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AQA A-Level English Literature B: Aspects of Tragedy: John Keats' Poetry

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John Keats
La Belle Dame Sans Merci    Lamia
Isabella; or the Pot of Basil    The Eve of St. Agnes


Context
  • Keats wrote poetry during the Romantic period
    • Concept of imagination, creativity, dreams and beauty seen to be far more important and valuable, in contrast to analytical uses of science, logic and reason
    • "what the imagination seizes as Beaty must be truth" - Keats
  • 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' is french for the beautiful lady with no pity (i think)
Keats and Tragedy
  • Whilst Keats writes his narrative poems which provide a tragic effect, he didn't specifically seek to be a tragic writer
  • His selected poems have a tragic effect whereby it follows Aristotle's conventions of tragedy
  • Keats grew up in an idyllic life but struck with several tragic events which led to his writing of unfulfilment, love and struggles
Influences
  • Wordsworth; incorporated the miseries of the world into a transcendent vision
  • Fanny Brawne; fell in love with her in 1819
    • Keats' experiences with her; obstacles/ fulfilment
    • Fanny known for her casual and flirtatious attitude with other men and often attended military dances - said to be a tease and deliberately stoked Keats' jealousy
  • Charles Brown, his best friend and someone who helped published his works; didn't like Fanny as he saw she consumed much of Keats' time and distracted his work
  • Keats' distrust of women (probably why he made females in his poems the 'femme fatale')
    • In a letter, Keats wrote "when I am among women, I have evil thoughts, malice, spleen"
    • He despised of women for their flirtatious and teasing behaviour, reawakening old suspicion
Key Ideas
  • Keats wrote of two ideas to express his poetry: 'Chamber of Maiden Thought' and 'Dark Passage'
    • 'Chamber of Maiden Thought'; idea implies that an individual is distracted by bodily desires that temporarily give them the 'pleasant wonders'
    • 'Dark Passage', then moves into a phase of misery and suffering, a realisation of the cruel and harsh world
  • Negative Capability; the ability to contemplate the world without having to use logic and rational systems
    • Poet required to enter realm of beauty and imagination in order to express true creativity
      • A way to find beauty in what was often an ugly and terrible world
    • Rejection of philosophy, Keats felt every poet should be receptive rather than to search for fact or reason, and to not seek absolute knowledge of every truth, mystery or doubt

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Context
  • Keats wrote this poem in 1819 after falling in love with Fanny Brawne
    • Might explain his desire to express romantic love and sensuality
    • Also since Fanny attended several military dances, probably explains the specific characterisation of the 'knight-at-arms' 
    • Since she was known to be flirtatious and provoked many males, may also explain the dream the knight has of other 'pale warriors' who were victims of her seduction?!
Intentions for writing La Belle Dame Sans Merci
  • Perhaps wanted to express three main ideas:
    • Physical/ material love is temporary (as it is in a material world... - think Plato and Cave analogy)
    • Women who lead men on are cruel (Keats clearly has trust issues)
    • Love is damaging (desire for wish-fulfilment, to seek true love)
Language, Form and Structure
  • It is a ballad, idea of folktore; often used for myths/ fairytales
    • As a sensual poet, he portrays his ideas of 'negative capability' across in this poem
  • Use of repetition
    • Those 'pale': 'palely loitering', 'death pale' and 'pale warriors'
    • The spiritual fairy: 'a faery's song', 'a faery's child'
  • Told in retrospect with the knight as the narrator
    • Is his narrative reliable since he is armoured as suggested by the 'knight-at-arms' and has a 'lily on thy brow' indicating that he is near death (since most people near death hallucinate and what not)
Summary
  • A knight is found to be 'palely loitering' and another voice questions him as to why he is in his state 'on the cold hill's side' where 'no birds sing'
  • The 'knight-at-arm' explains how he saw a beautiful 'faery's child' and the encounter he had with her
  • Knight had a dream that others involved with the 'faery's child' had also been deceived by her
  • After awaking, he finds himself alone, not in the 'elfin grot' he had been left inside of but 'on the cold hill's side' (clearly he was hallucinating or imagining this 'faery' and 'elfin grot')
  • Therefore, that is why the knight is left 'on the cold hill's side'
Setting
  • Use of pathetic fallacy, 'on the cold hill's side', 'the harvest's done' and 'no birds sing'
    • Death is near, life is withering away - like the state of the 'knight-at-arms'
Protagonists, Femme Fatale and Victims
  • After going through the poem several times, it came apparent to be that the role of the protagonist is actually debatable
  • Whilst the knight-at-arms may be presented as the immediate tragic protagonist since he is the narrator, he seems to put in so much effort to woo the 'faery's child' by creating garlands and what not
  • At no point does the 'faery's child' initiate anything with the knight-at-arms, but only sings him a song and supposedly takes him to an 'elfin grot' where he falls asleep
    • The knight-at-arm, although stating 'sure in language strange' (surely he doesn't know what the faery is saying if the language is strange) but assumes she says 'I love thee'
    • So in this aspect, how can she be the femme fatale if he is assuming things? (probably hallucinating or imagining things)
  • The 'faery's child' seems to be the victim because although she caters for the knight, she is the one that clearly cries and then the knight thinks its okay to kiss her?!
    • He could be seen to be taking advantage of her!!!
  • The only point which suggests the faery being a femme fatale is when she 'lullèd' the knight to sleep (to serenade him and seduce him maybe?) and the narrative which reveals 'pale kings and princes', 'pale warriors' were crying how the 'la belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall' (basically victims of her beauty and seductiveness or whatever she has done)
Alternative Views and Intertextuality
  • 'Elfin grot' (spiritual realm) vs. 'cold hill side' (physical and mutable world)
    • Rather than the 'elfin grot' being a physical place
  • The description of the setting 'on a cold hill's side' where 'no birds sing' reinforces that despite the downtrodden atmosphere, the knight is still able to find beauty regardless of the state of the environment
Elements of Tragedy to link La Belle Dame Sans Merci to
  • Loss of Identity
  • Fate
  • Tragic Protagonist and Victims (who is it?)
  • Villain?

