In literature, snakes tend to symbolize evil, deceit and
even temptation and when combined with a female, it becomes unnatural, making
it apart of the Gothic ways. It provokes a pleasurable fear derived from the
woman's beauty and the snakes terrifying nature. In "Christabel,"
Coleridge presents Geraldine as a supernatural woman possessing qualities likes
a snake. Keats use's Coleridge's idea of the snake woman in "Lamia." However, both
authors present these women differently. Coleridge depicts Geraldine as evil.
There are many instances in the poem that establish that Geraldine is not good.
When the women walk past the dog, it growls, showing a sign that something is
not right. Later Geraldine damages the relationship Christabel and her father
have. Coleridge applies the idea that Geraldine is pleasurably terrifying and
is made to be only evil and full of deceit. Keats on the other hand represents Lamia as something a little
different. Though in the description of Lamia
appears to look and be evil, from within ,she wishes to escape from her snake
like form. Keats paints an entirely different picture, making Liam a
sympathetic creature who isn't completely evil like Geraldine.
To add what Keats representation of the snake as more sympathetic, maybe what Keats was displaying that humans sometimes as evil as their actions may be, the idea of people who change is still desired even among the most evil. In Milton’s Paradise lost the character of Satan has some guilt and remorse when he enters the garden, but holds his desire later in the story to harm Eve and Adam. So the representation as the serpent in a sympathetic form is rarely displayed in literature.
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