Upon first reading La Belle Dame sans Merci or The Beautiful Lady without Mercy, it is easy to interpret the story as simply that of a poor knight who falls gravely ill after falling in love with a beautiful, yet mystical woman. However, upon further examination, one might come to a vastly different conclusion: is this a story of a knight falling gravely in love with a femme fatale or is there double meaning to almost everything being said?
Much is discussed about the dualistic nature of life and existence. There is no hot without cold; there is no good without evil; there is no life without death. John Keats truly explores this idea, in both subtle ways and some not so subtle ways. In setting, the knight and the narrator are in a barren, cool autumn while the beautiful lady exists in a fertile summer haze. In health, with the narrator, the knight is ill and dying while with the la belle dame, the knight is lively and well. More abstractly, Keats uses lilies and roses, two beautiful flowers, to describe the physical appearance of the dying knight. The double entendres also, in a way, represent this duality. Is the “fragrant zone” referring simply to the flowers or rather is it a reference to la belle dame’s genital region? Is the pacing steed a horse or rather is it a crude reference to the knight’s erection?
Overall, the marriage of two opposites is necessary in order for both to exist. The knight would not know the pleasure of la belle dame without the pain he suffered through after.
Questions:
1. Does the repetition of the lines “ The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing” at the start and end of the ballad further represent duality?
2. Is la belle dame a mystical woman or rather a metaphor for something else?