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Keats’s poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci” portrays a common and
ancient literary theme: a deceptive, beautiful woman enthralls and enslaves a
powerful, unsuspecting male. This theme has appeared repeatedly in literature
since its inception in the Bible when Eve corrupted Adam. “La Belle Dame
sans Merci” tells the story of a “Knight at arms” (1) who falls
under the spell of a beautiful “Lady in the Meads” (13). The beautiful
lady enchants the knight with intoxicating tastes of “relish sweet” (25) “And
honey wild and manna dew” (26). She further tempts him with her soft words, “I
love thee true-” (28). Little does the knight realize that her promises
are false. She is simply using her wiles to entice and entrap the knight so that
she can feast on his soul and energy. As the poem continues, the knight discovers
many “Kings,” “Princes,” and “warriors” whom
the evil temptress has ensnared and destroyed (37-38). She is a collector of
men and their power.
This portrayal of a deceitful woman appears in many male-authored literary
works. The Grimm Brothers tell the story of a tricky woman, the witch,
who entices children
to their deaths with a candy-coated house. The children mindlessly eat the
sweets provided, never realizing that they are fattening themselves
for the kill. In Homer’s Odyssey,
Circe enchants and entraps Ulysses with her beauty and magical foods. Ulysses
faces yet another version of the deceitful woman in the form of the
Sirens. Just as Keats’s knight falls under the spell
of the beautiful woman and her “faery’s song,” (24) Ulysses
succumbs to the euphonious call of the Sirens.
The deceptive woman depicted in these male-authored works appears to
enchant men by addressing them in a way that plays upon their apprehension
of female sexuality.
The women
call and beckon, they flaunt and feed, and the men mindlessly follow. The
women appear as evil queens who use their beauty to entrap and ensnare,
much as a
black widow spider calls her mate to a web of sex and death. If one gives
credence to this portrayal, then all beautiful women are simply sirens
of death. They
use their sexual power to steal a man’s power.