Isabella; or the Pot of Basil - Keats Flashcards
What is ‘Isabella; or the Pot of Basil’ an adaptation of?
Boccaccio’s Decameron
What AoT are present?
Pathos - due to Iz never-ending suffering
Suffering - L and Iz are separated causing Iz to fall into a deep depression
Tragic Victims - Lorenzo, Isabella
Tragic Villains - the brothers
Treatment of Women - Brothers want to uses Isabella to gain status
When was this written? Why is this important?
March 1818 - Keats’ at this time was nursing his brother who suffered from TB; echos throughout the poem via references to ‘fever’ and death
At this time Keats was at the peak of his emotional turmoil - Conflicts with Fanny Brawne and his brothers’ illness
How does Keats criticise the capitalist, industrial world?
His voice breaks through the narrative when describing the brothers that embody the corruption of capitalism
He uses the brothers to symbolise the opposition between Romanticism and Enlightment
Fair Isabelle…
poor, simple Isabelle
why in the name of glory…
were they proud
red-lined…
accounts
their murdered…
man
oh cruelty…
to streal my basil pot away from me!
Fed it with…
thin tears
sweet Isabelle…
will die
she had no knowledge
when the day was done
to coax her by some degrees…
to some high noble and his olive trees
her tears kept…
ever wet
she forgot the stars, the moon, the sun…
and she forgot the blue above the trees
