Christabel

“Christabel” begins with a “castle clock” (Line 1), and the clock motif runs throughout the poem. This clock, in addition to the church matin bell that calls parishioners to prayer, is a sign of human attempts to measure and systematize nature and the supernatural. A clock interrupts Geraldine’s story of her abduction: “I thought I heard, some minutes past, / Sounds as of a castle bell” (Lines 100-101) and wakes Bracy the bard from his nightmare about a snake twining around a dove. The clock’s unyielding count of time has power over the supernatural Geraldine, limiting her intrusion into Christabel’s psyche to a single hour.

This castle bell also reaches across time. It is presumably the same one Christabel’s mother heard while she lived at the castle; “on her death-bed she did say, / That she should hear the castle-bell / Strike twelve upon my wedding-day” (Lines 199-201). This Gothic trope of different times coming together implies that the bell from Christabel’s late mother’s prophesy is the same bell heard earlier in the poem—a bell that rang at the time that Christabel carried Geraldine over the threshold of the castle, as if they were just married.

Another motif in “Christabel” is the moon. Its presence adds to the Gothic tone of the poem, and develops nature as a positive influence. At the oak tree, the speaker describes Christabel as “Kneeling in the moonlight” (Line 284). This is a “lovely sight” (Line 279), characterizing the space illuminated by the moon as holy and natural. When Geraldine enters this space, however, her white dress is “shadowy in the moonlight shone” (Line 60), marking Geraldine as a shadowy figure. The moonlight weakens as the women enter Christabel’s room, where Geraldine comes into her full power: While “The moon shines dim in the open air, / And not a moonbeam enters here” (Lines 175-76). Christabel’s bedroom is not blessed by the light of the moon, as was the place of her prayer. This makes the space of the room shadowy and, as such, influenced by Geraldine’s power.