Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Christabel (1816) is one of the first works of English literature dealing with a vampire femme fatale and with lesbianism. Although unfinished, it is very powerful and highly erotic, and sets the standards for later portrayals of female vampires.Summary: Christabel, Baron Leoline's daughter, goes out at night to pray for her betrothed knight to come back safely to her, when she is accosted by a beautiful lady in distress. The lady's name is Geraldine, and she says that she had been kidnapped by some knaves. Christabel decides to help her, smuggles her into the castle and takes her to her room. Once there, Geraldine seduces Christabel and casts a spell on her which makes her unable to say the truth about Geraldine - namely that she is a vampire. In the morning, Sir Leoline meets Geraldine and discovers that she is the daughter of an old friend of his. Christabel tries to warn her father about the enchantress, but she cannot. Sir Leoline is so angry with her and so besotted by the vampire that he disowns Christabel and takes Geraldine under his wing.
The poem stops here and many critics have tried to give reasons why Coleridge never finished it even though he claimed that he had it all planned out.
One reason might be that the poem is so saturated with the poet's personal issues and psychological dilemmas that it proved quite impossible for him to distance himself enough from it to complete it.
Other critics propose that the reason why Coleridge did not manage to finish the poem resides in the poem itself, which, owing to its nature, defies closure.
Christabel contains many elements that were, or would become, common stock in literature about female vampires. Some of them are:
- Geraldine is a snake-like creature whose eyes can mesmerize her victims
- She pretends she is a damsel in distress to get herself invited into the castle
- She takes over the mother's role when she seduces Sir Leoline
- Her weapons, rather than brute force and fangs, are sex and seduction
- Since she cannot enter a dwelling place unless she is invited inside, she gets Christabel to carry her across the castle's threshold
- She shuns religious objects
- She makes animals uneasy
For more information about Coleridge and Christabel:
Coleridge's poems: The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge - The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Coleridge Biography: Coleridge: Early Visions, 1772-1804
Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834
Online text of the poem available at: http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Christabel.html
Articles about 'Christabel': http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/53396/samuel_taylor_coleridges_christabel.html?cat=38
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3437/is_4_42/ai_n28961041/
http://british-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/psychosexual_tones_in_christabel
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