Gender Roles in "The Eve of St. Agnes"

As we discussed in class on Tuesday, many of the poems such as “Lenora” and “Cristabel” were very negative towards women, all of them reaching terrible ends as “punishment” for their actions. This portrayal of autonomous or independent women dying or going crazy is serving as a warning for women at the time to remain in their “traditional” roles in the home and as subordinate to men. This seems to be a common theme in the Gothic and romantic poems. This makes Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes” poem very interesting for the time it was written. In addition to its odd form, structure, and rhyme scheme, it is also set apart by its treatment of women in the poem. This is exemplified by the character of the nurse Angela, who ignores the warnings and feelings of the men of the family, who hate Porphyro, and instructs him to marry Madeline. Additionally, even though Madeline didn’t heed her family’s instructions and was performing ancient rituals, she ended up getting to marry and run away with her choice of lover. Additionally, by having the Beadsman who was praying over the Rosary, die in the end of the poem, makes an interesting commentary on the importance and validity of religion.