Christabel

“Christabel” is a long narrative poem in the Gothic Romantic tradition comprising 64 stanzas and divided into two parts.

Part I

The first two stanzas establish the poem’s mood: Part I takes place on a cold, cloudless night. Coleridge repeats the words “chill” or “chilly” several times (Lines 14, 15, 20, 43), emphasizing the gloomy weather that often marks the Gothic genre, which tends towards a tone of fear, dread, and foreboding.

These stanzas feature two motifs that appear throughout the poem: birds and clock-bells. Both are markers of time, a theme that preoccupies the poem. The nocturnal owl is a creature of secrets and darkness; later, “owls have awakened the crowing cock” (Line 2), connecting birds with the natural passage of time. However, human time in the poem is also marked by the tolling of church bells. This clock “maketh answer to the clock, / Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour” (Lines 9-10). A different way to measure time also occurs: The poem takes place “a month before the month of May” (Line 21). During this April, in Leoline’s castle, later called Langdale Hall, spring is slowly creeping in—an in-between season known for changeable and unpredictable weather.

Stanzas three and four establish the titular character of Christabel. She is first defined as a daughter loved by her father, Sir Leoline. This foreshadows the end of the poem, when Leoline does not grant Christabel’s wish and sides with Geraldine. Christabel is pious and superstitious: She is in the woods to pray for the well-being of her fiancé after having bad “dreams all yesternight” (Line 27). The poem puts a lot of stock into the truth-baring nature of dreams—Christabel dream here echoes the bard’s dream at the end of the poem. Both dreamers seek out the woods in response to disturbing dream visions. The oak tree where Christabel prays is one of several plants in the poem, an ecological motif that connects her with nature—the absent wind would stir both a ringlet of Christabel’s hair and an oak leaf.

The poem creates its first tension-filled scene of dread as frightening moaning startles Chrisabel. The speaker heightens the mood by appealing to the divine for aid: “Jesu, Maria, shield her well!” The speaker-narrator is not a detached observer, and their distress here creates suspense—they know the danger Christabel is in long before readers do. The poem will repeat this rhetorical device several times, with the speaker-narrator alerting readers to danger by invoking the help of Christian deities and saints.

Stanzas eight, 10, and 11 introduce the stunning and strange Geraldine. She is associated with the color white: Her “neck that made that white robe wan” (Line 61) and her bare feet are so pale that the veins in them can easily be seen in the moonlight. This extreme paleness gives Geraldine a supernatural presence, and supports the many readings of her being a vampire. By contrast, the fact that her “voice was faint and sweet” in (Lines 72, 77) and her backstory of being abducted by men on white horses cast her as a damsel in distress. Her helplessness puts Christabel into the position of a knight errant, moved by a “wretched maid” (Line 103). This need to help the vulnerable is a central to the chivalric code undergirding knighthood—its introduction here presages the coming conflict between Christabel and her father Leoline. Chivalry includes not only helping damsels in distress and fighting other knights, but also offering hospitality. However, Sir Leoline, a retired knight errant, will extend his household’s chivalry further than Christabel desires.

As Christabel and Geraldine travel to the castle and through its gates, the poem hearkens to several key elements of Arthurian romances—a form of poetic storytelling about idealized knights and ladies that Coleridge evokes in this poem. Christabel offers to share her “couch” (Line 122) with Geraldine—a chivalrous act that recalls bedroom scenes in many stories of Arthur’s knights. Furthermore, Christabel has to carry Geraldine “Over the threshold of the gate” (Line 132) in a knightly fashion. This is a deeply resonant act that can be read in several ways. This act references the tradition of a groom carrying a bride over the threshold of their home after marriage. However, there is also a supernatural element to Geraldine being unable to enter the castle unassisted: Traditionally, supernatural creatures like vampires have trouble crossing boundaries without invitation. This is heightened by the unnatural disturbances of mundane household elements that take place as Geraldine goes through the castle: She cannot pray, alarms the dog, and ignites the fire.

A final reading focuses on the stealth with which the women must approach Christabel’s chamber while trying to not wake Leoline: Women fearing that going into a bedroom together will disturb a man’s sleep supports a queer reading of the poem. The queer reading of the poem is entangled with the supernatural. In Christabel’s chamber, the two women discuss Christabel’s mother, whose final words were about the clock bells chiming “twelve upon my wedding-day” (Line 201). This connects with the reading of Christabel carrying Geraldine over the threshold, as if it was their wedding day, as well the number of clock chimes and dog howls in the first two stanzas of the poem. When Christabel wishes her mother were with them, Geraldine seems to make this wish come true; however, she almost immediately tells the mother to leave after inviting her in: “Off, wandering mother! [...] / I have power to bid thee flee” (Lines 205-206). Having commanded Christabel’s supernatural and parental protector to flee, Geraldine creates a space either where queer sexuality can free from opprobrium or where Christabel is defenseless. In this space, Geraldine comes into her full power of her beauty: “She was most beautiful to see, / Like a lady of a far countrèe” (Lines 224-25). This outsider attractiveness is a key part of her power over Christabel. In bed, Christabel cannot sleep, and is compelled to gaze on Geraldine like an excited lover.

