Making Christabel: sexual transgression and its implications in Coleridge's "Christabel"

Even among critics who recognize the role of lesbianism in "Christabel," none consider the implications of lesbianism for the characters. Many readers describe Geraldine as a kind of supernatural power, a demon. But Geraldine's identity is far from clear, and we don't need to explain away the lesbian sexuality as demonically-inspired in order to understand the dynamics of the text. The poem accounts for its characters' interactions on what is a more visceral and less fantastic level, the implications of a lesbian act in the world of "Christabel." In "Making Christabel," I consider the protagonist's social and psychological stresses in terms of an encounter with lesbian sexuality in order to understand the poem's ambiguities: Geraldine's guilt, Christabel's pleasure, the manipulation of gender roles, and the dynamics between Christabel, Geraldine, and Sir Leoline. To this end, I look at how the "unnatural" sexuality between Christabel and Geraldine is marked by a reversal of gender expectations. Sexual transgression is suggested not simply by two women heading off to share one bed, but by the manipulation of gender roles on their way to and within the bedroom. I also read the homosocial bond be tween Sir Leoline and Sir Roland in Part II as a foil. The knights offer the two women a concrete representation of their transgression from the existing power structure. They suggest not only the extent of the two women's deviance from the patriarchy, but a way to reassume an orthodox social role.