The Oxford Dictionaries defines the femme fatale characters as “an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her.” Meanwhile, a fairy’s definition is “a small imaginary being of human form that has magical powers, especially a female one.” In John Keats’ poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” both stereotypes are featured in one woman. Moreover, the woman that the speaker meets looks like a fairy, and by the end has turned into a murderous femme fatale. Keats’ intention may have been to have the woman represent tuberculosis, but he also made created an inspirational woman who defied society’s expectations for women in the 1800s.
Throughout history, the image of the fairy has changed greatly: folklores of English, German, Slavic, Greek, and Norse – to name a few – have slightly altered versions of what they classify as a fairy. For example, in folklore fairies are supernatural creatures and sometimes thought to be the dead. The fairy in Keats’ poem is a little different from the
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The femme fatale as the ability to be sweet, caring, and motherly. Meanwhile, the fairy can be a malicious trickster. The two coming together and forming a connection despite their differences shows that women cannot be placed into one exact stereotype. Women are complex, and they have more to them than meets the eyes. The woman in this poem is suppose to represent the white death, but she actually did so much more. She stepped out of the idea of women being one exact type of woman compared to another. The combination of a fairy and a femme fatale crossed lines and allowed for more stereotype changes in the future. The woman in the poem was able to deceive a man, and put him in a feminine position, while she had all the control. It shows the dynamic of women and how powerful they really