Coleridge Criticism

Question 1

Ted Hughes on Coleridge’s strength

Answer 1

‘[Coleridge] acknowledged an “absence of strength” within himself and chose the Oak Tree as a symbol of strength’

Question 2

Ted Hughes on Coleridge’s self belief

Answer 2

he had an ‘unleavened self’ but the ‘Christian self was the one he wanted to be’

Question 3

Harry White on Coleridge’s belief about madness

Answer 3

‘Coleridge diagnosed the persistence of madness as resulting from a lack of willpower’

Question 4

Lauren Delory on Geraldine’s corruption

Answer 4

‘the fact that she will hereafter dream of the naked Geraldine instead of her knight, signifies her corruption, sexual subversion, and entry into a more whore-like status’

Question 5

Lauren Delory on Christabel’s sin

Answer 5

‘leaving the domicile signifies Christabel’s desire to seek out sin’

Question 6

Harry White on Coleridge’s religious guilt

Answer 6

‘Coleridge was afflicted with religious melancholy…[trying to find] self-incriminating moral explanations for his otherwise unfathomable anguish’

Question 7

Richard Holmes on what Coleridge explored

Answer 7

‘like all other Romantics, Coleridge was interested in exploring such extreme states of mind and feeling’

Question 8

Richard Holmes on Coleridge and humans vs nature

Answer 8

‘Coleridge’s sense of human powerlessness and despair are subtly and deliberately undermined by the use of nature’

Question 9

Richard Gravil on Christabel and society

Answer 9

‘Some have argued that Christabel consciously deconstructs the gender bias of Gothic and is centred on the cruel domination and marginalisation of women by the patriarchy’