La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Question 1

How could you address structure?

Answer 1

Movement from present tense to recount - chronological order
Cyclical nature - 1st stanza mirrors the last, 12 stanzas highlights seasonal change, the use of the dream and how there have been previous victims whilst also suggesting there will be more

Question 2

What language features does Keats use?

Answer 2

Simple language mirrors knights energy - near his death
Natural/ supernatural/ euphemistic imagery
Metaphors - ‘I see a lily on thy brow… a fading rose’
Recurring motif - paleness of victims

Question 3

How could you address the form of the poem?

Answer 3

Ballad - moral lesson (quatrains)
Perspective of Knight - question presentation of women
Dialogue from knight and observer
Simple language/length of poem illustrates how the knight doesn’t have the time/energy as he is near his death
Both dream and form reinforce faery child’s cyclical pattern of life

Question 4

How could you address A03?

Answer 4

Romantics - liked ballads, world of supernatural/imagination
Historical context - inversion of natural order having knight as ‘damsel in distress’

Question 5

Who is the protagonist (tragic hero)?

Answer 5

Knight
‘Knight at arms alone and palely loitering’
‘I see a lily on the brow’
Question whether he is a tragic hero!

Question 6

What is his fatal flaw?

Answer 6

Falling in love too quickly - is he uneducated?

Being a knight - her victims have his status

Question 7

Is there an element of fate?

Answer 7

‘The latest dream … I saw pale kings … they cried - La Belle Dame sans Merci’ - his fate has already been set at this point

Question 8

Is there a peripeteia?

Answer 8

‘And there she killed me asleep and there I dreamed’ - his reversal of fortune as their relationship changed from ‘as she did love’ to him ‘on the cold hills side’
Historical inversion of natural order - the knight is the ‘damsel in distress’

Question 9

What is his hamartia?

Answer 9

Trusting the faery child - he is unknown to him
Misinterpreting her - ‘in language strange… I love the true’
The same error has been committed by other ‘pale warriors’ - is this a fatal flaw, something which is ingrained in these individuals?

Question 10

What is his hubris?

Answer 10

‘I set her on my pacing steed’ - male dominance in physical/euphemistic way
Takes pride in his misinterpretation of her love, ‘looked at me as she did love’ - establishes his manhood
Male perspective - allows himself to retain manhood and pride by influencing our judgement of women

Question 11

Does he achieve anagnorisis?

Answer 11

‘The latest dream I ever dreamt…’ - his moment of realisation comes too late that his fate is unchangeable and inevitable
Does he provide the observer with a moment of realisation? A chance to change his fate or is his already set?

Question 12

Is there are element of catharsis (pity)?

Answer 12

Lack of motive from faery child heightens pity towards knight as his fate was inevitable and unforeseen
Even though he is another victim to her ‘lulling’ it isn’t overly cathartic
Death is imminent- ‘and no birds sing,’ isolated from humanity
Fear of understanding human condition - can’t predict everyone’s actions which heightens the level of danger as there is a lack of preparation, failing to question something when you aren’t certain and lead to fatal errors and potentially self inflicted suffering as it is an error on your part

Question 13

Who is the villain?

Answer 13

Faery child:
Suggested in the title
Highlighted in treatment of previous ‘pale princes’ and the knight himself

The knight:
Restrictive use of nature - ‘I made a garland for her head,’ sense of male dominance and oppression of women
‘I set her on my pacing steed’

Question 14

What makes the tragic outcome inevitable?

Answer 14

1st stanza in the poem - death imagery

Starts in the tragic outcome and ends reinforcing it - we know it is inevitable even before he tells his recount

Question 15

Who is the victim?

Answer 15

The knight:
Victim of isolation - ‘and no birds sing’
Victim of love and deceit - ‘she looked as she did love,’ unrequited love
Victim of the faery child - her cyclical pattern of life
Victim of his status - loss of identity, victimised, degrading

The faery child:
Victim of society - women’s oppression, might be her motivation for men of high status, dehumanises them as a form of revenge?
Victim of her own nature - is that why she ‘wept and sighed full sore’?

