Christabel (poem)

The story of Christabel concerns a central female character of the same name and her encounter with a stranger called Geraldine, who claims to have been abducted from her home by a band of rough men.

However, supernatural signs (a dog angrily moaning despite being asleep, fading flames on torches suddenly reigniting, Geraldine being unable to cross an iron gate, denial of prayer) seem to indicate that all is not well.

[1] He continued to work on Part II of the poem for the next three years and finished it at Greta Hall in Keswick, where he had moved in 1800.

[10] Thematically the poem is one of Coleridge's most cohesive constructs, with the narrative plot more explicit than previous works such as the fragmented Kubla Khan which tend to transcend traditional composure.

Geraldine takes on a proto-vampiric role, with all the antecedent features that that necessitates: external beauty, a revelatory bodily mark, and a physical encounter (with the victims) that leaves them incapacitated.

Byron was similarly taken by the poem, and especially the relationship between the women, and wrote to Coleridge (on 18 October 1815): the description of the hall, the lamp suspended from the image, and more particularly of the girl herself as she went forth in the evening – all took a hold on my imagination which I never shall wish to shake off.

[16] Le Fanu's antagonist Carmilla has certain similarities with Christabel's Geraldine; for instance, she cannot cross the threshold of a house, and seems to be stronger at night.

Likewise, the heroines of the two works are similar, both Christabel and Laura are the children of deceased mothers currently in the charge of their widowed fathers.

Geraldine's presence gives Christabel similar symptoms as Carmilla's does to Laura; both heroines experience troubled sleep and weakness in the morning after spending the night with their guest.

[18] The poem is the inspiration for the song "Christabel", by Texan singer and songwriter Robert Earl Keen, which appeared on his 1984 album No Kinda Dancer.

A novel of the supernatural features protagonists named Christabel and Geraldine who meet in circumstances closely paralleling the poem.