S. T. Coleridge's “christabel” is complete and ends with christabel’s defeat

Abstract EN

S.

T.

Coleridge admitted that he tried repeatedly to finish “Christabel” but his attempts were in vain.

This paper is an attempt to prove that Coleridge could not finish “Christabel” because, first, it is a complete poem and a symbolic tale that alludes to the defeat of the poet in him, and second, Coleridge apparently planned to end the seemingly unfinished “Christabel,” happily by making Christabel victorious, which contradicts with what the characters in the poem represent.

However, studying the images used in “Christabel,” their connotations and what they represent and allude to -- such as Bracy’s dream with its main image of a dove imprisoned by a snake coiled around it -- show that the poem is not, as it seems to be, unfinished.

To the contrary, despite Coleridge’s firm belief that “Christabel” is a fragment, it is complete and ends logically with Christabel’s isolation, desolation and defeat.