AQA A-Level English Literature B (Tragedy) - Lamia by John Keats

‘She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue…’

**AO4:**

Appearance vs Reality, Identity, Manipulation/Deceit, Treatment of Women

**AO2:**

Imagery of beauty, links to manipulation and temptation. Religious allusion of ‘serpent’ - devil, deceit, manipulation. Play on words - ‘Gordon’ → Link to Medusa (Classical Allusion)

**AO3:**

Negative Capability

**AO5:**

Treatment of Women → Victorian attitudes towards women.

‘Among the Gods, upon Olympus old, … ‘I dreamt I saw thee robed in purple flakes’

**AO4:**

Appearance vs Reality, Manipulation/Deceit, Hamartia (Lust), Dreams, the Gods

**AO2:**

Foreshadowing → Dreams. Temptation through materialism and opulence and grandeur. Manipulation attempting to flatter Hermes. Allusion to 7 deadly sins (Hermes’ lust)

**AO3:**

Emphasised by Romanticists → Greek Gods - Romanticism, mythic legends

‘Her new voice luting soft’

**AO4:**

Appearance vs Reality, Deceit, Villain, Treatment of Women

**AO2:**

Auditory Imagery → Music, Temptation, Hallucination, Soothing. Links with luring and seduction.

Greek Mythology allusion → Siren’s song, foreshadowing Lycius’ later death.

**AO5:**

Femme Fatale

‘And soon his eyes had drunk her beauty up, / Leaving no drop in the bewildering cup’

**AO4:**

Victims, Manipulation, Appearance vs Reality, Blindness

**AO2:**

Symbols of intoxication, deceit. The ‘no drop’ signifies the lust and desire from Lycius. Is it his hamartia, or rather all in Lamia’s control?

Motif of ‘eyes’ emphasises his ignorance. Apollonius’ eyes can see through Lamia’s facade, yet Lycius’ eyes can not.

**AO3:**

Romanticism → Love.

Negative capability, much easier and pleasurable to get lost within the beauty of things rather than search for logical meaning.

‘Even as thou vanishest so I shall die’

**AO4:**

Victims, Tragic Inevitability

**AO2:**

Foreshadowing of Lyius and Lamia’s death.

‘And won his heart / More pleasantly by playing woman’s part’

**AO4:**

Villainy, Manipulation/Duplicity, Appearance vs Reality, Treatment of Women

**AO2:**

Irony, Allegory of Fanny Brawne (seductress) → Femme Fatale.

Lamia enjoys and gains pleasure from her deception; Lamia enjoys manipulating Lycius.

**AO5:**

Reinforces idea of ‘femme fatale’ → emasculation

‘By blinded Lycius’

**AO4:**

Blindness, Manipulation, Power

**AO2:**

Double meaning:

Blind from deceit - Manipulation of Lamia

Blinded by her beauty - emphasises her oppressive deceptive power.

**AO3:**

Negative Capability

‘Sharp eyes’

**AO4:**

Tragic Inevitability, Villain

**AO2:**

Motif of eyes - repetition.

Foreshadows how he’ll soon expose Lamia for her deception.

‘Hostility’ → cold philosophy → Apollonius as a villain?

**AO3:**

‘At the mere touch of cold philosophy’

Romanticism vs Enlightenment. Enlightenment is hostile and aggressive and aims to ruin the concept of beauty. Idea of Keats’ critics.

‘Mild as a star in water’

**AO4:**

Tragic Inevitability

**AO2:**

Simile - Impermanence of Lamia and Lycius’ relationship (star in water is a reflection that will dissolve)

‘Shut from the busy world’

**AO4:**

Isolation, Villain(y), Manipulation, Power

**AO2:**

Lamia’s oppressive control over Lycius (emasculation?)

Shutting him away from the harsh reality of society (i.e. Apollonius)

Lamia as a cold villain, powerful as a femme fatale.

**AO3:**

Victorian treatment of women.

Idea of Bower → A common Romantic idea of a setting (usually a concealed place hidden by foliage) that is outside of reality and society, as well as space and time. In tragedies, usually the bower is invaded, which causes calamity and destruction within the poem (tragic downfall)

Although not literally, Apollonius will invade the bower by gazing at Lamia and revealing her, destroying the sanctity that the bower provides. The bower in Lamia is the ‘purple-lined palace’

**AO5:**

Femme fatale

‘That purple-lined palace of sweet sin’

**AO4:**

Setting, Isolation, Lust, Love, Villain

**AO3:**

Bower

‘His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue / Fierce and sanguineous as ‘twas possible’

**AO4:**

Treatment of Women, Villains, Victims

**AO2:**

Lycius now as a villain - tyrannous control over Lamia. Gaining back control over himself, or merely alleviating stress caused by Lamia?

**AO5:**

Treatment of women - patriarchal oppression

‘She burnt, she loved the tyranny / And, all subdued consented to the hour’

**AO4:**

Treatment of Women, Villains, Victims

**AO2:**

Hint at Lamia not being human?

**AO5:**

Treatment of women - patriarchal oppression, and the lack of consciousness to the exploitation

‘Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy?

‘Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings / Conquer all mysteries by rule and line’

‘Unweave a rainbow’

**AO4:**

Appearance vs Reality, Victims, Villains, Tragic Inevitability, Misery, Pity/Pathos

**AO2:**

Metaphor and Allegory of the fight between Romanticism and Enlightenment.

Reason vs Imagination

Apollonius will shatter/pierce their illusion.

Lamia becomes vulnerable due to Apollonius’ presence at the wedding.

**AO3:**

Enlightenment - movement established in the Victorian era during the Industrial era. An increase of scientific discoveries left people to want everything explained with logic and reason. Romanticists criticised this perspective as they believed rationality diminishes the wonder of the world; reason sucks beauty out of things (negative capability)

‘Begone, foul dream!’

**AO4:**

Dream, Appearance vs Reality, Anagnorisis, Tragic Downfall, Tragic Inevitability, Endings

**AO2:**

Exclamatory phrase - Apollonius revealing Lamia as a serpent

‘My sweet bride withers at their potency’

**AO4:**

Victims, Villains, Endings

**AO2:**

Lamia is revealed and begins vanishing.

‘And shall I see thee made a serpent’s prey?’

**AO4:**

Endings, Victims, Villains, Anagnorisis, Blindness

**AO2:**

Apollonius reveals his intentions, and how he was trying to save Lycius from getting lost in imagination

‘Than with a frightful scream she vanished: / And Lycius’ arms were empty of delight’

**AO4:**

Endings, Victims, Villains

**AO2:**

In a twist of events, Lycius witnesses his lover die and begins to grow weak and die. A truly tragic end.