tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8246797287811539521.post5538485531671499146..comments2022-04-07T10:37:46.850-05:00Comments on English 208b: The Impossible, Perverse and Strange: Southey's MaryDahlia Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09174548009168267294noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8246797287811539521.post-38153569285807305272010-02-23T14:05:23.362-06:002010-02-23T14:05:23.362-06:00This is quite an interesting read on the poem--Mar...This is quite an interesting read on the poem--Mary's punishment is quite a bit like the Ancyent Marinere's fate (eternal life-in-death, the state of a maniac), but her transgression is much harder to pin down: is it that she has transgressed gender roles (or the role of the gothic heroine) by being brave enough to go to the abbey? Or is she punished for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time--ie. her punishment is a function of chance. This second interpretation turns the question from agency to the gothic as a genre--people don't have agency in the gothic, but rather they are worked on by external circumstances (nature, the supernatural, irrational fear, and so on). If Mary is prompted to go out--she doesn't do it of her own free will--she merely realizes (as in makes realistic) the pressures that determine the fate of Imogene and Lenora. This might make us ponder the transgressive act in the slave trade poems more fully: Southey's sailor clearly performs the act of beating the slave to death against his will, but what of Coleridge's Marinere?Dahlia Porterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09174548009168267294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8246797287811539521.post-6808922445695594882010-02-20T22:45:19.164-06:002010-02-20T22:45:19.164-06:00It's funny because I read this after posting m...It's funny because I read this after posting my entry and it's almost the opposite of mine. I can see how Mary does seem to have some agency, and she is portrayed as particularly brave: "With fearless good humor did Mary comply..." (l. 51). I think it is important to point out that Mary does "comply" according the dare set before her by the men in the inn. As Alec pointed out in his comment to my post, "what happens to the women can be seen as the result of the actions of the men." These men propose a dare, and Mary responds. Although she does explore the "masculine realm to explore the public sphere" she does so at prompting, but nevertheless-complete agency or not-she is punished for attempting to defy gender roles, and I don't see it as a poem that particularly empowers women.Kathrynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18283309935087456214noreply@blogger.com