The Irony of Christabel

The Irony of Christabel

 ‘The story of Christabel concerns a central female character of the same name and her encounter with a stranger called Geraldine, who claims to have been abducted from her home by a band of rough men. Christabel goes in the woods to pray to the large oak tree, where she hears a strange noise. Upon looking behind the tree, she finds Geraldine, who says that she had been abducted from her home by men on horseback. Christabel pities her and takes her home with her; supernatural signs (a dog barking, a mysterious flame on a dead fire) seem to indicate that not all is well. Her father, Sir Leoline, becomes enchanted with Geraldine, ordering a grand procession to announce her rescue. The unfinished poem ends here.’

A recurring motif throughout Coleridge’s poem is the power of dreams and of the imagination, such as in “Frost at Midnight,” “Kubla Khan,” “Dejection: An Ode,” and “Christabel” is no exception.

While some modern critics focus upon lesbian and feminist readings of the poem, another interesting interpretation is the one that explores the complex relationship between Coleridge and Wordsworth. And the paper will rotate on the axis of Coleridge’s supposition on one hand and its irony on the other.

Coleridge’s Christabel is a poem seen by many critics as autobiographical confession because it mirrors into his own personal fears and desires in the course of a relation to his fellow poet. The relation is ideally meant to be symbiotic if at least Coleridge does not appear to be beneficent to Wordsworth. For he feels that he is a victim of Wordsworth’s ascension. Yet Coleridge has said it many times about the awesome feeling and respect he has to Wordsworth. Along this line, the esteem respect reflects in the poem where Geraldine (Wordsworth) asks Christabel (Coleridge) to undress and lie with her. To this end, one can deduce how inferior he feels to Wordsworth and how influential he is to Coleridge. And if that’s the case why  does he not estrange himself from the relation since at the first place  of the poem the encounter seems to be a vampiric relation as with the case between Christabel (the host) and Geraldine (the guest).

If we believe that Coleridge is Christabel and Geraldine Wordsworth, who is sucking him his poetic bliss and creativity to make him to become an English poet laureate, then it augurs to show that it is Coleridge who gives him a niche in the art of poetry making. There is no surprise when Christabel assits her guest cross into the room and at the end the help turns against her.

        The lady sank, belike through pain

        And Christabel with might and main

        Lifted her up, a weary weight

The attitude of Christabel’s father’s admiration towards Geraldine could be interpreted to mean that initially it is Coleridge who helps Wordsworth and latter turns out to be at the receiving end.

And sure ‘I have sinned’ would mean that Coleridge’s opium addiction could be the cause of his failure. ‘Woe is me’, from another prism can corroborate the above perception that opium addiction is the consequence that ruins his success and hampers him to accentuate his aspiration, not Wordsworth. In his poem The Pain of Sleep, Coleridge himself exposes the torment and dreadful impact, caused by opium on his life.      

In conclusion, if we believe that Wordsworth is exploiting Coleridge to become an English poet laureate; we cannot deny him because we see how Geraldine takes advantage of Christabel in the poem. But the irony of Christabel is that, while Coleridge is feeling being exploited; we can say that Coleridge should not be envious of Wordsworth because his opium addiction is what blocks his way.