Why could John Keats and Fanny Brawne not have a normal relationship?

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Keats, John — John Keats John Keats, drawing by Joseph Severn, 19th century.

John Keats and Fanny Brawne were unable to have a normal relationship primarily due to Keats's precarious personal circumstances. His failing health, specifically his struggle with tuberculosis, and his uncertain financial and material situation made a conventional life together impossible.1

Furthermore, Keats’s intense emotional nature complicated their connection. While Brawne was a woman of firm and generous character, Keats’s letters reveal that he often expected more from the relationship than was realistically possible for her to provide, leading to a dynamic that was both hopeless and tragic.1