How do we describe an emotion? Happiness, sadness and fear, all simply words that we link to certain "feelings", observable by bodily functions: red cheeks, tears, goose bumps, production and distribution of certain hormones. As humans, our emotions manifest as art, but when the chosen medium is language, how accurate are our descriptions of the actual substance of emotions? We may do our best with our words this way, but it is also the silence between them that speaks. Words limit us to what we can describe and therefore we are unable to explore what is beyond the limits of our consciousness. In his poem, Christabel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses the void between his lines of imagery to torment his reader with supernatural powers, witches, and the darkness characteristic of Gothic poetry. He uses plot, manipulation, and rhetorical questions to portray emotions and feelings to his reader without having to experience them, describing the supposedly “indescribable.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayChristabel is emotionally inclusive, as she engages the reader with the use of growing curiosity, confusion, and fear which gives the reader sympathy for the protagonist while left bewildered and weakened by the events of the story. Christabel ventured from her bed late at night, into the dark woods. He is innocent, impressionable, as he "kneels under the huge oak and prays in silence." The use of the image of the "enormous oak" paired with the "silence" of his prayers is effective, the contrast between the size of the tree and the little girl praying beneath it, a beautiful and haunting image that Coleridge speaks through it, warning its reader of Christabel's impotence. In this way, Coleridge uses the silence of the woods to help his reader focus, away from the woods, and on the girl who will have changed for the worse. The poet continues, and as he does so, further highlights Christabel's naivety. He hears the “bleak” groan in the forest, the first sounds he mentions since introducing his main character. The use of the word “bleak” should in itself be indicative of the danger that is about to befall Christabel, but she fails to see it. Here, Coleridge again uses the contrast of images to portray him Christabel's Innocence The word "bleak" is cold, charmless. However, when he speaks of Christabel, he accentuates her "curl" and "beautiful lady's cheek," indicative of her purity and childlike aesthetic. Christabel seems dramatically out of place, a gentle child in the harshest and loneliest of surroundings, but surprisingly unafraid of the dark. Coleridge uses this contrast to make the reader uncomfortable. Discomfort seems to be a typical goal of many Gothic poems, keeping the reader anxious while keeping them uncertain about the plot and outcome of the stories they tell. What makes this poem emotionally inclusive is the way Coleridge makes the reader feel more and more like Christabel. his writing of his story. Throughout the first half Christabel is very active; even though she allows Geraldine to manipulate her, she speaks up, makes her own decisions, and is consistent in these decisions. Her innocence is an active part of her character, however frustrating it may be for the reader as we watch her walk down an increasingly dangerous path of the supernatural. In this way the reader is separated from her, with the benefit of the outsider's perspective. However, the further Coleridge takes the reader, the less we understand ourselves, the more bewildered we become. At the end of her poem, the reader may also feel cursed by Geraldine, unable to takea decision about how we would do things differently. Being disconcerted is a strange feeling, that of being out of control, confused. Coleridge manages to atmospherically make the reader feel the same way Christabel feels, without using overt confusion like poets like eecummings. Instead, he uses the things he can't say to upset the reader's power, the balance between the characters and ourselves. It breaks us down, until we can no longer decipher a clear message. Many times in Christabel, Coleridge reveals half-secrets to us. When Christabel first hears the moaning in the woods, she says, "but what it is she can't say." The use of the word "it" implies that there is something inhuman about these sounds, indicating a possibility of threat to Christabel - but then introduces the seemingly human Geraldine. Later in the poem, in Christabel's bedroom, Geraldine undresses in the moonlight. Setting aside the homoerotic sexual connotation, Coleridge implies some sort of mark on Geraldine's breasts which was "A sight to be dreamed of, not told of!" Here, the word “dream” is effective as it presents evidence that a part of Geraldine is something of otherworldly origin, somewhat supernatural, and “dream-like.” Interestingly, Coleridge also uses the word "dream", as the word "nightmare" would usually be used for a frightening sight, implying that Christabel did not mind the sight of Geraldine naked. However, the cruelest secret means of all is found at the climax of this poem. Christabel takes a turn for the worse, under Geraldine's curse, "she stopped, in a dizzying trance". Coleridge then writes the most unforgivable mockery: “She said: and she could say no more: for all she knew she could not say it, dominated by the powerful spell. And again: "I suppose he had no power to tell anyone else: so powerful was the spell." Christabel has experienced something that she can't verbalize, and somehow that simple fact is enough to help the reader understand how she feels. As mentioned above, we are now as shocked by these events as she is; we too are "dominated by the powerful spell", unable to put into words or even understand what has happened. Without having to explain it, the narrator packs in information about the spell through Christabel's silence. Once again, Coleridge uses a lack of words to describe what only silence can do: the fear of the unknown and the power it has to reduce human beings who may be so arrogant as to think we exist as the highest beings of this world, in helpless specks, Coleridge makes us feel astonished, as if "in a dizzying trance". Throughout Christabel, Coleridge asks more questions than answers. When Christabel enters the castle with Geraldine, her wolf moans angrily in her sleep - which is apparently out of character -. and Coleridge asks "What can disturb the mastiff's bitch?", leaving the question hanging in mid-air, unanswered and full of suspense. After entering Christabel's bedroom, the two girls talk about Christabel's late mother, whose spirit is close to Geraldine using her "power" to "tell you to escape". It is evident from this event that Geraldine has the ability to communicate with the dead. Coleridge follows with three questions: "Alas! what ails poor Geraldine Why gazes upon her with a troubled eye? Can she spy on the disembodied dead?" the boundary between the living and the dead to keep the reader away from another secret. It gives the reader a clue, but takes it away just as quickly by resisting answering the questions it poses. The parallel structure between this joke and the one about the “mastiff bitch” implies similarities between Geraldine and the dog, the “empty voice” and the.