The Erl-King Flashcards
Subversion of typical tale that displays female triumph
“I shall take two huge handfulls of his rustling hair […] strangle him”
Cautionary tale against female curiosity
“The Erl-King will do you grevious harm”
Female desire to be a part of a male identity
“Then I could lodge myself inside your body”
Oxymoronic depiction of the tenderness of a sexual encounter contrasted with the brutal reality that awaits
Ambivalence of love in patriarchal relationships
“Tender butcher”
“Price of flesh is love”
Entrapment within the woods and the traps laid by the Erl-King
“Once you are inside it, you must stay there until it lets you out again”
“Vertical bars of light”
Motif of food as a means of seduction and a metaphor for sexual appetite
“Goblin feast”
Allusion to the garden of Eden and desires that corrupt morality - conjures ideas of temptation and sin
“Eyes green as apples”
Moment of epiphany for the narrator, cage symbolic of patriarch’s oppression
“I have seen the cage you are weaving for me”
