Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem

Shelley draws on folklore, religious texts, poetry, and political philosophy.

The poem’s main character, Queen Mab, is a figure invented by Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio’s monologue about the ways dreams and fantasies can lead one astray refers to Queen Mab as the midwife of the fairies—the one who helps birth visions. In the poem, Queen Mab is a different kind of visionary: Her access to all of human history and ability to predict the future show Ianthe’s spirit how humanity can perfect itself.

The Christian myth of Ahasuerus, or the Wandering Jew, symbolizes freedom from the evils of Christianity in the poem. This figure of a man cursed to be an immortal nomad after taunting Jesus before the Crucifixion comes from medieval folklore, and Shelley found it to be an appealing way to critique Christianity, as his earlier poem “The Wandering Jew” shows. In “Queen Mab,” Ahasuerus retells parts of the Bible—including Genesis, Exodus, and the life of Jesus—to demonstrate that the Christian God is primarily cruel and vengeful. Shelley’s version of Ahasuerus, who has learned to enjoy “Hell’s freedom to the servitude of heaven” (Line 7.196), draws heavily on John Milton’s characterization of the fallen angel Lucifer in the epic Paradise Lost, who claims that it is "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” (Milton, John. Paradise Lost; 1667; I.263). Shelley depicts Ahasuerus with sympathy for his cursed existence, and great admiration for his refusal to alter his beliefs.

Another important source for Shelley is The Wealth of Nations, the 1776 work of political economy by Adam Smith. In his critique of commerce, Shelley states that people obey immoral kings and becomes the puppets of “the wealth of nations” (Line 5.180). Adam Smith book famously defends industrialization; Shelley refers to this text ironically, as he disagrees strongly with this view.