Reading Response #3

"Christabel: A Variety of Evil Experience" is an article that analysed the poem "Christabel" by Samuel Coleridge. The author, Lawrence D. Berkoben, analysed the article with goal of exposing not only the internal conflicts, but also the external conflicts, including witchcraft, lesbianism, and the Devil, along with discussing the two central characters and how the affect each other.  Berkoben starts the article with, " Shortly after the death of his uncle, H. N. Coleridge coined the epithet "witchery by daylight" to describe Christabel.  His phrase oversimplifies the theme of the poem, but it suggest the ambiguous quality which has preoccupied criticism of the poem to the present day."  By starting with this he not only explains what the poem is about, but then criticizes it because the epithet simples the theme too much.  The author talks of the poem and tells of its dislodgement of the narrator from the characters, but he also explains how the words told by the narrator makes people believe he is in love with Christabel, the protagonist, and Geraldine, the antagonist.  By explaining all of central words that attach the narrator to both, Berkoben explains that the narrator is afraid for Christabel.  When the Devil comes into the story Berkoben explains what Geraldine is here for and explains that is why the narrator and Christabel are obsessed with her.  Not only does she have extreme temptation that seduces both, but because this is given to her by the Devil makes her an embodiment of temptation itself.  This also why she has snake like qualities as well.   How the author conveys his message on "Christabel" with comparison with "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" not only shows that Coleridge has mastered symbolism and convey what he wants with his words.  Berkoben likes to express that Coleridge is one of the Romanticism Period Poets that likes to use Gods stories into their poems.  The Devil gives a witch snake like qualities as well as being able to speak to the dead which goes to suggest that Coleridge was going for the Devil reacting to that ages people and their ability to be manipulated and hurt easily.

Geraldine in Black and Christabel in White, Innocence and Temptation meeting.

I find the article to be correct into what Coleridge was trying to convey in this poem.  I mean it is a classic story of good and evil, just with a twist.  That twist is that the good and evil in body another thing, Innocence and Temptation.  These separate entities meeting was something that was in the making, but it was not so suppose to be in this manner.  This manner included the Devil and witchcraft.  This is no match for Christabel, innocence, because she has nothing backing her up except her for narrator crying plies to save her.  The narrator, who was retelling the story and must of heard it before because he knew of what was going to happen before it did and implied it.  I assume the narrator to be male because of obsession with Christabel and Geraldine.  In the article Berkoben talks that the narrator asks a lot of rhetorical questions to be answered later in the poem.  By doing that Coleridge can control what the happens without it happening yet. What I still don't understand is why Geraldine was created by the Devil.  It is explained in the poem of the purpose, but I don't understand the meaning behind creating it/her.  It is just something I don't understand why Coleridge would create Geraldine with such a evil demeanor as the Devil.  "Christabel" is a poem that I could read over and over again and still find something new with it.  The first and second time I read it for this article was just to get where the author was pulling his information, while the third and fourth were more toward looking for the symbolism and making sense of it.  But the recurring theme that always would show was the Temptation attacking the Innocence.  It wasn't something the article's author wrote about, but it is what I found to be the central theme.  Berkoben is really a good author because I had an interesting time not only figuring out what he was saying, but was also interesting to figure out what Coleridge said and how Berkoben interpreted it.