Femme Fatale & Fatal Fate

In this essay, I will analyse a short poetic dialogue written by W. B. Yeats, titled: “Time and the Witch Vivien.” The piece was written in 1889 and published in “The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.” The title introduces the two characters in the poem: Time (personified as an old pedlar) and the sorceress Vivien from Arthurian legend. The poem is written as a dialogue between Time and Vivien. To summarise the poem in a single sentence: Vivien attempts to outwit Time, but ultimately succumbs to its inevitable power.

My thesis about the work is as follows: Vivien brings about her own downfall. Her hubris is what led to her death. Her avoidance of time kept her immature and arrogant, leading to her own death.

The background and context for this drama piece I found in Redwine’s 'She Set Me Writing My First Play': Laura Armstrong and Yeats's Early Drama (2005). According to Redwine, Yeats got interested in writing poetry and drama because of a woman called Laura Armstrong, which led him to write his first drama “Vivien and Time” (pp. 245), the previous version of the current poem. The character of Vivien is modelled after Armstrong, her being an excentric, “larger-than-life”, upper-class woman with power (pp. 245); Yeats writes, “Time and the Witch Vivien' was written for her to act” (pp. 249).

Redwine claims that Yeats had a certain “ambivalence” about Armstrong’s power as a woman; “both an attraction and discomfort with Armstrong’s power”, which is “dramatised [itself] in the death of the character” (pp. 245, 249). I believe in the case of Vivien, this can be seen as a concealed critique of Armstrong. Her power—but most importantly, her hubris about her power—is what leads to her death. Believing that she is so without limit that she could outwit Time and death, is what (ironically perhaps) leads to her own downfall.

Interestingly, Yeats himself, claimed to be in love with her, while the same time was only interested in her as “myth and symbol” (pp. 248-249). The image of this femme fatale type woman that he started to develop for Laura was later used in the construction of the idea of Maud Gonne (pp. 250). Certainly this can be seen in “No Second Troy,” where the idea of his other love interest, Maud Gonne, is personified as Helen. There is similarity between the two women and how Yeats portrays them. For better or worst (causing their own death or that of others) these two mythological women, both Vivien and Helen, have power in Yeats’ poetry.

The poem, originally titled “Vivien and Time” featured more characters and a thicker plot. Yeats later rewrote the poem, gave it the name “Time and the Witch Vivien” and focused the story on the death of the character (pp. 247, 252).

Analysis

First, I will make some important observations about Vivien’s character, starting off with her beauty. The ‘version’ of Vivien that Yeats chose for the poem is that of the betrayer (or femme fatale). In some version of the Arthurian legend, Vivien tricks Merlin (usually with seduction) to teach her his secret knowledge of magic, after which she traps him in a great oak. We know the poem is set after this had happened as Time references it, “No taste have I for slumber ’neath an oak”. Heady (2008), suggest that the poem is a continuation of Tennyson’s “Merlin and Vivien” from Idylls of the King.

Vivien is mesmerised by her own beauty reflected by the fountain water. As I understand these lines, “Where moves there any beautiful as I, / Save, with the little golden greedy carp,” she finds a similarity between herself and the carp. The alliteration of ‘golden greedy’ is telling, she is beautiful on the outside but corrupt on the inside. This greed is a source of her power, her beauty, but it will also be her downfall.

Her “roseate fingers” (rose-coloured fingers) on the surface could simply mean she has colour in her hand, a sign of youth, but I think the choice of word ‘roseate’ goes deeper than that. To me, this line suggests that she is touched by the Rose, she is touched by eternal beauty. This could explain her unnatural beauty, that even charmed the great Merlin, it is enchanted onto her instead of being natural. Because she touched the Rose, she perhaps believes that her beauty (and in turn her life) is going to last forever. However, I believe the Rose did not come to her (like in “To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time” to Yeats), but instead she was the one reaching out to the Rose, perhaps in her greed, trying to seize eternal beauty. She touched it, and it coloured her fingers. But because only her fingers are described as rose-coloured, I think she did not fully grasp it, she only caressed the Eternal. This attempt at seizing the eternal did enhance her beauty, but did not save her from Time, he still came to her, offering “Grey hairs and crutches”

Whether she thinks that she claimed eternal beauty or not is unclear from the text of the poem. But based on the way she describes her own beauty, I think she believes that she did. Nevertheless, this adds to her arrogance, which as I will demonstrate will lead to her downfall.

