Social Criticism In La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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La Belle Dame sans Merci According to Jerome J. McGann “for every work of art is the product of an interaction between the artist, on the one hand, and a variety of social determinants on the other, even the simplest textual problem establishing a work’s linguistic correctness-can involve other problems that are quite literally, insoluble”. ((Rice Philip&Waugh Patrcia, Modern Literature Theory, Bloomsbury Academic, (ed) 2011, p 294).

As known in our course that social determinants highly interfere in one’s poetry. Keats’s Bella Dame, is opted to as it fully represents what Jerome said above. It is, in my opinion, one of the best examples embodying such a significant role of external situation that considerably affects the way the …show more content…

He symbolized the hero image for Fanny in the original copy, but in the second version he substituted Wight for Knight-at-arms. I think he deliberately used Wight, the name of island, because the island and he had much in common. He found himself cut off from people like the island in which he shortly lived. They both were abandoned, fragile and lonely. They are as a very fertile ground as for poetry. In other words, poets merely exploited the island for poetry as Fanny did to enjoy Keats’s poetry. The poets never lived in the island as a homeland and Fanny never loved Keats as a fiancé. The charm of island ,as deemed by the poets, lied in its an unspoiled land; no any artists treaded its land, bar the poets, and this is very similar to the status of Keats as his poem never enjoyed and addressed by/to anyone, except Fanny. The island rendered all facilities, relief and peace of mind to such poets so as to compose their poetry just as Keats’s poetry did to Fanny. She was worming herself into his affection without his ever suspecting she only did it for satisfying her ego in his poetry. In addition to this, Fanny's detached behaviors during his illness triggered his painful and unforgettable memories, including his brother torment by the incurable disease. Such memories, therefore, considerably crept in during the poem

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