The spell Geraldine casts over Christabel furthers this dual interpretation—it is either a literal application of magic or a metaphor for the hidden nature of the lesbian encounter. Geraldine undresses to prepare the spell, revealing even more of her exceptional beauty: “Behold! her bosom and half her side— / A sight to dream of, not to tell!” (Lines 252-53); she then gains magical control of Christabel after putting her arms around her and pressing her close: “In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell, / Which is lord of thy utterance, Christabel!” (Lines 267-68). The encounter affects Christabel’s innocence and her religious belief. Rather than the “lovely sight” (Line 279) of Christabel’s prayer at the oak tree, Christabel is now in a disturbing trance, described both as “fearfully dreaming” (Line 294) and “a vision sweet” (Line 326). The same mix of fear and desire characterized the “frightful” (Line 66) experience of discovering Geraldine, “A lady so richly clad as she— / Beautiful exceedingly!” (Lines 67-68).

Geraldine has power not only over spirits and Christabel, but also over time itself. In contrast to the beginning of the poem, when owls and roosters marked the day’s progress, while Geraldine works her spell on Christabel, “The night-birds all that hour were still” (Line 307). Geraldine silences the natural signs of temporal progression, only releasing the flow of time when Christabel falls asleep—an occurrence that again is either a metaphor for a powerful sexual experience or a literal dramatization of Geraldine’s supernatural abilities.

Part II

Man-made measures of time open Part II, as the “matin bell” (Line 332), from the French word matin or “morning” calls Christian parishioners to early prayer. This bell reminds readers of death, as Leoline connects the sound to his dead wife, Christabel’s mother: On the day she died, he began saying that each matin bell “Knells us back to a world of death” (Line 333). The sexton’s dead brothers “all give back, one after t'other, / The death-note to their living brother” (Lines 354-355). This fixation on death is a Gothic trope. Familiar sounds, like daily church bells, are haunted by ghosts of family members and loved ones.

In contrast to Leoline’s gloomy thoughts of the past, Geraldine and Christabel spend the morning complimenting and admiring one another. Geraldine calls Christabel “sweet” (Line 368), and Christabel thinks Geraldine is “yet more fair!” (Line 374). Surrounding this romantic moment are the supernatural and the divine. Geraldine has faith in her occult practices: “nothing doubting of her spell” (Line 366), while Christabel has faith in Jesus and says her morning prayers.

In stanzas 44 and 45, the focus turns to Leoline. The women travel from a female to a male space, “the Baron's presence-room” (Line 396). Here, Leoline is referred to by his title, indicating his position of power. In keeping with his earlier grief for his wife, Leoline now focuses on his former relationship with Geraldine’s father Roland, shifting the poem’s focus away from the women. His nostalgia for past love—romantic love for his wife, platonic wife for his friend—is deeply rooted, allowing Geraldine to manipulate Leoline via his rekindled love for Roland and his guilt over their falling out. This echoes Christabel’s earlier shame about her lesbian experience with Geraldine—Geraldine preys on these private moments of lost honor. Underscoring the connection is Christabel’s sudden vision of Geraldine’s bosom and spellcraft, which she has been magically prevented from describing aloud. Their shared experience, whether sapphic and/or supernatural, is not to leave the private, female space of Christabel’s room.

Stanzas 52 through 54 offer competing interpretations of chivalric duty. Geraldine asks to be sent home—an escort mission that is a knightly standard. However, Leoline refuses Geraldine’s request; instead, he orders his bard Bracy to travel to Roland and invite him back to the castle. Leoline wants to reconnect with his long-lost male friend and show Roland that Leoline has been lavishly hosting Geraldine—a different take on his responsibilities as host and male protector. Leoline wants to “repent me of the day / When I spake words of fierce disdain” (Lines 514-515) about Roland, correcting an earlier chivalric misdeed. In giving directions to Bracy, Leoline mentions that Roland’s castle is near Scotland, which adds a geopolitical element to Leoline’s desire to reestablish the connection.

The poem contrasts Leoline’s wholly earthly considerations with a series of supernatural and prophetic visions. A wary Bracy recounts a dream of a green snake coiled around a dove—imagery rich with symbolism, as the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit and peace, while the snake recalls the Edenic serpent that tempted Eve into the Fall. Importantly, Leoline misinterprets Bracy’s dream through inattention—he cannot see that the dove is Christabel and the snake Geraldine. Readers are shown the correct reading when Christabel has another vision that she cannot talk about: Though Christabel’s father only sees Geraldine with “eyes so innocent and blue” (Line 614), her eyes actually “Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye” (Line 587). Christabel’s vision of Geraldine puts her in the role of the snake, a symbol of sexual sin and the demonic.

Leoline’s inability to see Geraldine correctly—either because of her supernatural powers, or because he cannot imagine that a woman poses a threat to him—puts him and Christabel in direct conflict. Because of her visions, Christabel asks for Geraldine to be sent away, invoking her “mother's soul” (Line 618). The speaker sides with Christabel, but Leoline finds this request, an intrusion of the feminine into his space of power, a painful reference to the wife he was just mourning earlier in the poem, and a breach of the codes of chivalry. Geraldine has made Leoline feel like a young knight again, especially through the connection to a friend from his youth. Christabel’s appeal, in contrast, reminds him of his grief and old age. The poem ends with him walking off with Geraldine who offers political connections, as well as beauty. He physically sides with her, rather than his daughter and dead wife.

The conclusion explores the relationship between a father and his child in broader terms, offering a lesson about interpersonal connections. A child brings the father so much joy that he sometimes paradoxically expresses love with bitterness. The speaker asserts that the world has offered fathers joy mostly through pain, and that they do not know how to express love in other ways.