Key Quotation

  • "Lily on thy brow"
  • "On thy cheek a fading rose"
  • "Faery's child"
  • "Palely loitering"
  • "On the cold hill's side"
  • "No bird's sing"
  • "Sure in language strange she said 'I love thee true'"
  • "Pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death-pale were they all; they cried - 'la belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall!"
  • "This is why I sojourn here alone and palely loitering"


Lamia

Context
  • Charles Browne felt Fanny Brawne was a bad influence to Keats and a distraction to the quality of the work he was producing and wanted to separate them
  • 'Lamia' is defined or known to be a mythical creature that has the body of a woman who preys on human beings and sucks out the blood of children (but obviously Lamia here doesn't suck on the blood of anyone...)
Language, Form and Structure
  • Narrator is omniscient (all-knowing)
  • Reading is invited to feel Lamia's pain
    • Part One: Lamia portrayed as a seductress, stalks Lycius
    • Part Two: Lamia's downfall, more of a victim, narrative voice sympathises with Lamia, 'poor Lamia'
Summary
  • Lamia in her serpent form wants to be a woman again and dreams of being with a man named Lycius, so she makes a deal with Hermes that if she can help Hermes find the nymph he lusts for, he ought to transform her into a 'full-born beauty' (woman form)
  • Lamia then descends into Corinth to pursue Lycius
  • Conveniently, Lycius is also in search for true love and Lamia, being a woman, abuses this (femme fatale) and could be argued to have deceived Lycius in her form
  • Lycius and Lamia fall in love, Lamia creates a realm with the use of her imagination
  • Lycius rushes to get married with Lamia, Lamia was hesitant at fight, but then agrees, only on the condition that Lycius doesn't invite his mentor Apollonius
  • Apollonius turns up uninvited, reveals the truth that Lamia is a 'serpent'
  • Lamia screams to her despair and vanishes, Lycius dies a sad death
Symbolism
  • Lamia - Fanny Brawne - Poetry - Dreams and Imagination
  • Lycius - Keats - Poet - Dreamer
  • Apollonius - Charles Brown - Science - Reason, Logic and Reality
Setting
  • Lamia originally from a mythical world then descends into a material world, Corinth
    • Symbolic of Lamia losing power by going into a physical world
  • Realm within the material world created solely from imagination
    • "Purple-linèd palace of sweet sin", "faery land"
Key Quotation
Victim
  • "His fantasy was lost"
  • "Soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up, leaving no drop in the bewildering cup"
  • "Even as thou vanishes so I shall die"
  • "Bidding him raise his dropping head, and clear his soul of doubt, for that she was a woman"
  • "His foolish heart from its mad pompousness"
  • "Lamia, no longer fair, there sat a deadly white"
  • "My sweet bride withers at their potency"
  • "A frightful scream she vanished: and Lycius' arms were empty of delight"
Villain
  • "Won his heart, more pleasantly by playing woman's part, with no more awe than what her beauty gave"
  • "My trust guide and good instructor; but tonight he seems the ghost of folly haunting my sweet dreams"
  • "Apollo's presence when in act to strike the serpent - Ha, the serpent!"
  • "Mark how, possessed, his lashless eyelids stretch around his demon eyes!"
  • "From every ill of life have I preserved thee to this day, and shall I see thee made a serpent's prey?"
Dreams
  • "I dreamt I saw thee, robed in purple flakes"
  • "It was no dream; or say a dream it was, real are the dreams of God"
  • "Begone, foul dream!"
Shame
  • "Wherefore did you blind yourself from his quick eyes?"
  • "Your vision rests with any pleasure on me, do not bid Old Apollonius - from him keep me hid"
  • "In pale contented sort of discontent" ... "She faded at self-will"
  • "Tis no common rule, Lycius" ... "For uninvited guest to force himself upon you ... yet must I do this wrong, and you forgive me"
Identity
  • "Palpitating snake", "Bright", "Dazzling Hue", "She had a woman's mouth with all its pearls complete"
  • "I was a woman, let me have once more a woman's shape, and charming as before. I love a youth of Corinth"
  • "Self-folding like a flower"
  • "Now a lady bright, a full-born beautiful new and exquisite"
  • "She was a maid more beautiful than ever twisted braid"
  • "Virgin purest lipped"
Criticisms from Keats
  • "Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy"
  • "There was an awful rainbow"
    • Context: Keats letter to a friend of a 'rainbow and a prism'
    • Basically the idea of just appreciate the beauty of the rainbow rather than demeaning it as a prism by the use of logic and science
  • "Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air, and gnoméd mine - unweave a rainbow"
Sensuous Imagery
It is important to note that Keats' passionate nature and feel for texture, soul and senses were important to him BUT this is ironic because he values the imagination yet he is attached to material qualities ALTHOUGH it could be said that he can appreciate the physicality of landscapes, men and women etc.
  • "A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone"
  • "Gloomy tun with merry shine"
  • "Soft went the music the soft air alone"
  • "When the happy vintage touched their brains" ... "Now, when the wine has done its rosy deed, and every soul from human trammels freed"
  • "Leaves of willow and of adder's tongue"

