Foreshadowing In Christabel

Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived in a period with a strong value of superstition than what is seen today therefore, he had an interest in how the mind distinguished imagination from reality. This can be seen throughout various of his poems, one in particular is Christabel. Christabel is embedded with mysterious symbols that foreshadow her innocence to be her down falling quality. Samuel Taylor Coleridge sets up an ominous atmosphere for the start of the poem and carries it on throughout.

Christabel suddenly feel the desperate need to pray however under the circumstances she does it in develop into foreshadowing a tragic ending. She runs off into a forest in the middle of the night to pray for the wellbeing for her fiancé. From this point forward symbols are structured throughout the poem to foreshadow Christabel innocence to be stripped from her. Most of these symbols appear in the first part of the poem before Geraldine …show more content…
A curse that enables her to speak about what happened the night before. The curse also takes part into Christabel's foreshadowing of her lost innocence. In the way that Christabel took part in premarital lesbian intimacy is viewed as a religiously sinful act. Now she is being prevented from telling another person about her involvement. “So quickly she rose and quickly array’d. . . That He, who on the cross did groan, might wash away her sins unknown” (Coleridge 375-378). Christsbel acknowledges that she has sinned and feels guilty for her actions with a need get it off of her chest because it a burden to her. However since she is enable to tell anymore about her actions of the night she does it through prayer. The curse has a leading factor that foreshadows Christabel’s loss of innocence and inability to regain it. Also, the curse raises a concern for who Geraldine is and her true