Bürger's "Lenora," Lewis's "Alonzo the Brave and Fair Imogene," Southey's "Mary Maid of the Moor," and Coleridge's "Christabel" have common themes of punishing deviant women. More specifically, the women deviate both physically and spiritually from their private sphere with their families in pursuit of other things such as love in Lenora's case, money for Imogene, and empty praise for Mary. Ultimately, the women meet less-than-desirable fates involving ghosts and death. Mary is interesting because she is described as the Maniac suggesting the death of her sanity or rationality. "Christabel" is unfinished, but I am willing to speculate that Geraldine is an otherworldly specter sent to punish Christabel for wandering alone at night. Like fairy tales, these ballads serve as warnings for women to stay within their designated boundaries set by patriarchy. Many fairy tales are from the German tradition, making "Lenora" even more relevant to this idea, since it was translated from German. These ballads combine several different literary traditions: English/Irish ballads, Gothic supernaturalism, and brutality and warnings found in German fairy tales. It is arguable that these poems were written to warn women and remind them of their vulnerability.
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