete2. This poem is very chant like. Not like sing-songy, but that eerie wind through the trees, birds cawing, and other creepy sounds. I kept thinking it was kind of a Halloween story from the medieval or renaissance period. It consistently rhymes, but the rhyme changes all the time. Just like walking through the forest at night, you may hear similar sounds consistently, but it's never really the same. The imagery that contrasts Christabel and Geraldine add to the eerie atmosphere, especially because Christabel doesn't seem to fit in the picture.
3. To me, Part one of the poem focuses on the relationship between Christabel and Geraldine. Their first encounter is in the dead of night in the woods, and I can't help but wonder what Christabel was doing there in the first place. There is a lot of imagery with the two characters and how they contrast as well as the setting. The second part seems to focus more on plot than the characters, not that they are ignored, they just don't seem to be the driving force like they were in the first part.
Good responses...in a way, I might argue that Part I is more about the plot (since we get the meeting in the woods, the return home, and the 'seduction' in the bedroom), whereas Part II is about the characters--we simply get interactions between them and Sir Leoline. What is interesting is that Part I shows us Cristabel encountering a strange woman in the woods (who looks a lot like her), and in Part II, she is completely mute until the very end--only Geraldine speaks, becoming Sir Leoline's daughter by proxy. That makes us wonder how literally we should read this story: is it simply a ghost story, or is it a metaphor, using the frame of a ghost story to explore the psyche of a young girl awakening to her sexuality, which her society--and the poet-narrator--have taught her to fear?
Delete2. I think the pacing, the variation in the length of lines and stanza size, the repetition of words and sounds, the varied punctuation and use of lots of exclamation points!, and also the rhyme scheme make this poem chant-like, and it adds to the ethereal nature of Christabal and Geraldine’s relationship: “The lovely lady, Christabel!/ It moaned as near, as near can be/ But what it is she cannot tell.-/ On the other side it seems to be,/ Of the huge, broad-breasted, old oak tree.” (25). This moaning that frightens Christabel happens right before Geraldine appears in the middle of the night, in the woods, alone, appearing almost fay-like with white, silky robe, glittering hair, and bare arms and feet to Christabel who had come to the woods to pray because of bad dreams she’d had so she could still possible be dreaming. This poem kind of reminded me of Poe’s “The Raven” or “Annabel Lee” because of its almost musical quality even though I don’t think it’s quite as complicated as Poe’s works.
ReplyDelete4. Geraldine gives me the heebie-jeebies, but she is an interesting character. I can’t say what other modern fantasy characters she is like except one. I love CS Lewis, and in his Chronicles of Narnia series he has a reoccurring witch. In one iteration she is the Lady of the Green Kyrtle also known as the Green Witch or Emerald witch. The way Bracy the bard describes his dream vision with lots of use of the color green in “the grass and green herbs underneath the old tree” (38) and the bright green snake which he sees coiled around the dove’s neck and wings. That first made me think of the Green Witch of Narnia because one of her forms is a bright green snake. Then Geraldine looks embarrassed when Sir Leoline talks about crushing the snake, but Christabel notices a look in her new acquaintance’s eyes “A snake’s small eye blinks dull and shy;/ And the lady’s eyes they shrunk in her head,/ Each shrunk up to a serpent’s eye,/ And with somewhat of malice, and more of dread,/ At Christabel she looked askance!-“ (39) which further connects her with the bright green snake from the dream so she seems like a ‘evil’ character who could be up to no good kind of like the mischief making of the Green Witch in The Silver Chair by CS Lewis.
Great responses, love the connection to Lewis here. Clearly Geraldine represents something primal, pagan, and something repressed. We could read this literally, seeing her as an evil spirit that preys upon young virgins. Or, as you suggest with your connection to Poet, this could all be deeply metaphorical, a kind of inward journey into her own "dark woods" of the mind, where she finds part of herself she never knew existed. Not surprisingly, Geraldine impersonates her quite well when they return home, leaving Cristabel completely mute. Only at the end does she speak, and then only to say that Geraldine must leave at once. The poet-narrator thinks so, too, but we never truly learn 'what' she is...or if she is truly at home in Cristabel.
Delete2. The imagery is just so vivid. You can see the entire thing, and it's a little bit of an eerie image. They start off in the woods, with no explanation as to why they were there. It's trance-like because it feels like a chant. The rhyme scheme just gives it that feeling. It isn't sing-songy or a childish rhyme, but it can definitely be chanted just as easily as it could be read in a normal way, if not easier.
ReplyDelete3. Part one seems to be considerably more innocent, maybe even naive. The two are meeting for the first time, and it is quiet and romantic. The second part loses that in exchange for a slightly more intense feeling. The characters are also substantially less important in part two, as Ashley mentioned. They are still there, they are just a lot less relevant. Part two has more to do with the overall plot than with the two and their chance meeting in the woods.
Good responses--but can you examine/discuss a passage of vivid imagery? Why does Coleridge make a simple fairy-tale like story so vivid and evocative? I agree thought that Part I is more naive, more wide-eyed, whereas Part II is darker, as if the poem has woken up from the sleep of reason. This reflects the idea that Cristabel has 'sinned' in some way, and she loses her identity in the face of Geraldine. Is Geraldine part of her that has come to the fore, her id, perhaps? Or should we read this as a simple, literal vampire story?
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