An Explication of Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott
Children often grow up listening to fairy tales. Repunsel is one fairy tale about a girl cursed to live a life of isolation in a tower. She longs to break free from seclusion and become part of the outside world. She eventually finds her one true love and risks her life to be with him. "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Alfred Tennyson relates to Repunsel in many ways. In this poem, Tennyson tells a story of isolation. The woman in this ballad is also doomed to remain on her sheltered island eternally. If she even looks out at Camelot, she will die. She finally sees her "red-cross knight" (line 78). The Lady of Shalott escapes from her "silent isle imbower[ed]," yet dies a tragic death before she even meets Lnacelot (17). In reality, many people do not experience this extreme form of seclusion, although it is very common for someone to change his/her life or even risk it to be with the person he/she loves.
Tennyson starts out with the total seclusion of the beautiful, young Lady of Shalott surrounded by "Four gray walls, and four gray towers" (15). She knows nothing of the humanity outside of her chambers. Her only knowledge of reality is the shadows she sees through her "mirror clear" (46) and the web she "weaves by night and day" (37). At this point in the ballad, the reader does not know whether the Lady of Shalott is forced to be in this situation or chooses to live a life of complete isolation. She seems quite content with her present surroundings. Looking through her crystal mirror is all she needs to sing her "song that echoes cheerly" (30). The lady has no desire to leave her private world because she is unaware of any other kind o...
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...ever given to justify her being forced to remain in the chamber by an outside source. Also, why did she have to die in the end? Is it possible she eventually committed suicide because she realized her love for Lancelot was futile? These are questions that may stay on your mind after reading Tennyson's poem. Even today it is possible to feel the infinite struggle the Lady of Shalott had to face. Tennyson shows the development of a young lady who is dealing with one of the most difficult times in life, growing up in a world full of rules and restrictions while becoming a woman. His subtle description of a girl's problems is slightly exaggerated, yet even valid today.
Works Cited
Tennyson, Lord Alfred. "The Lady of Shalott." Literature of Britain. Elements of Literature 6th Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1993. 784-788.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "In Memoriam A. H. H." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 3rd ed., Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1974. 1042-84.
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago and grew up in Illinois, the only girl in a family of seven. Cisneros is noted for her collection of poems and books that concentrate on the Chicana experience in the United States. In her writing, Cisneros explores and transcends borders of location, ethnicity, gender and language. Cisneros writes in lyrical yet deceptively simple language, she makes the invisible visible by centering on the lives of Chicanas, their relationships with their families, their religion, their art, and their politics. Toni Morrison, born as Chloe Anthony Wofford in Ohio in 1931 changed her name because it was hard for people to pronounce it. She was the second of four children, and both of her parents migrated from the South. Morrison is best noted for her novels, short fiction, being a lecturer, teacher and public servant. She writes using deft language and her lyrical writing, exploring the African-American middle classes and folk culture.
Tucker, Herbert F. “Maud and the Doom of Culture.” Critical Essays on Alfred Lord Tennyson. Ed. Herbert F. Tucker. New York: G. K. Hall, 1993. 174-194.
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Cambridge. Harvard University Press, 1992.
Mbalia, Doreatha Drummond, Toni Morrison’s Developing Class Consciousness, (Associated University Presses, Inc. 1991) P. 31.
Gates, Henry Louis and Appiah, K. A. (eds.). Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York, Amistad, 1993.
...d stanza begins with, “One shade the more, one ray the less” (Byron pp. 358). This demonstrates that the woman is not solely good or positive. Even with a heart of innocence the contradiction of being born with different shades and gray areas leaves the reader to think that the beauty is not entirely good. Her beauty might make her fragile and innocent. One thing that Byron ends with is referencing the separation of the mind and heart in the last two lines. This separation lets the reader truly analyze the fact that feelings and thoughts can be two separate realities. Feelings and thought inside a person can be a mixture of good and evil. This can influence an individual’s actions looking at each especially through separation. Byron continues to leave the reader with these two lines maybe inferring that innocence is what we should finally revolve our lives around.
Mock, Michelle. “Spitting out the Seed: Ownership if Mother, Child, Breasts, Milk, and Voice in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” College Literature, Vol. 23, No.3 (Oct, 1996): 117-126. JSTOR. Web. 27. Oct. 2015.
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology Of English Literature. 8th. A. W W Norton & Co Inc, 2006.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem starts out with the total seclusion of the beautiful, young Lady of Shalott surrounded by '…four grey walls, and four grey towers…';. (Tennyson, line 15). She is largely unaware of the world outside and of her own existence as a woman, only being able to see shadows of reality, which are reflected by her magic (?) crystal mirror and worked into her web.
Blunden, Edmund and Heinemann, Eds. “Tennyson.” Selected Poems. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1960. p.1. print.
“The Lady of Shalott” is one of many poems that was written by Tennyson. In part one of the poem it begins to tell about a woman who lives alone on a little island called Shalott. The island Shalott is located in the middle of a river. Shalott is within sight of Camelot, a city. The lady’s castle is built with four gray walls and four gray towers. The poem informs us that the lady who lives in the tower has not yet been seen. Farmers who work in the fields early in the morning can only hear her singing. Farmers think of the lady as a fairy because they have never even seen her before (The Lady of Shallot).
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. "The Lady of Shalott." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993. 1059-1063.
The final element of the Victorian Age that can be seen in Tennyson's poetry is a feeling of isolation that was heavily felt among the Victorians. This sense of isolation, which sparked a desire for social change, was felt for various reasons. The first is that the scientific discoveries mentioned before set younger generations apart from the previous ones. Many people feared the effects of rapid industrialization, as they often didn't fully understand technology, making them feel isolated from the modern world and nostalgic towards simpler, rural life. Another is that the spiritual doubt that came as a result of these scientific advancements also led Victorians, and in particular, Victorian artists, to feel isolated from life, love, and spirituality. This theme can be seen in The Lady of Shalott, along with the themes about women's roles. In the poem, the Lady of Shalott is completely isolated from society that it becomes harmful to her psyche and ultimately chooses death over her life of isolation. The dangers of social isolation shown in the poem emphasize the need for social change that was greatly felt in the Victorian age. It also shows the isolation of the Victorian artist, who must observe life rather than participate in it. For example, the Lady of Shalott must continue to weave her web alone, and as soon as she tries to participate in the world her web is ruined. This can be symbolic of how it was often thought that an artist's work can suffer when he tries to become more than an observer, when he breaks his isolation. A similar theme is expressed in Ulysses, where the speaker, like the Lady of Shalott, wishes to explore the world, but is resigned instead to a life of conformity: marriage, manners, a tedious job. He is r...