モネタの系譜 : キーツの女性観の一面

Abstract

Though he could make a great success of creating the so-called "Fatal Woman" in his poems, Keats also presented us another type of women such as Moneta in The Fall of Hyperion, Mnemosyne in Hyperion, Angela in The Eve of St. Agness, Peona in Endymion and so on. In general, they are not young beautiful lovers but merciful guardians of the heroes in Keats's poems. Moneta, for example, encourages the poet of the second Hyperion to climb the steps of an altar to become a true poet. Keats, according to Aileen Ward, is said to keep two kinds of images about women in his mind; one is his mother's and the other, his gradmother's. Keats, consciously or unconsciously, wanted the two types of women in his actual life. The most important women he made the acquaintance of were Jane Cox, Isabella Jones and Fanny Brawne. It can be said that the images of his mother, Jane Cox and Fanny Brawne were crystallized into his "Fatal Women" and the other image and the other women helped him to create Moneta and the others.