Quotes Flashcards
“By gradual……….”
“By gradual decay from beauty fell”
Isabella assumes Lorenzo has left her. She is left in tragic isolation and we see the beginning of her deterioration.
“Fair”
Epithets like “fair” are repeated throughout, helping to emphasise Isabella’s role as something tragic - her fate will be unjust and undeserved - heighten pathos. Tragic inevitability.
“In blood…………..”
“In blood from stinging whip”
The villainous nature of her brothers creates a jarring juxtaposition between their corrupt nature and her innocence. Exploitative of workers, use violence to keep them in line.
Chief antagonists
Animalistic terms to describe the brothers
“Hungry” “shark” “hawk”
The brothers are presented to be predatory via a semantic field through the use of animalistic imagery.
Establishes a clear division between victim and villain and to potentially present capitalist leaders to be predatory and ruthless in comparison to the innocent symbols of emotion and love which Isabella and Lorenzo embody.
“What feverous………..”
“What feverous hectic flame/ Burns in thee, child?”
Defying gender roles
“Fair Isabel,………”
“Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel”
From the opening line we are positioned to sympathise with Isabel, she is immediately established as a victim. Keats wants us to pity her for the tragedy to be successful in creating pathos, he also wanted to portray his own message that denying people the ability to love whoever they want causes pain and suffering.
“Great bliss was……….”
“Great bliss was with them, and great happiness grew”
Establishing the height from which the characters inevitably fall from. Their ecstasy and intense love will never endure, it will be temporary, and ultimately tragic.
“Ledger-men” “money-bags”
Further characterisation by the brothers obsession with wealth.
Preoccupation with wealth and status: 19th century industrialists.
“All…….”
“All delight”
Happiness emphasised. The delight of Isabella as seen by Lorenzo will be short lived. It is a poignant moment full of pathos.
“She weeps…….”
“She weeps alone”
Beginning of deterioration
Tragic isolation
Overwhelming feeling of pathos evoked for the tragic victim
Melancholy feeling to the stanza
“The murderous………”
“The murderous spite of pride and avarice”
Reference to why the poem’s tragic antagonists murdered Lorenzo
Avarice - greed
Lorenzo was mercilessly stabbed, killed and buried
“A brother’s……….”
“A brother’s bloody knife!”
Isabella’s moment of anagnorisis
“Sweet spirit………..”
“Sweet spirit thou hast schooled my infancy”
Childhood ended
Innocence has been corrupted
No longer naive/ deluded/ deceived - she knows the truth
“Until her heart………”
“Until her heart felt pity to the core”
Talking about the nurse
Reader can align themselves with the nurse in this moment
Absolute sense of pathos
“And she forgot……….”
“And she forgot the stars, the moon, and the sun”
So consumed by grief that nothing else matters.