Observer - is he the next victims if not there is still a sense that the knight won’t be the last reinforced in the cyclical nature of the poem

Question 16

What happens in this poem?

Answer 16

Someone is looking at a knight who is on a cold hill side. Appears to be dying and tells his tale of how he ended up in this situation. He fell in love with a faery child who after some time together lured him into her elfin grit and sent him to sleep where he dreamed and gained an insight into his fate (like the pale warriors), which he is currently experiencing.

Question 17

What is the readers response?

Answer 17

Blurring of boundaries between villain and victim
What is the faery child’s perspective?
Is he to blame for misinterpreting her ‘language strange’ - does he cause his own suffering by thinking he is in love
Perspective of knight - biased perspective against women
Unrequited love - on the knights behalf
‘Pale warriors’ elevate her villainous status
Does the knight try to establish his pride as he has lost his identity/status as she dehumanises/weakens him
Length of poem suggests his death is inevitable and so doesn’t have time to go into detail
Keats uses nature to reflect emotions towards love - it come and goes but ultimately it continue whether you are there or not
Sympathetic - victimisation it knight physically, metaphorically (historical inversion) and emotionally
Lost touch of reality - became consumed by a concept as he was blinded by love
Is is the loss of magic and being brought back to rationality that leaves him in this state?

Question 18

What themes occur in this poem?

Answer 18

Unrequited love 
Pleasure and pain 
Love and death 
Appearance vs reality 
Suffering 
Misinterpretations 
Supernatural vs natural

Question 19

Are there any moments of happiness?

Answer 19

From the knights perspective - YES

His time in the meads with the faery when ‘she did love’ and in ‘language strange she said - I love the true’

Question 20

Is there any violence/ revenge present?

Answer 20

Emotional violence for the ‘pale warriors’ when the cry her name
Her actions and victimisation of men of high status could be a form of revenge - rebelling against the passivity/ oppression of the women

Question 21

What type of tragic text is it?

Answer 21

Ballad - quatrains
Ominous tone
Includes recount
Inversion of historical presentation if a knight

Question 22

What is the influence of setting?

Answer 22

Yearly/seasonal cycle - continues
Dream - mirrors cyclical nature of poem, land of imagination and the unknown, don’t always remember dreams but this is one the the knight will never forget until his death
Elfin grot - private, ambiguous setting
Meads - public, natural setting
Starts and ends in the natural world but the middle enters the supernatural

Question 23

‘Knight at arms, alone and palely loitering’

What does this quote show?

Answer 23

Illustrates his status whilst also weakening its importance in the dehumanised depiction of his physicality
Palely - suggestion of decay and death
Alone - potential victim of isolation (from humanity)

Question 24

‘No birds sing’

What does this quote show?

Answer 24

Lack of new life -

Isolated from the natural world as well as humanity

Question 25

‘I see a lily on thy brow… on thy cheek a fading rose’

What does this quote show?

Answer 25

Physical appearance of the knight from the observers perspective - emphasis on his deathly image
His tragic outcome/fate has already occurred

Question 26

‘She looked at me as she did love’ and ‘ in language strange… I love thee true’
What do these quotes show?

Answer 26

Appearance vs reality
Knights blindness to reality of her actions - misinterprets her behaviour and views it as an act of love (his tragic outcome suggests otherwise)

Question 27

‘I set her on my pacing steed’ and ‘I made a garland for her head’
What do these quotes show?

Answer 27

Male dominance - wants to try and construct/restrain her
Does this provide her with motive/revenge?
Illustrates his hubris - establishes manhood
Does this make him seem like the antagonist?

Question 28

‘She lulled me asleep… the latest dream I ever dreamt’ and ‘I saw pale kings … they cried - La Belle Dame sans Merci thee hath in thrall’
What do these quote show?

Answer 28

His fate has been set
His moment of realisation is too late - can’t change his fate, it’s inevitable
He isn’t the only victim of the faery child’s cyclical pattern of life