Time, the other character in the poem appeared for Vivien as an old pedlar, a salesman. At first read, his character seemed simple. Death came for Vivien. But as I read the poem more deeply and let it linger in my mind, I abandoned this reading. Yes, the scythe he carries, his black bag, and that he kills Vivien at the end does suggest that he is Death. But Yeats intentionally calls him Time. I propose a solution: Time is not Death, but Time is a possibility for Death.

First and foremost, his dealings with Vivien are transactional, she has the chance (which she uses) to say no to what Time sells. What he offers her is not death, he sells what time has for her in his black bag, “Grey hairs and crutches, crutches and grey hairs, / Mansions of memories and mellow thoughts / Where dwell the minds of old men having peace”. These things are more associated with old age rather than death itself. I believe Time is not there to outright kill Vivien, but to offer her old age as a choice.

If we look at all the possession that Time has, and those of what he offers for Vivien, this becomes clearer. He has a scythe and hour-glass and a black bag, which have, as I already mentioned above, the things associated with old age. The other two items, the glass and scythe, are also symbolic. The glass represents the power over time, “Without my glass I'd be a sorry clown”. And the scythe, I believe, simply represents the end of time for a person: death. Time puts the first two items on the table, but keeps the scythe, resting on it.

What does Time want with Vivien? Perhaps he is there to offer her an alternative to her power-hungry and greedy ways. “Mansions of memories and mellow thoughts / Where dwell the minds of old men having peace,” certainly evokes the image of a peaceful, less rebellious life. One where a person is satisfied with their role in life, and one which only comes with old age. And one that would be more fitting for a lady like Laura Armstrong in the Victorian era. However, Clark (1993) points out that for Vivien a peaceful mind is as good as death, she “equates peace with the scythe, or death” (pp. 18)

The transactional nature of this exchange could suggest Vivien’s power over time—she is given the choice to grow old (and wise) but she refuses. This refusal to grow old and wisen with age is what keeps Vivien youthfully arrogant, and this arrogance in turn is what will lead to her death. What time offers her is the wisdom that comes with old age. Therefore, her immaturity is self-inflicted, she cannot become wise with age if she avoids time.

Clark (1993), suggest a correlation between the character of Time and Merlin. Clark writes, Vivien “compares Time to Merlin: ‘Yet wither beard have you than Merlin had.’ She reminds him of the story of Merlin and Nimuë: ‘young girls’ wits are better / Than old men’s any day, as Merlin found.’ ” (pp. 17). This shows her underestimating Time, believing she can trick him the same way she tricked Merlin. Time does warn her that he is above Merlin, that he was here since before genesis, and that he know how Merlin was trapped. “Time. No taste have I for slumber '‘neath an oak.” And “Vivien: When were you born? / Time: Before your grandam Eve.” Vivien’s arrogance is shown in these exchanges. She overestimates her own skill, thinking of Time as some court magician that she can beat with ease.

But if Time only sells old age, why does he place the glass on the table and not keep it with him like the scythe? I think Time is aware of the greediness of Vivien and wants to tempt her with it. Time knows he cannot lose, perhaps because he can look into the future or because “Time always plays / With loaded dice”. But Vivien in her hubris believes she can best Time.

Vivien’s greedy nature and the need to be always the one in power blinds her. Time offers her wisdom in the form of old age. Her choosing to stay young keeps her from this wisdom. Her small power over time and beauty makes her arrogant and leaves her to believe she could best Time in either chance or wit. The inability to mature and accept the natural flow of time, this childish hubris caused by her own lack of wisdom, is what leads to her own eventual demise.

In conclusion, Yeats’ “Time and the Witch Vivien” explores the consequences of hubris and the refusal of accepting the passage of time and maturing with it. Vivien’s arrogance stemming from her beauty and power ultimately lead to her own death, as she resisted the wisdom of old age that Time offers her. The poem presents Time not simply as Death, but as an opportunity for growth and maturing, which Vivien rejects in her youthful arrogance. Yeats’ portrayal of Vivien—influences by his “ambivalent” feeling towards Laura Armstrong—creates an interesting, tragic anti-heroine possessing both the attraction and repulsion of feminine (maybe better said as youthful) power.