Isabella; or The Pot of Basil

Ideas within the poem
  • Opposition between the worlds of romantic enchantment and cold reality
  • Young love, sexual passion, sensual richness and idealism are set against heartless capitalism and rational empiricism
    • Rich life of senses and imagination vs. the poverty of every day experience
Summary
  • Isabella is considered a high class girl who lives her ordinary life in the domestic setting and has two brothers that own some kind of business/ trade
  • Lorenzo works under Isabella's brothers and it is soon discovered that both Isabella and Lorenzo are attracted to each other (to the point they stare at each other from afar etc..)
  • Lorenzo and Isabella engage in a secret relationship, meet up secretly, make love etc.
  • Isabella's brothers find out and they're unaccepting of someone of such low class and plan to lure him away for 'work', only to murder him and bury him somewhere in the forest
  • Isabella is sad about his long-gone trip at work and suddenly has a dream/ vision that Lorenzo speaks to her, revealing his situation that he'd been murdered and that his body could be found at a certain place
  • Isabella and her nurse go to the place Lorenzo tells her and digs up his body, Isabella then cuts his head off and when she returns home, places it in a pot of basil
  • Everyday, Isabella cries in the pot of basil and is obsessed with it. Regardless of this, the pot of basil is growing very beautifully... (strange but okay!)
  • Her brothers notice she's weird and a bit psychotic for hogging that pot and wants to check why, only to discover Lorenzo's head in the pot. Ashamed of their actions, they steal her pot and run away.
  • Isabella is sad at the loss of her lover once again and cries to death. (Such a sad story)
Elements of Tragedy that link to Isabella; or the Pot of Basil

  • Loss of Identity
  • Fate
  • Shame
  • Villains

Alternative Views
  • Since Lorenzo's head is in the pot, the narrative talks of his hair being in really good condition
  • Perhaps it could be said that all the blood, sweat and tears Isabella puts in the pot, she is essentially giving life to Lorenzo? (maybe pushing it but HAHAH good ideas come and go)

