The last decade of the Eighteenth Century was during the time of a great emotional movement in Europe. Several revolutions were taking place from culture to science. Another important revolution was in British literature, known as Romanticism where importance, style, and grace were determined by internal feelings of a writer and uppermost imagination. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel- proved to be one of the Romantic's most extreme and glorious creations. It was also one of the most controversially interpreted works as well. Whereas many think of "Christabel- as a sexually gothic obscenity of lesbians, it is evident that the entire story is a metaphor of Jesus Christ's relationship with the Heavenly Father and their battle against Satan and his crude temptations and disguises. A central religious theme in the late Eighteenth Century was that God was to be found both in the world of nature (the starry heavens) and in the law with in the prompting of the human heart (Barth, Symbolic, 132).
"Christabel- fits into the romantic category well, for Coleridge filled it with imagery and symbol, leaving the theme to be interpreted only "between the lines- by the reader. A reader of not only intelligence but also romantic intellect can feel the depths and appreciate the poem fully. According to Barth, use of representation in the poem has permitted Coleridge to escape realism (Symbolic, 138). Factual symbol for Coleridge is sacramental (Barth, Symbolic, 13). These views are romantic, for they are original making Coleridge feel "God-like-. In line 3, "Tu whit! Tu whoo!-, a nocturnal atmosphere is sustained, for those are the sounds of an owl. An owl, being a creature of the night, is a true symbol of a herald of death (May 3). Coleridge is describing night, obviously, but through symbol an omen is foreshadowed. Another romantic aspect includes "my lady- in line 13, which can be equivalent to "milady-, a medieval civility (May 3).