Isabella; or, The pot of Basil Flashcards
Isabella
role:
- protagonist
- tragic heroine
- Her harmatia is Lorenzo
- she represents innocence and true love
- Links to tragedy:
- she is kept in ignorance (kept in dark)
- she dies tragically crying
- she represents innocence, youth, love
- traits:
- loyal
- romantic
- good at gardening
“Oh may I never see another night, Lorenzo if thy lips breathe not loves tune” (stanza IV)
themes: innocence, desperation, weakness
devices: metaphorical language, allusion, pathos
- she is saying she will die if she does not see/hear him.
- this is exemplary of her innocence, desperation and weakness
- int 1: the idea that ‘lips breathe’ gives the extent as to which their love and intimacy is vibrant and lively.
alt 1: the idea of a ‘breath’ almost alludes to the idea of the ‘breath of life’ in the Bible and how Lorenzo gives Isabella vitality and means to live. Her dependance on him is rather tragic and expresses her weakness well. - int 2: ‘loves tune’ is a methodical phrase that allows the reader to relate to this fictional situation and the character (role of music in literature).
alt 1: ‘tune’ can also mean to adjust into a correct pitch. This could link to the idea that Lorenzo refines her love into a more controlled state when they are together and without him she spirals out of control and fears that she ‘may never see another night’.
AO3: representative of women in Keats’ time, this is an example of pathos as it evokes sympathy. This exemplifies Keats’ view that love is disruptive and thus leads to a tragic end.
AO4: This idea of desperation and obsession is reiterated in ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ where Porphyro who turns into an emotional wreck when presented with the idea of not being able to meet Madeline ‘Awake, with horrid shout, my foeman’s ears’
AO5: ‘The union of joy and pain is the the fundamental fact of human experience that Keats has observed and accepted to be true’ - Wright Thomas
“The breath of winter comes from far away, and the sick west continuously bereaves” (Stanza XXXII)
themes: isolation, reliance, patriarchy
devices: naturalistic imagery, s.field of abandonment, allusion, symbolism, caesura
int 1: imagery displays her love sick heart as it shows her isolation. This portrays Keats’ view on love and it could abandon you at any moment (it is unreliable).
int 2: adds to tragic themes as it creates a s.field of abandonment leading to her tragic downfall. This depicts women as dependant on men.
alt 1: The “breath of winter” may be a cunning allusion to the ‘breath of life’ in the bible. Further reinforcing Isabella’s dependance on Lorenzo.
int 3: the idea of the “sick west” is a typical reference to the connotations of death and finality the “west” has because this is where the sun sets.
alt 1: the “west” is also symbolic to a restored unity with God and the ‘Garden of Eden’. This further reinforces Isabella’s reliance on Lorenzo.
int 4: the loose caesura in this line could further emphasise Isabella’s fractured state, without Lorenzo not even two elements of sadness and depression in the “sick west” and “breath of winter” can be in unison.
AO4: ‘haggard’ and ‘woe-begone’ knight in la belle Dame
AO5:
links
- all 3 poems link to role of women
stanza 1
- immediate introduction of 2 lovers: “Fair Isabel” and “Lorenzo, a young palmer in love’s eye!”
setting
“They could not in the self-same mansion dwell” (stanza 1) - idea of luxury and high status
form
Keats chose to write in Ottawa rima, in these 8 line stanza’s of iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme abababcc, Keats chooses to repeatedly leave stanza’s open. This allows the potential of conclusions yet withholds them.
“Fair Isabel”
AO2: implies beauty and moral goodness - sympathetic characteristics.
AO2: the name “Isabel” means “God pledged”. This may emphasise the pure and innocent nature of her love for Lorenzo. However, the idea that their love is knowingly unattainable because of class division could result in a divine punishment.
AO2: “fair” can reference her complexion or perhaps her inclination to be justified and true.
AO3: females were expected to be subservient to the males in their household until moving to serve their husbands.
