As I read this lyrical ballad, I was immediately reminded of the movie Drag Me to Hell. If you who haven’t seen the film, the general plot follows a slightly more disturbing version of Goody Blake and Harry Gill. Here is the trailer:
So in both stories there is an attractive young person who is able to help a poor old woman and they decide they won’t. In Harry Gill’s case, Goody Blake prays to God to keep Harry cold for the rest of his life. In Drag Me to Hell Christine Brown does not give Mrs. Ganush an extension on her loans, thus evicting her. Mrs. Ganush attacks Christine in a parking garage until she rips a button of her coat and puts a curse on it. This curse calls upon a demon to (you guessed it) drag her to hell. Both Harry Gill and Christine Brown learn an important lesson about helping those in need, and they suffer because of their selfishness for the rest of their lives. I think it is really fantastic that a film used the same basic story structure as a lyrical ballad from 1798. I suppose the lesson is timeless.
Lilia -
ReplyDeleteYou draw an interesting connection here that certainly underlines the poem's supernatural underpinnings. From there you should develop a claim about how these sorts of ideas work in the poem and how this comparison can help us to understand these folkloric traditions. It might also be useful to consider the negative side of thinking about outcast old ladies as holders of malevolent power.