La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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"La Belle Dame sans merci" by John Keats generally follows the characteristics of an old ballad such as "Bonny Barbara Allan", but deviates somewhat in order to give a different final effect to the reader. By comparing the relationships between women and men, the ballad stanzas, and the storycharacteristics of "La Belle Dame sans merci " and "Bonny Barbara Allan", this essay will show that the differences in these aspects contribute to a darker outcome in "La Belle Dame sansmerci". As with many other old ballads, "Bonny Barbara Allan" has a relationship of courtly love between the main characters. Sir John Graeme in the ballad "[f]ell in love with Barbara Allan" (4). There is no explanation to why Sir John Graeme loves her, but she suggests that the reason she never returned the love was because in the past he "slighted" her (20). Her reason for not returning his love earlier implies that they have known each other for some period of time prior to the story told in the ballad, which also implies that Sir John Graeme has loved her for some period of time as well. To love a woman from a distance is what courtly love is, so Sir John Graeme and Barbara Allan's relationship represents the ideal of courtly love. Barbara Allan explains that she also loved him after he dies when she says: "Since my love dies for me to-day" (35). Since he is her love as well, the ideal of courtly love is further emphasised: two people in love with each other, but must stay at a distance. The relationship between the woman and the knight-at-arms in "La Belle Dame sans merci" takes a much more sinister path. The woman is described with words that suggest a connection to the supernatural. Her eyes are described as "wild", she is described as a "faery's child", she sings a "faery's song", and she takes the knight-at-arms to "her elfingrot" (14,16,24,29). The word "grot",
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