Key Quotation
Tragic Protagonist
  • "Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!"
  • "She had died in drowsy ignorance"
  • "Filling it once more with human soul"
  • "Her tears kept ever wet"
  • "For simple Isabel is soon to be among the dead"
Villain
  • "These brethren"
  • "Tas their plan to coax her by degrees to some high noble and his olive-trees"
Victim
  • "Cruel clay"
  • "High conceit of such a bride"
  • "How she might find the clay, so dearly prized"
  • "Beautiful it grew"
Identity
  • "Full shape"
  • "Lute-string"
  • "Half-done broidery"
  • "Sweet Isabella's untouched cheek"
  • "She forgot"
  • "She had no knowledge when the day was done"
  • "Youth and beauty should be thrown aside"
Quotes that I can't categorise
  • "Crystal well" (where she found Lorenzo's body)
  • "Jewel" (thats what she calls Lorenzo's dead body...)
  • "Fed it with thin tears"
  • "Love never dies, but lives"


The Eve of St. Agnes (I don't really like this poem hence the little effort put into making notes BUT this'll do!!!)

Context
  • Wish-fulfilment idea of the ritual, on January 20th many girls and unmarried women would perform rituals before going to bed.
    • By carrying out the ritual, it is said that St. Agnes would grant them a vision of their future husband
Summary (a little like Romeo and Juliet)
  • Madeline is obsessed with this ritual and because she's looking for love, she persists in doing it
  • Porthyro is inlove with Madeline, and Madeline also has a crush on him
  • Porthyro sneaks into the Madeline's house, and the nurse tells him about her belief in the superstition. Porthyro wants to make her dream a reality and asks for help, meaning no harm. Nurse agrees to help, so he hides in her wardrobe.
  • Madeline comes into her room, she then falls asleep. Porthyro watches over her, whispers, sings to her. She awakes. They have sex. He calls her his bride and that he has a home that awaits her.
  • Madeline and Porthyro escapes the coming storm. The other people at Madeline's household has bad dreams and dies (weird but okay).
Elements of Tragedy that link to The Eve of St. Agnes
  • Loss of Identity
  • Tragic Protagonist
  • Villain
  • Victim
Key Quotation
Tragic Protagonist
  • "The maiden's chamber, silken, hushed, and chaste"
  • "She seemed a splendid angel"
  • "So pure a thing, so free from mortal taint"
Villain
  • "Hundred swords will storm his heart, love's fev'rous citadel: for him, those chambers held barbarian hordes"
  • "A strategem" - a plan to seduce Madeline
  • "A cruel man and impious thou art"
  • "Wicked men"
  • "To trust, fair Madeline, to no rude infidel"
Victim
  • "Traitor"
  • "Cruel"
  • "forsakest a deceived thing"
  • "She hurried at his words"
Identity (basically her loss of virginity)
  • "She saw not: her heart was otherwhere. She sighed for Agne's dreams"
  • "Her lambs unshorn"
  • "As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again"
  • "A painful change"


Exam Tips
  • Since the third question is more generalised, you have to write about two of your studied texts (Death of a Salesman and John Keats' Poetry) and not necessarily compare the two but to see whether or not it supports or disputes the statement and perhaps make any links if there are.
  • Ensure you have at least a minimum of 10 quotes remembered to back up your points and recite key episodes to show you know the text well.

Okay!!! Now that these notes are finally done. I would recommend you start seeing themes and links between both Death of a Salesman and John Keats' Poetry to get yourself prepared for the exam!

Laura

12 comments:

  1. Unknown21 May 2019, 08:22:00

    thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown6 Nov 2019, 20:44:00

    You're an actual honest to goodness JEM! Thank you for this! You put all the basic elements and quotations onto one easy to read page!

    ReplyDelete
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  4. Anonymous8 Nov 2020, 12:27:00

    Thank you it was very helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous26 Dec 2020, 12:40:00

    OMG THANKS SO MUCH!!! I HATE KEATS POETRY BUT THIS JUST MADE REVISION A LIL EASIER AND LESS BORING XX

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown30 Dec 2020, 13:33:00

    u have saved my entire class' tragedy paper..... i love u

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jeff10 Oct 2021, 09:43:00

    Very useful. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Clusterstorm233 Jan 2022, 13:40:00

    this is amazing ur such a legend tysm

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous30 Apr 2022, 00:23:00

    Absolute legend theres legit no helpful notes online for keats but i found these :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous30 Apr 2022, 00:24:00

    The person who made this need their ass ate frfr

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous18 Jun 2023, 14:44:00

    thank you more than words can extend to

    ReplyDelete

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