Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
The Lady of Shallot: Tennyson’s Advocacy of Human Affection
Sapna Sharma
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
K R Mangalam University
Gurgaon.122103 (Haryana)
India
Abstract
„The Lady of Shallot „, one of the finest most interesting narrative poems in English Language,
is to be enjoyed for its beautiful , vivid pictures which pass before the mind‟s eye in quick
succession. First published in the volume of 1833, it was again published in the volume of 1842
in a much revised and improved form. The changes which Tennyson made show that poet‟s art
matured considerably. Regarding the source of the poem, some critics believe that some Italian
romance is the source of the poem but some believe that immediate source can be Sir Thomas
Malory‟s „Morte‟ D Arthur‟ with which Tennyson was familiar. Most critics approach the poem
as expressing the tensions between art and life. It raises the question of whether or not artistic
seclusion is necessary for achievement. . Thus the poem becomes a moral tale dealing with the
dangers and inadequacy of isolated existence.
Key
Words:art,
www.ijellh.com
mind‟s
eye,
seclusion,
isolated
existence.
372
Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
Introduction
Though primarily, a poet of lyrical mood and romantic idylls, Tennyson was addicted, like most
Victorian poets, to the habit of philosophizing verse. It was because he was to play the role of
poet prophet of the age. His success in this particular time was very unequal. Even at his best, he
seldom approached the standards reached by Wordsworth and Shelly in genuine philosophical
poetry. Certainly, he was not a creative thinker and was content in verifying common place
ideas.
There was a time when Tennyson was called Supreme artist who was also a seer. He was
considered one of those immortals in literature whose works have been beacon light through the
ages. He was looked upon as the representative poet of Victorianism. He was one to voice the
hopes and doubts of his turbulent age, the age of intellectual dishonesty and empty
sentimentalism. And Tennyson is specially associated with all these sins of Victorianism
„The Lady of Shallot „, one of the finest most interesting narrative poems in English Language,
is to be enjoyed for its beautiful , vivid pictures which pass before the mind‟s eye in quick
succession. First published in the volume of 1833, it was again published in the volume of 1842
in a much revised and improved form. The changes which Tennyson made, show that poet‟s art
matured considerably. Regarding the source of the poem, some critics believe that some Italian
romance is the source of the poem but some believe that immediate source can be Sir Thomas
Malory‟s „Morte‟ D Arthur‟ with which Tennyson was familiar. The poem is a pure fantasy
entirely the result of poet‟s imagination.
The poem opens with a description of a riparian landscape: a river flowing between fields of
grain down to Camelot and the sea; within this river, an island; within this island, a castle; and
within the castle, the Lady of Shallot. There are enclosures within enclosures. About the island,
ships sail and barges drift, but the Lady of Shallot remains unseen within the walls. Only her
voice is sometimes heard by reapers at dawn; listening to her strange song, they refer to the
mysterious lady as a “fairy.”
In Part I, readers see the isle of Shallot with its tall towers and imprisoned, fairy-like Lady. The
interior where she is embowered is “silent” and immovable, whereas the world outside hums
along in a busy and cheerful way. The placement of the great city of Camelot by the river
www.ijellh.com
373
Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
emphasizes the progress, purposefulness, and ever-present sense of movement and vitality of the
men and women outside of the tower, in stark contrast to the Lady of Shallot.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro‟ the wave that runs for ever
by the island in the river
flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
and the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shallot (Lines 10-20)
In Part II, readers are introduced to the Lady herself, who is under the spell of a mysterious curse
that does not allow her to look out her window. She seems happy regardless, and she spends her
days weaving her “magic web” and singing (alluding to Odysseus‟s wife, Penelope, who weaves
while her husband is away, and other myths that involve a woman‟s weaving).
There she weaves by night and day
a magic web with colors gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
a curse is on her if she stays( Lines 35-40)
Her web, a symbol of artistic fecundity andher enslavement, depicts the world outside, but only
as reflected in her mirror. She sees knights and pages and boys and girls, and sometimes she sees
the two great events of earthly life, funerals and weddings. This state of affairs is what causes her
to assert her identity by claiming that she is sick of shadows, for her life is paralyzed and
stagnant. She feels a sense of loss and exclusion.
In Part III, the handsome and courageous Sir Lancelot is introduced. The language is sensual and
heroic, and the Lady of Shallot is as entranced as the reader. She breaks the stipulation in the
curse and strides to her window to look down on the great knight. Some critics have noted that it
is the song of Lancelot, “Tirra lira,” that breaks down the Lady‟s resistance, for song is one of
her means of expression. Thus, she feels an intense connection with the man below (“Tirra lirra”
www.ijellh.com
374
Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
is a bawdy song from Shakespeare‟s The Winter’s Tale). Once the mirror cracks and the web
flutter out the window, she and we know she is doomed.
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro‟ the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look‟d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
the mirror crack‟d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shallot.(Lines 110-120)
Finally, in Part IV, when she lets the river carry her, Tennyson emphasizes the disruption of the
Lady‟s being through scenes of chaotic and mournful Nature: the wind is “stormy,” the “pale
yellow woods were waning,” and the “low sky” was raining heavily, the banks of the river
straining. The inhabitants of Camelot are frightened and curious as they hear her last song and
see her pale shape. The poem ends with Lancelot looking down at her and commenting that she
“has a lovely face” and that he hopes God will lend her grace. One might compare the famous
death of Hamlet‟s sister Ophelia and other scenes where a woman dies in a river or ocean.
Although Victorian attitudes towards women were highly complex, the most striking difference
between male artists' representations of the Lady of Shallot and female artists' representations
occurred in the artists' attitudes towards the Lady as a woman. Male artists stressed the Lady's
position as an object of desire, depicting her as an idealized, sensual woman: beautiful,
mysterious, pure, and above all, unattainable. These characteristics of the Lady contributed to her
supreme desirability, which was emphasized in illustrations by artists such as Meteyard, Hunt,
and Rossetti.
Most critics approach the poem as expressing the tensions between art and life. It raises the
question of whether or not artistic seclusion is necessary for achievement.Flavia M. Alaya,
agrees, that the Lady is placed in an eponymously-named boat which is an extension of her, and
www.ijellh.com
375
Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
Tennyson is suggesting through this lonely scene that “an essential loneliness is the one element
of the artistic condition that cannot be revoked, even by love.” Thus the poem becomes a moral
tale dealing with the dangers and inadequacy of isolated existence. The poet rarely again caught
the
power‟
to
www.ijellh.com
fuse
image,
sound
an
idea
so
that
the
one
was
the
other.
376
Volume III, Issue VI, August 2015 – ISSN 2321-7065
Works Cited
1)iblog.stjschool.org/snowflake/files/.../The_Lady_of_Shalott_eNotes.pdf (August 4)
2) Nelson, Elizabeth. "Tennyson and the Ladies of Shallot.” Ladies of Shallot: A Victorian
Masterpiece and its Contexts. Providence: Brown University Department of Art, 1985.
www.ijellh.com
377