La Belle Dame Sans Merci Explanation

The Lais of Marie de France is a collection of poems that tell enchanting stories of handsome knights, kings, queens, and romance. Although the lais varied in content; the subject of romantic love is the common theme. Since romantic love is the central theme of the lais it is important to define the term. According to the article, The Social Psychology of Love and Attraction romantic love is defined as, “a love that is supposed to stand the test of time, enduring all hardship. Romantic love emphasizes being in love with a certain individual” (Braxton-Davis 1). In the lais Bisclavret, Equitan, Laustic there is a conflict between love and moral responsibility. Many of the characters experience love and tragedy; yet, Marie de France provides a witty insight into loves immoral issues. In the lais loneliness, greed, excitement, and lust are the motivations for many of the characters reckless actions. Marie de France demonstrates how these characteristics combined with romantic infatuation, passion, and a yearning desire; influences corrupt behavior. This behavior then manifested into character traits such as betrayal, adultery, and cruelty that are revealed throughout the lais.

It uses phrases like, 'grow up to be a woman', and 'be helpless like my mother', and that may seem like it is actually promoting a patriarchal society. However, that is just how the speaker is seeing things. The next few lines are the ones that truly show the feminism at this part of the poem. 'I didn't realize the kind of guts it often took for her to just keep standing where she was.' This line seems to contradict the speakers earlier words of her mother being helpless. However, that is the point. Choosing the word helpless but then contradicting that word with 'the kind of guts it often took' shows the reader that the speakers mother is strong because she is seen as helpless. She is looked down upon by others, including her own daughter, but has the guts to keep on

In analyzation, the connotation aspect of this poem is how women during this time, specifically white women, used their power over black men and their freedom. Although the texts’ literal interpretation, or denotation,

Different Forms of Power Presented in My Last Duchess, A Woman to Her Lover and La Belle Dame Sans Merci

“The courtly lady…possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.” Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered “feudal lord” due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a “lord” would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee.

Not all relationships are mutually beneficial to the people in them. In many cases, one or both people in the relationship can feel negatively impacted by it. Likewise, when relationships come to an end, the people involved may feel incredibly hurt and broken. In George Gascoigne’s poem “For That He Looked Not upon Her,” he describes the devastation felt by a man that was the result of the ending of his relationship with a woman. The man, who claims to have been mistreated by the woman, explains how he will not be tricked and mistreated again by going back to the woman.

She seduces him so much so that he is convinced he loves her and that the feeling is requited. However, he is warned about the ‘faery’s child’ by those who have been seduced previously. The title of the poem roughly translates as; ‘the beautiful lady without mercy’, introducing the enchanting but cruel lady in the poem and this helps to form an ominous tone right from the very beginning because this stands out to the reader due to the poem dissuading from the traditional ballad. Keats uses emotive language to give a depiction of the ‘haggard’ and ‘woe-begotten’ knight which shows the reader how drawn and deathly the knight must look after his experience with the magical woman. However, the knight later describes how he is totally enthralled by the beautiful lady, so much that he ‘nothing else saw all day long’.

First let us review her tale. In the tale a knight is riding along until he comes across a woman. He then “in spite of all she said, by force took her maidenhead” (Lines 63 and 64), that is a nice way to say he violently raped her. Afterward he is taken into court where the queen takes pity upon him and gives him the task of finding out what women most desire but if he fails he will be executed. The knight then searches about for the answer asking every woman he can find for the answer to his question. He gets conflicting answers from each woman he asks until he comes across an old hag. The hag makes a deal with him that she will give him the answer if he carries out any request of her choice when she calls for it later on, to which the knight agrees. The hag tells him that what women most desire is power over men. The knight gives this answer to the queen who spares him. When he returns to the hag she makes her request, “Before this court I ask you, sir knight, to

When analysing these two plays under a gender or feminist lense it becomes obvious that feminism was not only present,

For example, in the first stanza of the poem, Sexton invokes the objects that women are classified into, such as “my mouth and my breasts … [and] the cosmetics and the silks” (3-4). Sexton furthers this with how she was “tired of being a woman” (1) and “tired of the gender things” (10). As the poem progresses into the second stanza, Sexton’s dream sequence, the theme of gender roles remains prevalent. The poem delves into the injustice that women face in a world controlled by man, citing the martyr and Catholic Saint, Joan of Arc, who was put to death with one of the charges being wearing men’s clothes. In addition, Sexton’s will to rid herself of gender is also clear in the third stanza, which she writes “I lost my common gender and my final aspect. / Adam was on the left of me / and Eve was on the right of me” (28-30). This may be interpreted as a metaphor, as Adam was the first male and Eve the first female human created by God as told by Christians, by placing Sexton between them, it could be said that Sexton is neither male nor female, but one who is freed from gender. The entire poem and many of its literary devices resonates strongly with the poet’s message; her hate of gender roles and identities. As such, Sexton effectively sent her central argument to her reader.

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” takes on a different view of the theme of love. This poem is broken down into three parts. In the first part of the poem, the speaker appears to be some unknown person who asks a lonely,

The society always queries about the role of women and for centuries, they have struggled to find their place in a world that is predominantly male oriented. The treatment of women was remarkably negative; they were expected to stay home and fulfil the domestic duties. Literature of that time embodies and mirrors social issues of women in society (Lecture on the Puritans). But, slowly and gradually, situation being changed: “During the first half of the 19th century, women 's roles in society evolved in the areas of occupational, moral, and social reform. Through efforts such as factory movements, social reform, and women 's rights, their aims were realized and foundations for further reform were established” (Lauter 1406). Feminist poets like Emily Dickinson and Anne Bradstreet talked substantially about feminism in different lights in the past two centuries. They were very vocal and assertive about their rights and the ‘rights for women’ in general. While they might have been successful at making a good attempt to obliterate gender biases but still there are lot of disparities between the two genders. Nevertheless, their poetry reflects a deep angst.

She does not tell the knight what to think about women, but instead wants him to learn for himself what women most desire. She gives him, “A twelfmonth and a day to seeche and lere / An answere suffisant in this matere” (Chaucer l. 915). The knight must interview countless women to find the answer to this question. He is forced to listen, and learn from their desires, instead of following his own and raping them. The Queen allows the knight to live, but forces him to consider and value women’s opinions. Perhaps she allows him to live because all men at times aggressively assert their domination over women and the better option is to rehabilitate them, rather than killing every aggressive man.

John Keats’s poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” dramatizes the conflict between dreams and reality as experienced by the knight. On a late autumn day, the speaker stumbles upon an ailing knight and asks what is wrong. The knight reveals that he had fallen in love with a beautiful lady, “a faery’s child” (14), who then abandoned him after professing her love and spending one night together. The speaker is recounting his experience with the knight to his audience.

The poem entails opposite sex, the male and female. They were lovers and the man showed and expresses his sexual desires. The opposition in the text is obviously the side of the man who is the speaker and the female who have been describe in the poem as