This contrasts with “The Eve of St. Agnes” where the reader observes another type of temptress, Madeline, in the poem ‘Mariana’. Madeline is unknowingly seductive to the weak Porphyro. Porphyro even sings to her,
“…La belle dame sans merci:
Close to her ear…” as Madeline would not wake up and put him out of his desperate craving for love. The reader feels compassion for Porphyro as he waits for his Madeline. At this point he seems to relate to the Wretched Wright as they both undergo suffering during the wait for their loves. Madeline and the Belle Dame give the impression they are similar too, they together appear beautiful, pure virgins. “Her hair was long, her foot was high”, the Belle Dame was un-married. In the ‘Eve of St. Agnes’ the title proposes to the reader that ‘St. Agnes’ is Madeline, she is “like a saint”, “so pure a thing”. With this supremacy they both seduce their men. Nevertheless the reader knows that Madeline wakes up and puts Porphyro out of his misery and yet he may not appear as fantastic as in her dreams. They love each other and Porphyro does not need to suffer any longer and love now becomes a positive thing unlike in ‘‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’’ and in ‘‘Mariana’’.
In all three poems love is associated with suffering and anguish. Although the hapless victim of loves intent differs from poem to poem. In ‘The Eve of Saint Agnes’ and ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ the reader understands man to be dependant on woman, he is cast under loves spell, blinded by his lovers seduction. In both these poems the male becomes enchanted and entranced, “she took me to her elfin grot”, is how La Bell Dame captivates the Wretched Wright. In the Eve of St. Agnes” the woman naively and unintentionally temps Porphyro,
“She seem’d a splendid angel, newly dust,
Save wings, for heaven: -Porphyro grew faint:
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.”
In the poem ‘‘Mariana’’ love is negative and it makes Mariana sick and lonely, “I would that I were dead.” At this point the reader now recognizes the third vision of woman. Unlike Porphyro who is dependent on Madeline, “Stol’n to his paradise, and so entranced,
Porphyro gazed upon her empty dress”
Mariana is vulnerable and dependent on men. Her world is collapsing before her eyes, “The broken sheds looked sad and strange.” She constantly mourns for her lost lover,
“Her tears fell with the dews at even;
Her tears fell ere the dews were dried.”
The poet pays emphasis upon Mariana’s loneliness, by repeatedly creating stark images of a solitary existence. This is a parallel to “The Eve of St. Agnes” where Porphyro is forlorn, until his mistress awakes.
In the poem “Mariana”, and “La Belle Dames Sans Merci” love is pessimistic. In conjunction with the structures and the format the poetry reflects the way in which the reader perceives the strength of love and its consequences. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is written to create a circular pattern in the reader’s mind, to emphasise and strengthen Wretched Wrights everlasting love for La Belle Dame. This is by the return of the poet’s opinion of the Wretched Wright,
“Alone and palely loitering;
The sedge is wither’d form the lake,
And no birds sing,” at the very start and finish of the poem.
Suggesting that the Wretched Wright’s love and suffering is never-ending and ongoing. This is a direct parallel to “Mariana” when the lingering and dragging pace allows the reader to experience sincere sympathy for Mariana’s tenderness. She is trapped and helpless, “The Slow Clock Ticking” escapes her relentless, drawn-out torment.
In all three poems love is mirrored through imagery and colour.
In the poem “Mariana,” Tennyson’s use of natural imagery and language projects the emotions of Mariana, while indicating the frustration, monotony, and psychological health typically personified by women during the Victorian Era: Tennyson illustrates the way Victorian society limited the lives of women, describing the disappointment and uselessness they felt. “She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!”
Tennyson’s writing portrays a dreary image of Mariana mourning.
Likewise in “The Eve of St. Agnes” Keats too uses natural imagery, however he also makes use of colour to represent sensitivity in the extract. The “Wintry moon,” is associated with cold colours and therefore has a negative emotion, though when the cold image “…Threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,” the icy picture is turned into an optimistic sensations by changing the feeling to warms colours which we associate with love. In “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” the Wretched Wright is additionally given a likeness by Keats, “Alone and palely loitering”, we too connect this image with gloomy, suffering love. As if he is colourless like the “Pale warriors, death-pale were they all.” Love had taken away all their cheerful colours along with leaving them weak and defenceless.
In conclusion through these poems the reader explores the limitations of society and the influence of these restrictions on women. The reader also observes the power and beauty of love as well as the result it has on people. In all three poems the last line of the poems and the extract demonstrates this; “Oh God, that I were dead!” “For if thy diest, my Love, I know not where to go”, “And no birds sing.” I think that in all three endings Keats’s and Tennyson some up the distress caused by love and the penalty of its addiction very admirably when looking into the poems not at first glance.
