SOURCE: "'Christabel': The Wandering Mother and the Enigma of Form," in Studies in Romantcism, Vol. 23, No. 4, Winter, 1984, pp. 533-53.

In the following excerpt, Swann asserts that in "Christabel" Coleridge explores the complex and multifaceted relations between hysteria—as a socially disruptive moment—and the Law—as masculine, rational control through social conventionality.

The first questions Christabel asks Geraldine refer to identity and origins: "who art thou?" and "how camest thou here?" Geraldine's response is oblique; in effect she replies, "I am like you, and my story is like your own":

My sire is of a noble line,
 And my name is Geraldine:
 Five warriors seized me yestermorn,
 Me, even me, a maid forlorn: . . .

They spurred amain, their steeds were white:
 And once we crossed the shade of night.
 As sure as Heaven shall rescue me,
 I have no thought what men they be;
 Nor do I know how...