I think that in Tennyson’s poems, The lady of Shalott and Mariana,

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I think that in Tennyson’s poems, The lady of Shalott and Mariana,

the central female characters are presented to us in the way that

Tennyson views women and their roles in society. There

“Tennyson had great sympathy for women and the ways in which their

lives were restricted.”

Write the ways in which Tennyson presents the lives of women in some

poems you have read.

I think that in Tennyson’s poems, ‘The lady of Shalott’ and ‘Mariana’,

the central female characters are presented to us in the way that

Tennyson views women and their roles in society. There are many

similarities and differences in both poems with how the female behave

and live.

In ‘The lady of Shalott’ the female lives in a tower, trapped and

cursed, until she hears Lancelot coming. The lady is spinning tapestry

and not looking out of the window at the outside world, yet towards

the end of the poem she gets distracted and wants to see Lancelot for

herself. The tapestry is an important symbol in the poem; it’s the

only world that the lady lives in and this is still just other

people’s lives that she sees through the mirror.

This poem reflects the political turmoil that women faced in the year

in which it was written. The lady is presented to us as being trapped

and helpless. She has been introduced to us sat in this tower and her

life seems desperate and lonely she’s waiting for a knight to save her

whilst she is trapped away from the world. This poem reveals a lot

about the Victorian concept of love and women. The lady in the poem

embodies the true Victorian image of the “ideal” woman: virginal,

embowered, innocent and obedient, also dedicated to her tasks.

In Tennyson’s other poem, ‘Mariana’, there isn’t a development of a

n...

... middle of paper ...

...estry flies out of the window (How she saw the world before)

and the mirror cracks (Her previous naïve perspective that she had of

the world). The lady of Shalott cannot handle unrequited love and the

reality of a harsh world so she kills herself.

In the poem there is magical symbolism, this has human significance; ‘or

when the Moon was overhead, Came two young lovers lately wed; "I am

half sick of shadows," said the lady of Shalott.’ Tennyson writes

about females lost in half-life, which results in people taking

decisive, heroic action that leads to their doom.

Tennyson brings attention to rhymes by making most of the lines stop,

and the flow of words is brought to a halt by punctuation. The strong

emphasis on rhymes gives the poem the feeling of an ancient tale, when

news was carried from town to town by word of mouth and rhyming aided

memorization.

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