I thought it was interesting while reading the two poems to compare Lamia and Geraldine in terms of their relationships with hero-like figures. Hermes and Christabel have interactions with Lamia/Geraldine that are similar in some ways.
Lamia is trapped as a serpent (which in Greek culture is pretty low on the animal totem pole), and Hermes removes the illusion. Through the retelling of her story, Geraldine is 'trapped' as a damsel in distress, but by having Christabel hear her story, the reader realizes that this is an illusion to. The story is not sound. "Five warriors" took her, yes...but where are they? What was a plausible purpose for their leaving, and more importantly, what is her purpose for staying? There is something Geraldine is not willing to tell Christabel. Geraldine's flawed story suggests the absence of an important detail, or at the very least, that Geradline is not what she seems (which is reinforced later on with the "bad omens" upon Geraldine's arrival).
There are some other slight differences here. Hermes only helps Lamia after she helps him by giving him his water nymph. Geraldine, on the other hand, does not really give Christabel anything of value, except maybe the opportunity to feel like a moral person by helping her. Whereas Hermes helps Lamia as a reward for her actions, Christabel takes in Geraldine as an act of kindness.
Lamia is portrayed in more of a submissive role. She immediately wants Lycius and ultimately does not get him; she's punished towards the end of the poem. It is a male figure that gives her her human form (Hermes) and a male figure that ruins her (Apollonius). She has a very reactionary existence.
Gerladine is more conniving. She holds more cards than Christabel (or the reader) is aware of. Both characters play the part of a damsel in distress, but while Lamia goes along with whatever happens to her, Geraldine seems to have an ulterior motive, something that the reader can only approximate since the poem itself was never completed.
Nice job in comparing the characters of the poem to the Greek characters in mythology. However, I may add on that Geraldine may represent more than just the lamia character in Greek mythology. Note that in most stories any characters that are serpent like usually represent the evil within man itself and temptations of what human’s desire. Geraldine herself might be the personification of the idea of man being devious and manipulative to either obtain power or just be cruel to people. Also since Geraldine hides her true face as a damsel in distress, the whole idea that chivalry exposing the evil of these characters becomes useless since to combat manipulative minds takes more than just ideals.
ReplyDeleteRight, and I think that this is the significance of Leoline's misinterpretation of the Bard's dream. Just as Ellenore, in Lenore by Burger, was blinded by her love for William to see that he was really a ghost, so too is Leoline blinded by his archaic knightly chivalric ideals to comprehend the foresight of the Bard.
ReplyDeleteThe Bard, in this poem, thus signifies wisdom and foresight, as the Bard's previous role in history being an agent of knowledge. I think that Coleridge is commenting on the decline and turning away from the Bard in the end of his poem.
Also, in the conclusion to part 2, Coleridge writes, "Perhaps 'tis pretty to force together / Thoughts so all unlike each other; / To mutter and mock a broken charm, / To dally with wrong that does no harm." (668-71) I think that what Coleridge is doing in the poem is using the Gothic motif (by mocking it) and chivalric ideas ("thoughts so all unlike each other") to comment on how the old ideas of knightly chivalry (broken charm) only serve to blind people from the truth or from knowledge (in the form of the Bard).