The Trance Love Needs Anonymous College

John Keats’ The Eve of St. Agnes explores the supernatural love of Madeline and Porphyro. Keats uses the holy trance of Madeline to explore her relationship with Porphyro, as well as love’s place in their world. The callous environments surrounding the lovers, such as the physical features and familial hatreds, prohibit their mutual love. Shared Christian values of marital commitment further hinder the couple’s relationship. Keats uses the harsh reality of Madeline and Porphyro’s situation to make their trances the only means of expressing love for each other. The lovers’ dependence on fantastical trances suggests that their love must escape reality in order to exist.

Upon her entry into the poem, Madeline begins rejecting her reality. She refuses to acknowledge the “whole bloodthirsty race” around her, who are Porphyro’s mortal enemies (94). Instead, “her heart was otherwhere,” as “she sigh’d for Agnes’ dreams, the sweetest of the year” (62-63). Agnes’ dreams bring “visions of delight” of future husbands to chaste maidens who properly perform the ritual, which Madeline follows (47). Praying to escape her reality, she desires to express her love for Porphyro. In addition to the antagonistic crowd around her, Christianity...