'That drop of blood is my death-warrant': John Keats and the construction of early nineteenth-century patienthood

Abstract

This thesis explores the representation of patienthood in the life and works of the Romantic poet John Keats. Where previous criticism has focused on Keats’s medical training at Guy’s Hospital, this thesis argues that by taking a patient-centred approach to his work using the methodologies of the critical medical humanities, Keats can be used as a key case study for better understanding early nineteenth-century patienthood more broadly. Moving chronologically through Keats’s life, this thesis first examines Keats’s attitudes towards the patient during his time as a medical student, and how this was shaped by the external forces of the medical school, Keats’s radical friends, and the volatile political landscape. We then explore how Keats’s attitudes toward the patient evolve during his time as a carer for his brother, occupying a space outside of a binary patient-practitioner dynamic. The third chapter looks at Keats as a patient himself, and the difficulties he faced in expressing his experiences as well as facing his newfound identity as a ‘poet-patient’. The final chapter of this thesis addresses how Keats’s legacy has become synonymous with his sickness and death, and how this has led to problematic misconceptions of his patienthood both at the time and in the present day. Ultimately, this thesis shows that through examining the life and works of the poet John Keats, it is possible to gain a greater understanding of patienthood in the early nineteenth century, as well as a more holistic view of the poet himself.