Q1. Discuss the treatment of the supernatural in
the poem Christabel.
Ans.- Coleridge stands for his
distinguished poetic strains and noticeably romantic traits and highly
signified incorporation of supernaturalism. The unusual ability of Coleridge to
employ supernaturalism in order to serve his romantic purposes gets critics to
regard him as the poet of supernaturalism. However, supernaturalism is one of
the elements in the romantic poetry and used by the romantic poets in one way
or another, the way Coleridge manages to control this element in his poems is
amazingly distinguished.
The poem “Christabel”
by Coleridge was initially intended to be a long poem consisting of five parts
. But It consists only of two parts. In
part one, the descriptions of the landscapes are meant to create a suitable
setting for the story. There is a deliberate undecidedness and vagueness about
them which increases the sense of mystery and horror being woven by the poet.
The first part tells us abut Sir Leoline, who was a rich Baron and who lived in
a castle. He had an old, toothless bitch of a strong breed. This bitch was in
the habit of uttering short and not very loud howls in answer to the castle
clock. She howled once when the clock struck a quarter and twelve times when it
struck an hour. It was believed that she could see the coffin in which
Christabel’s dead mother was wrapped at her death. Then the focus shifts to a
cold midnight. It was a full moon night but moon was hidden behind a thin
cloud. Sir Leoline’s young and lovely daughter Christabel goes to the forest at
midnight. All of a sudden, she hears a low moaning sound from the other
side of the oak tree. Christabel gets scared and her heart starts beating fast
and she goes to the other side of the tree to see what it was . There she sees
a beautiful young lady dressed in magnificent clothes. This lady, then, is
clothed in white, traditionally the colour of chastity and purity, and she
appears gracious, ‘stately’, but there are also hints of a darker side to her
in this description; her dress is ‘shadowy’, her jewels shine ‘wildly’.
Christabel, at any rate, is completely duped by her and takes her home, to fall
under her wicked spell.
The use of
the supernatural in ’Christabel’ lends it an intriguing air, all the more so as
the poem remains unfinished, and Geraldine’s exact nature and purpose is
ultimately not disclosed. As with ‘Kubla Khan’ and ‘The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner’, the poem’s overall sense of strangeness is its most memorable aspect. The poem “Christabel” is a
prime example of his supernatural work. It contains quintessential
gothic characteristics, such as dark scenery, damsels in distress, and a hint
of the supernatural.
Q2. Discuss the symbols used by Coleridge in the
poem.
Ans : Coleridge is a highly symbolic
poet and his poetry is rich in symbols and allusions. A symbol is an object
which stands for something else as dove symbolizes peace. Similarly, Blake‘s
tiger symbolizes creative energy; Shelley‘s wind symbolizes inspiration; Ted
Hughes‘s Hawk symbolizes terrible destructiveness at the heart of nature. The
poem “Christabel” by Coleridge is the finest gothic ballad of long two parts.
It has its own wave of situational and symbolic presentation. In the poem, the
Light-dark, Bells, Serpent and white
dove stand for some significant of
symbolic arrangement of the poem.
Light-Dark : The first and most obvious,
symbol is that of light and dark. Light symbolizes good and dark evil. The lamp
helps the reader see this. Christabel lights the lamp, and Geraldine cowers
from it.
Bells : The Bell also plays an impotant
role of symbolic presentaion in the poem. Bells are traditionally a symbol of
communication. In the poem, it is sometime seen that both good news and bad
news communicate together. For instance, as Christabel’s mother lies upon her
death- bed, she expresses the wish that the castle bells ring twelve times on
her daughter’s wedding day. This way she will hear about Christabel’s happiness
from all the way up from theheaven. Bells are associated here with the
communication of happy news. But as Christabel’s mother made the request on her
death-bed, the story that Christabel communicates to Geraldine is also a sad
one.
Serpent : The symbol of the serpent
functions much like the serpent in the biblical Garden of Eden in that it
represents temptation—and presumably sin—for Christabel. The most overt
reference occurs in Bracy the bard's vision wherein a dove clearly represents
Christabel. The attackers in the poem are described as having "reptile
souls". This Serpent symbol is also a Biblical allusion to the serpent and evil.
White dove : The symbol of the white dove is
one of major elements in this symbolic point of view. It appears in the bard's
vision. The poet clearly states that the
dove represents Christabel.
In speaking to Sir
Leoline, the bard refers to "that gentle bird, whom thou dost love, /
And call'st by thy own daughter's name." The dove, like the serpent, is a
common symbol. It represents innocence and peace. Much as the symbol of the
serpent suggests that Geraldine is
not trustworthy, the use of the dove represents Christabel as a gentle,
innocent young woman.
From the above
discussion, it can be clearly said that the poem Christabel by Coleridge is a
symbolic gothic ballad. Coleridge's symbols are integrated seamlessly into his
work. His symbols are as important as his plot.
Q3. Write short notes on : (a) Ballad
(b) Sir Leoline (c) Christabel
Ans : (a) Ballad : A Ballad is a narrative poem which
tells a story in simple and colloquial language. It is a folk song, communicated
orally among illiterate or party literate people. It narrates a historical
incidents, myths and legends in a noticeable musical way to the rhythm of the
lines. Ballads are generally written in quatrains with a regular rhyme scheme
of ABCB. The term Ballad originates from french word “chanson balladee” which means “dancing song”.
Ballad is the oldest form of English poetry, first created in medieval France.
However, this form of poetry represents one of the earliest stages in the
evolution of poetic Art. The subject matter of Ballad is usually tragic and
often violent. The story is told through dialogue and action with sudden
transitions from point to point in the narrative. The popular Ballad is
dramatic and impersonal. It is told without expressing speaker’s personal
attitudes and feelings.
(b) Sir Leoline
: Sir Leoline is
Christabel’s father. He is a rich baron who is wealthy enough to afford
his own castle and a private poet. He is old and also weak in health.
He seems to be a fairly broken man due to the death of his wife during
childbirth. This grief is reflected in his relationship with Christabel
in the poem, as it is suggested that Sir Leoline may feel some resentment
towards Christabel for being the cause of her mother’s death. He is the
doting father of Christabel. He still mourns the death of his wife. When
Geraldine arrives in his castle, he learns her father is Lord Roland, an old
friend of his from whom he has become estranged. He becomes infatuated with
Geraldine in the poem in both a fatherly and romantic way. He appears to
begin favoring the new woman over his own daughter, perhaps as a way of filling
some of the emptiness he has felt living without a wife. Sir Leoline sees
protecting and returning Geraldine to Lord Roland as a way to resolve old
disputes with his one-time friend.
(c) Christabel
: Christabel
is the central character in the poem. It plays the role of the protagonist of the poem, as the events center
around the night she finds Geraldine in her garden. The lovely lady is
unable to sleep, being awoken by a dream of her lover, a knight who is “far
away” . So, she leaves her father’s castle and ventures into their
garden where she comes across a young woman named Geraldine. Being the
pious woman that she is, Christabel offers to help Geraldine. Christabel
becomes increasingly wary of Geraldine, especially after they sleep with one
another. Christabel’s character is fairly consistant throughout the poem,
showing no major changes by the poem's end. Christabel is an innocent maiden
who is devoted to her father. She is bespelled by Geraldine and therefore
unable to speak of what transpires on the night when she finds Geraldine
outside in the woods and then brings her into her bedchamber.
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