Shalott

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Alfred Lord Tennyson offers oblique reflection on a number of major Victorian themes and subjects in his poem “The Lady of Shalott”. The most prominent theme that appears in the poem is the idea of passion and love in a woman. The poem is simply about the way women were suppressed from their feelings and everything else during the Victorian era. Tennyson’s poem shows the commentary of society's oppression of women during the Victorian era. Tennyson takes the knowledge of women’s entrapment in society and makes it a literal entrapment in his poem. This essay will argue how passion, love, and women’s oppression is a major theme of the poem and what the commentary it alludes to about the Victorian era. In essence the poem is about the theoretical and literal imprisonment of women. It also shows the oppression from different views. “Four gray walls, and four gray towers, / Overlook a space of flowers, / And the silent isle imbowers, / The Lady of Shalott, (15-18). From the beginning, there is a sense of entrapment. The Lady of Shalott is imprisoned in her castle. This Part I of the poem, however, is a view of her imprisonment from the outside world. There is no allusion to why she is imprisoned, but that it is a mystery.“Listening, whispers, “‘Tis the fairy, Lady of Shalott,” (35-36). Society viewed the Lady’s imprisonment as something almost beautiful and mystical. So, what can this be said for the Victorian society? It is possible that Tennyson made the first part of his poem bring images of a mystical land and something of beauty because that is how Victorian society viewed themselves. They did not realize the terrible ideas and standards that were set of for women. However, in Part II, the entrapment perspective is that of t... ... middle of paper ... ...onment. The outside world in the poem is ignorant of the form of the Lady’s entrapment. They do not realize why she is entrapped. In the Victorian era, it was society that entrapped and oppressed the women from doing or feeling anything. The Lady of Shalott believes she must be entrapped because of the curse. Many women believed their entrapment was perfectly alright because society said it was. The Lady of Shalott’s death is both a warning to women and a warning to society. Her death is tragic for she escapes yet dies because of it. It is also tragic because Lancelot only saw her as a pretty face, as an object. Many women were treated as objects and were forced to suppress their passions, emotions, and thoughts. Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” is certainly a poem about a woman’s internal struggle with what she believes she must feel and what she actually feels.

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