Femme Fatale - Keats
The role of woman in Keats' writing has been debated both online and offline for many years. Keats' failed relationships, mistresses and heartbreaks can be seen in many of his writings. In "La Belle Dame sans Merci" our leading lady takes on the "femme fatale persona" The femme fatale has been a staple in literature and cinema for centuries. Simply defined, a femme fatale is "a woman who is considered to be highly attractive and to have a destructive effect on those who succumb to her charms." She is a woman who leads men into danger and is usually a love interest to another main character. Their involvement can range from flirting to full blown passion, but sooner or later he will reject her or leave her. A pure sexual being, the femme fatale will take what she wants and destroy you. Men and woman both have been victims of the femme fatale's wicked ways. Musicians have long written songs about the "Witchy Woman" and her "Looks that Kill". Our romantic authors were no stranger to this as well.In Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci" we see Keats' use of imagery, and nature to tell the story of a beautiful femme fatale and her doomed lover. The woman is portrayed through imag
We see our knight taken to "La Belle's" elfin grot. es of wild, untamed nature and in the end we know that she defeats the knight on her own by draining his strength and leaving him in the barrenness and cold of winter. Keats associates female sexuality with mystification, but still desires to respond to the beauty of an impassioned body, turns away from desire to love gone sour. She feeds him manna and wild food showing us that she has to be supernatural because humans can't get manna since it is a special food given from God. Her beauty shields the heartbreaker within. It's a deep hurt that doesn't always go away so easily. Our dear knight might not be the man I am making him out to be but let's remember our goal in this essay, women are evil. This world holds no happiness or beauty for the night. The knight never tells us that she is terrible. More recent feminist commentators have suggested that the knight in fact raped the Belle Dame, and is being justly punished - this is based on textual hints like "she wept, and sigh'd full sore". " These "pale kings, knights, warriors" were all men of power until they laid in love with the supernatural woman. There is a deeper role that our elfin seductress plays here for us and a deeper wound that attacks all of us in a way. Everyone expects a witch to be evil and vicious but from what the knight tells us about "La Belle" we don't expect a miserable ending caused by such a beautiful lady. Further, the more one entertains feelings of beauty and love, the more desolate and more painful the world becomes.
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Acceptance Essays
