Christabel

Time has power over, and thus concerns, all the characters in “Christabel.” Coleridge differentiates between time marked off by natural events such as nocturnal and diurnal birds, and time as measured by manmade systems such as church bells and prayer schedules. An hour, a manmade unit of time involving birth, death, and magic spells, is featured in several key moments. Christabel’s mother “died the hour that I was born” (Line 197). Later, when Geraldine encounters Christabel’s mother as a “guardian spirit” (Line 212), they argue about Geraldine having prolonged access to Christabel: “Off, woman, off! this hour is mine—” (Line 211). Although Geraldine’s power over manmade time is limited to this finite unit, she also demonstrates power over nature-controlled time when she stops the morning birds from singing to mark the dawn.

Nighttime is a special temporal pause for reality, offering the supernatural a path into the waking world. Christabel’s discovery of Geraldine, which follows her “dreams all yesternight / Of her own betrothèd knight; / And she in the midnight wood will pray (Lines 27-29), corresponds to the disturbing dream Bracy the bard has at “the midnight hour” (Line 557). Both Christabel and Bracy respond to their dreams with the desire to go out into the forest, seeking natural solace from their visions and the desire to tamp down the intrusion of the supernatural with prayer.