Manisha Mishra

The Miraculous, the Occult and the Phantasmal: a Comparative Study of John Keats and William Shakespeare Manisha Mishra

"Part of us never grows up and part of our minds loves to ponder on things that are imaginary, unbelievable and magical!" The book analyses the similarities and differences in the use of the supernatural by John Keats and William Shakespeare, focusing on Keats's La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Lamia, and Shakespeare's Macbeth. While Shakespeare employs witches, fairies and apparitions in his works, Keats makes use of fairy-like seductive women who behave like witches. The internal evil is manifested in the appearance of the supernatural elements in Macbeth. However, in Keats's works, the maliciousness of the "fatal women" is not manifested in their external looks. The commonality, however, lies in the process of Anagnorisis (self-realisation) of the protagonists. The book answers a basic question: what is the purpose of introducing the supernatural in a work of literature? The answer is sought by resorting to other works involving supernaturalism like Walter de la Mare's Listeners, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" and Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights".