The Eve of St Agnes Flashcards
beadsman
pray over graveyards upper class, cathlic tradition
st agnes
patron saint of virgin
committed to god, anyone who tried to married her die, thought she was a witch and killed her
pray sleep naked - ritual
beadsman represents
- represents morality in an immoral world
story plot
porphyro asks angela to let him into madelines room, so he can make her think shes dreaming and see him
hides in her cupbord and watches her getting ready for bed
he sets up a feast, and wants to wake her so she thinks hes in her dream
post dinner party
themes
illusion vs reality
can their love survive in the real world, out of the safety of a warm room
ambiguious ending
uncertainty as to whether their love flourishes
love is an escape from the mortal world, but destined to fail
hedonism meaning
the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life
st agnes eves - ah bitter chill it was!
pathetic fallicy
cesura
exclamation
bleak mid-winter - marker of time
your virgins might have visions of deight
liveiness contrasts with beadsman
virgins - purity and innocence
alliteration not real, illusion vs relaity
she danced along with vauge regardless eyes
danced - youth, carelessness
detatchment from reality
entrapment within herself ?
there he hide him in a closet, of such of such privacy that he might see her beauty unespies and win perhaps that night a peerless bride and pale enchantment held her sleepy-eyed
lust not equate to love
peerless - unrivaled, isolation, alone
secrecy/ deceptionsway from real world
manipulation
doesnt want to be seen becuase he knows he’s sining
might/ perhaps - tentative, speculative
Had come young Porphyro, with heart on fire for Madeline.”
Possible Tragic hero status because of his great amount of love for Madeline that pushes his character through the story.
porphyro took /madaine asleep in her maidenhood
took - negative connotations, taking whats not yours active
