Religious Themes of Goblin Market and The Eve of St. Agnes

One of the most alluded works in the history of literature would definitely be the Bible. The Bible has given insight to most of the great authors through out time as either inspiration or a source of parody. The number of Biblical quotes and related symbols could be almost endless to list. Parodies and symbolic reference to the Bible in literary works, serve as an expression of the author's and time's religious view points.

The Romantic view of religion was more concerned with human religious experience than with divinely revealed truths. Religion for the Romantics created the want to escape the physical world and its perceived limitations. These writers believed in religion to a great extent, but thought the religious principles that were common to society would need to be reexamined and in some cases changed. They used these beliefs as fuel to inspire their writing to call for change.

Although religion was very popular during the Romantic period, it was never as strong as during the Victorian age. Josef L. Altholz, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, gave best overview of religion in the Victorian period when he states, "The most important thing to remember about religion in Victorian England is that there was an awful lot of it." (Altholz 1). The nineteenth century in England served as a revival of religious belief. This revival became a center point of moral and intellectual life. One of the main problems with the revival was it did not last. Books such as Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, began to question the validity of the story of Genesis, and the people began to lose faith. Even though faith began to die out, there were still authors who placed religious aspects in t...

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... his initial appearance in the poem, the Beadsman is not mentioned again until the end where he dies. His death serves a symbolic death of the new religion. Keats doesn't seem to believe in the idea there is a savior for Christianity. He sets his poem to follow the idea of temptation, fall, but no savior.

These poems have many other interpretations that can be seen, and these authors are noted for their ability to produce such works with multiple meanings. Although there are many different readings, the religious aspect that was covered in these two works was apparent. They both wrote in a time of religious prosperity that was much like the revival occurring today. Each writer showed their ability to master the concepts of the Bible and put their own twist on the creation story to produce a train of thought relevant to the point they were creating.