Comparing Lady of Shalott and Morte d' Arthur

Comparing Lady of Shalott and Morte d' Arthur

Lord Tennyson wrote both Morte d' Arthur and The Lady of Shalott. He

set both of the poems in medieval Camelot and describes knights and

love. Both poems convey tragedy and loss. The Lady of Shalott is fated

to die tragically and King Arthur's death is described being the end

of Camelot and all that went with it. The Lady of Shalott is more of a

fairy story with a sad ending, but Morte d' Arthur is much more

serious and sad from the beginning and deals with both the death of

Arthur and the magic sword "Excalibur".

In both poems Tennyson uses language, mood and atmosphere to

demonstrate a sense of tragedy and loss. In Morte d' Arthur the

landscape is hard and bleak so he uses harsh words, such as " dark

strait of barren land" to describe it. Right from the beginning he

uses the words "broken" twice and "barren", so we know from this that

it will be a sorrowful poem because he emphasises and repeats. Also

the poet says, "his wound was deep" from this and the title of the

poem we would expect that Arthur would die.

However the beginning of The Lady of Shalott is peaceful and beautiful

and describes a lovely view from the tower where The Lady is over

looking Camelot. The language at first uses flowers to make us feel

how lovely everything is so "gazing where the lilies blow" and "over

look a space of flowers". This is in contrast to the tragedy and death

coming later on in the poem. However, although it all seems very

beautiful, in and around her tower, right from the beginning of the

poem there is a sense of mystery about her. Tennyson writes, "who hath

seen her move her hand" and " i...

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...boat. She had died for a mad

moment of love and was soon to be forgotten. When Lancelot said, "she

has a lovely face", he had no idea that he had caused her death and

that she died because of him. His good looks and appearance had

tempted her to look out of her window and caused her tragic death.

Arthur had been a great leader of his Knights and was famous through

out of Camelot, he also had a lonely death with only Bedivier there

but every one would remember him. He was taken to his after life in a

grand way by the magical barge and the queens. The poor Lady of

Shalott died a lonely death never having done much with her life never

meeting the cause of her death Lancelot. Both people had magic

involved with their deaths, The Lady of Shalott with her curse and

Arthur with his sword, "Excalibur". Both ended in tragedy.