The myth of Melusina, the subject of Christabel LaMotte’s epic poem, is a central symbol that explores the dual nature of female creativity and the necessity of a private space for women to maintain their power. Melusina is a powerful, generative figure, a builder of castles and a mother to a dynasty. However, she harbors a secret, monstrous form that requires a protected, solitary space to exist. When her husband inevitably violates this privacy by spying on her during her serpentine transformation, he shatters their union and precipitates her tragic flight. Fergus Wolff describes the moment of discovery: “[F]rom the waist down she was a fish or a serpent […] and she beat the water with her muscular tail” (38). This image of a half-human, half-monstrous being encapsulates the societal perception of the female artist, whose creative force is seen as both magical and threatening.

For Christabel, the myth becomes a powerful vehicle for exploring Art as a Shield for Female Autonomy. Like Melusina in her enchanted bath, Christabel requires her solitude, the “donjon” that “keeps us very safe” (152), to nurture her poetic vision away from the intrusive gaze of a patriarchal world. The tale symbolizes the precarious balance she must maintain between her public persona and her private creative self. The violation of Melusina’s sanctuary mirrors the threat that male judgment and possession pose to Christabel’s independence. Her monstrous transformation is a manifestation of power and a defense mechanism, suggesting that for the female artist to retain her integrity, she must sometimes embrace the monstrous aspects of her nature that society fears and rejects.

Featured in Christabel LaMotte’s collection Tales for Innocents, “The Glass Coffin” is an important symbol for the condition of the female artist. The tale’s heroine is a beautiful young woman magically imprisoned in a sealed glass casket, preserved in a state of suspended animation. She is visible yet untouchable, a perfect object for contemplation but removed from the flow of life and connection. This image powerfully represents the paradoxical nature of a woman’s artistic life in the Victorian era. The coffin provides a form of perfect, sterile preservation, shielding the woman from the dangers and compromises of the outside world, though it also renders her static and unable to act or create. The description captures this state of latent vitality: “[U]nder the surface of the thick glass lay a mass of long gold threads […] so that the tailor knew she was alive” (70-71). Her life is held in abeyance, waiting for an outside force to shatter the barrier.

This state of being perfectly preserved yet inert illuminates the theme of art as a shield for female autonomy but also highlights its potential cost. For Christabel, the isolation necessary for her work is both a fortress and a prison. The glass coffin symbolizes a self-sufficient but lonely existence, where the female artist is protected from patriarchal intrusion at the expense of lived experience. The tailor who eventually frees the sleeper is a “fine craftsman” himself, representing an empathetic peer who can appreciate and release her latent power. The breaking of the coffin symbolizes the need for connection with a reader, a lover, or an intellectual equal to liberate the female artist’s voice from its beautiful but silent enclosure.