Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1813

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Summary

Background

Book Summaries & Analyses

Book I

Book II

Book III

Book IV

Book V

Book VI

Book VII

Book VIII

Book IX

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Book VChapter Summaries & Analyses

Book V Summary

In the society that Queen Mab shows the spirit, commerce corrupts everything with its “poison-breathing shade” (Line 5.44) and wealth is idolized. The masses die young in poverty, and virtues such as love are devalued or even put up for sale. The only sacred thing in such a society is “all-enslaving power” (Line 5.54). People’s souls are deadened, and their passionate emotions are limited only to fear. Rulers boast of their increasing wealth, even though human happiness is the cost of their increased fame and power. A regular man who desires to live a quiet, simple life inevitably suffers: His wife and children are famished, his days are filled with meaningless effort, and his future is bleak. Queen Mab wonders how many Miltons, Catos, or Newtons lived under such conditions and never realized their abilities.

However, death comes to all, regardless of the power one has during life. The virtuous do not need to fear death, as their hearts will be weighed and judged according to their virtue. Conversely, the greedy are denied this peace: Just as they spent their time on earth filled with bitterness, envy, and hunger for power, so too when “they hope that quiet to enjoy” (Line 5.244), only “Pining regrets, and vain repentances, / Disease, disgust and lassitude pervade / Their valueless and miserable lives” (Lines 5.246-48). However, Queen Mab optimistically promises Ianthe’s spirit that one day all of the evils that humans wrought will be only “the memory of time” (Line 5.257).

Book V Analysis

This section is structured to symbolize the natural process of birth, decay, and renewal: The first stanza is hopeful, the subsequent stanzas shift to a cynical tone about the state of the world, and then hope is restored in the final stanza when Mab states that goodness will conquer eventually. The same sense of cyclicality recurs in her declaration that with each generation, humanity comes closer to realizing utopia. An individual’s lifespan (birth, decay, and death) echoes the cycle of nature—a hopeful image, since in nature death is always a precursor to renewal. Shelley uses the individual life as a microcosm for the progression of civilization, which is advancing to a future where war, evil, disease, and sorrow have come to an end.

The poem mocks the greed, hypocrisy, and self-serving nature of organized religion—a conviction Shelley adopted early in his life. Queen Mab condemns this institution for being simply another form of commerce: “hireling hearts” of the mob follow the “hireling faith” of the priests (Lines 5.61, 5.199)—the repetition of the word emphasizing the mercenary aspects of the church, whose true “living god” is “gold” (Line 5.62). A greedy church creates additional problems: The false beliefs of the priests lead their followers deeper into iniquity, corrupting their natural instincts and causing them to revere only selfishness, power, and their own enslavement. When people prize gold, the “shining ore” (Line 5.55) assigned unnatural worth, over spiritual goodness, they willingly become the “scarce living pulleys of a dead machine” (Line 5.76)—the state run by a tyrant. Without true faith, people are dehumanized into no longer caring about freedom or love. Death is the only escape from this kind of life. However, the end of life is different for the good and the evil. A “good man” (Line 5.237) whose heart was not jealous or selfish will find death a happy release into tranquility, while an immoral person will die bitterly, overwhelmed with feelings of regret and disgust that they wasted life.