AO4: Idea of female characters being “fair” also seen in ‘Eve of St Agnes’ where Madeline is described as a “lady fair”. This could link to the common treatment of tragic female victims. For example, In Lamia, she suffers alone like Isabel in the ending.
AO5:
AO5: Women in Keats’ poems seem only to exist for sake of love and as fragile figures to be protected (or ravished) by males.
“if thou didst ever any thing believe,/Believe how I love thee, believe now near/My soul is to its doom”
AO2: prophetic language. enjambment and repetition of “believe” shows outpouring of his emotions
“And I must taste the blossoms that unfold”
“and great happiness/Grew, like a lusty flower in June’s caress”
AO2: Metaphor of desire and simile which also implies sexual desire. Growth also implies natural cycles which implies their love coming to an end.
AO2: the “blossom” symbolises spring, hope and renewal. However the fall of a blossom can represent the fall of a samurai in Japanese symbolism. Perhaps foreshadowing that the fight against their divided social tiers is soon to conclude. “June” symbolises marriage and procreation heightening the empathy and emotionally resonating with the reader.
AO3: The regency era was compiled with warefare and bloodshed but also great cultural achievement. Perhaps Keats is displaying the problem with social divisions and that they can cause bloodshed.
AO4: strong theme of nature seen in La Belle Dame Sans Merci where the ‘squirrels granary’ is ‘full’ and opposes the ‘knight-at-arms’. In this case, the natural cycle is moving too quickly for the lovers and their tragic downfall impends them.
AO5: …its sentiment, disagressiveness, inconsistent tone, stylistic lapses and alleged unoriginality and lack of ambivalence or tension condemned it is an ill-wroughturn (Michael Lagory - studies in Romanticism)
- there is the same idea that women only exist for sake of love and as fragile figures to be protected (or ravished) byt males. Isabel described as in her ‘downy nest’ and a prey to a male predator.
“twin roses by the zepher blown apart”
themes: nature, inevitability, capitalism, materialism
AO2: unity of "twin roses" suggests lovers follow one tragic fate. foreshadowing that with the murder of Lorenzo, the death of Isabella would shortly follow. "Zepher" hints to pastoral, gentle breeze could possibly indicate that their love is so fragile built on foundations of forbidden secrecy that even "zephyr" could blow them "apart". Implies that they will meet an inevitable fate due to omnipotent forces that are out of their control. These are almost mythical in effect in the governance of society. Societal order is arguably exposed by Keats as being oppressive over aspects of love. In turn, "zepher" could symbolise shaped expectations of love embedded by materialism and capitalism at the heart of the society (19th century).
AO2: unification of Lorenzo + Isabella as a couple is thus predetermined by social opinion as wrong, they are tarnished by their social class and so will inevitably be "blown apart" by force of societal limitations. If the "Zepher" was to symbolise boundaries imposed by society then it could be in turn assumed that in accordance to perceptions at this time, the love between noble lady + poor man was against nature which natural imagery ("roses", "zepher") may signify.
AO2: “roses” itself may insinuate certain tragic fate as the thorns on them could suggest a difficult unity. Classical mythological association to “zepher” as well contributes to idea that their love can only exist in dream world out of entrapment of reality which emphasises Keats as a Romantic poet and so assumes love as being an existence which can only be an entity in idealistic world.
AO4: Similarly, in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ mother nature works against/contrasts the ‘knight-at-arms’ who is ‘palely loitering’, while the ‘squirrel’s granary is full’. Because this ‘Faery’s child’ originates from the ‘wild’ nature of the wilderness, he is inevitability going to be vulnerable and In this way she is able to leave him on the ‘cold-hill side’.
AO5: “world of imagination provides release from painful world of reality, yet simultaneously it renders world of actuality more painful by contrast (Cleanth Brooks)
- Arguably this could link to the theory that “Keats finds melancholy in delight and pleasure in pain” (Jack Stilinger)
