John Keats' Lamia: The Uncertain Destiny in the Waking Dream

• Main Authors: Zhi-bin Chiang, 蔣治斌
• Other Authors: Seng-yong Tiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58899049692753620582

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 89 === Abstract Lamia is a poem about an incurable young scholar, Lycius, who is attracted by a lamia, and who, regardless of his mentor’s dissuasion, wants to marry her. The outcome is predictable: the goddess Lamia disappears, and Lycius dies wrapped in his marriage robe. This simple statement of the facts conceals the attractions of the poem, which deals with a romantic dream in Part I and then puts the romance in the city of Corinth in Part II. Both parts are inextricably linked. Keats’ poetic gift is manifest in this text, with its beautiful and idealized account of Lamia. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first introduces briefly the poem’s sources and main theme. Since the poem contrasts the ideal world of romantic imagination and the material world of stark reality, my discussion centers on the duality of vision and visibility. The second chapter surveys Keats’ artistic “transformation” and the aesthetic value of Lamia. Here then I analyze the poem’s sound and imagery through which, in effect, the ambiguities in/of Nature are “corrected.” The third chapter attempts to trace Lamia’s Greek origins: she is a member of the race of Lamiae, a group of deadly creatures with the head and the breasts of a woman and the body of a serpent. This interesting creature is studied and compared with the White Snake in the ancient Chinese story, The Legend of the White Snake. Vampirism is another quality shared by the Lamia and the White Snake. I also use another poem, Goethe’s “The Bride of Corinth”, to clarify and enhance Lamia’s vampire motif. The fourth chapter reconsiders Lamia’s ophidian disposition as observed and experienced by Oliver Wendell Holmes; Holmes’ Elsie Venner also tells of the romance of a young lady born with ophidian attributes and a young scholar. In my conclusion I summarize my main argument: Keats’ Lamia, while embarked on a journey to the human world which may be circumscribed by fate and brings her much suffering, is also freely seeking or choosing her destiny and her dream; if this journey (and Lycius himself) is indeed nothing but her own dream, then it is one which leaves us with open possibilities for the future─including the possibility that Lycius and Lamia will still be reconciled in “another” and yet “newer” world.