Keats_and_the_Story_of_La_Belle_Dame_Sans_Merci

How does Keats tell the story in La Belle Dame Sans Merci' (21 marks) Keats tells the story in the form of a ballad; he uses this as a way of simplifying the text so the masses could read it back when he was writing. By doing this he was being imaginative and romantic for this is what the story symbolises. illusion, fantasy and courtly love are the main themes in the poem for it is set in the medieval era. Keats uses two narrators to portray these themes, a speaker in the first two stanzas then the knight in the remaining ones. He adds a fairy tale feeling to the poem by doing this as it opens with knowledge of where he is then jumps into the actual story but in the point of view of the knight. This adds a twist to the poem, makes it stand out and thus engaging the reader. The use of two narrators tells us that Keats wanted different views, symbolising the different perspectives which appears later in the poem too when the dreams come to the knight. Also the poem is circular because it starts and ends with the same three lines, Keats therefore treats it as an ever going narrative… is it the end' This also has a fairy tale quality. The story in the poem is told in ballad form with automatically gives it a rhythm. Each last line in every stanza has about four or five beats to it. This makes the poem a nice read and easy to follow which Keats wanted to create. The use of illusion is very important as the knight is completely under a spell (“in thrall”) from this magical and “beautiful” woman. The way she enchants him and puts him into a deep sleep is deceiving the knight as he thought it was true love but in actual fact it isn’t. She seems to have no control of what she is doing and doesn’t want to do it as “she wept”. Keats makes the reader feel somewhat sorry for this woman but makes them realise she has tricked him once, she may be tricking him again… this character is not to be trusted and Keats tells the story in such a way that we have to stop and think about her actual persona. Illusion is what she symbolises, the whole dream with the knight is because of her, in the end he woke “on the cold hill’s side”, “starved”. Keats has made it sound so beautiful that we just think it as normal but when you read back you actual see what she has done, again deceiving the reader. The poem is short and simple, however has many poetic and romantic qualities to it. He uses flowers as metaphors of love, lust and beauty like in the 3rd stanza with “fading rose” and the 5th with “fragrant zone”. Keats likes to use flowers throughout this poem as well as others like ‘The Eve of St.Agnes’, probably because it is quite feminine and dainty while his women characters are seen as a femme fatal – dangerous. The contrast here brings the story of the poem to life, Keats makes it seem devious and an illusion to the audience which gives it that added mystery. Some may say that the poem is an extended metaphor of love and addiction of how the knight must have her but she does not need him, that chase of life. Keats also used food imagery to suggest the love and the pleasures of it like “manna dew” and “roots of relish sweet”. This shows how beautiful and rich she is for “manna dew” is the food of the Gods, however it suggests it isn’t as satisfying as it seems as the “starved lips” of the knight show the love isn’t sustained, he is left wanting more which could also be a metaphor for addiction and lust. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is based around the idea of a fantasy world, another realm and the use of words portrays this. Keats tells the story as if it could be real but with a twist as it is fictional just like fairy tales are. Words like “faery” and “elfin” are medieval and mysterious as these words are based around magical stories. Keats uses these words to create scene and place and how magic is prominent. He tells it so beautiful of how “she took me to her elfin grot” which is said by the knight in stanza 8 and how she “lulled” him to sleep. These are very innocent words which are used by Keats to represent how she lures the knight to her, how she makes him completely under her spell which is very typical in medieval stories. Keats drops these words into the poem to make it seem like nothing is wrong, like all is happy. This means that the readers are also being tricked not just the knight into believing that this magical woman is amazing, she is a ‘good’ character and Keats has done this very cleverly as you read the poem more than once to understand that she is the very opposite. He tells the story very sneakily in my opinion. In conclusion, Keats uses a mixture of poetic devices, rhythm, imagery and non-complex sentences to tell the story of La Belle Dame Sans Merci. The way Keats deceives the reader reflects on the events in the poem, it engages them and makes the story feel quite real even though it is medieval and completely a fantasy story. Love, lust, illusion and magic are very important throughout the poem and create the story of the knight and the woman. I feel that Keats wanted to portray the evils of life and the dangers of women as they may seem beautiful and charming but looks can be a front, it’s the motions that count as the woman in the poem is seen as extremely dangerous, a femme fatal.