The political issue between aristocracy and democracy is enacted as an emblematic tableau
Harry Levin in The Power of Blackness views the rift between scornful
Lady Eleanore and the people she overlooks as a political metaphor. (courtesy
of Random House/Knopf)
"In 'Lady Eleanore's Mantle', the political issue between aristocracy
and democracy is enacted as an emblematic tableau, where the proud lady tramples
upon her over-ardent admirer; a set of charades is deliberately acted out, as
she refuses the cup of communion with human sympathies, wraps the red mantle
of pride around her, and suffers the poetic justice of the contagion it spreads"
(51).
