Tennyson's Poetry and Views
Alfred Lord Tennyson and his works have been an important part of canonical literature for over a century. He is as important as he is because his work is exceptional in many ways. One of these exceptional differences, in my opinion, is the conflicting view of women Tennyson portrays in his poetry, especially his poem "Locksley Hall." Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" is, in my opinion, a poem that would benefit greatly from an ideological discussion concerning Tennyson's views of women. This poem poses the questions: Are Tennyson's words describing a set of beliefs felt only by the narrator of the poem, or does Tennyson himself share these beliefs? Is the condescending, yet powerful view of women only the speaking character's view, or does Tennyson at least partly share that same condescending view? After all, Tennyson was a member of Victorian society.
At the time Tennyson wrote "Locksley Hall in the 1800s," women's rights were just beginning to be questioned. Previous to this time of questioning, women were thought to be totally inferior to men:
…it was argued that as a woman's brain was smaller in cubic content it was therefore inevitable that she was unable to reason or to generalize or to pursue a connected line of thought as well as a man could. It was the accepted belief that she was both mentally and physically inferior to man; that she was, in fact, a relative creature… (Crow, 146)
But at the same time, Victorian men were putting women on pedestals. Yet, this privilege of being put upon a pedestal was really more condescension than a privilege. Duncan Crow, author of The Victorian Woman writes, "They were not privileges at all, but a code of prison rules; and the women were not queens, ...
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...all" as he did?
Perhaps Tennyson never actually made known his opinion of women and the woman's place, but he did seem to think this jilted youth's rant was typical of his time. Tennyson was writing for a Victorian audience that could sympathize with this jilted youth. I believe for one such as Tennyson to even compose such a work he, at the very least, was very familiar with the conflicting Victorian view of women. This, to me, makes "Locksley Hall" somewhat of an extension of his own ideas and beliefs, concerning women, that had been thusly shaped and influenced by his own culture.
Works Cited
Buckler, William E., ed. The Major Victorian Poets: Tennyson, Browning, Arnold. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1973.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "Locksley Hall." The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Ed. W. J. Rolfe. NY: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1898.
In the essay, Wollstonecraft is a woman in the 1700s, who currently experiencing inequality due gender that she was born into. During this era, women do not have many rights as a citizen, nor as a human being. Women are expected to perform household duties, such as cooking, cleaning, raising children, and being completely submissive to their husband. However, one woman had a different opinion of what a woman is capable of doing, and her name is Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary believed that woman should be treated equally as men, in the manner of education, respect, and status.
At different points throughout the poem Notley repeats the thesis of the story. The poem reads, “the holy men,” “the wise men,” “are frivolous” “and cruel” Here Notley is blatantly addressing the brutality of patriarchy. (Notley 90) Alette is being told that powerful men and those that are labeled as “holy” are also cruel. Unless this immorality is stopped there will be no truth in this world. Notley is trying to make the reader understand the need for gender equality. In society women are looked at as inferior to men when it comes to strength and power. She is challenging that idea through Alette’s journey to take down the tyrant. Alette is a heroin in this poem, and portrays characteristics far different than how society has identified femininity. Femininism is not a bad thing, it simply calls for gender equality, and that is what Alette is chasing in this story.
There was a time (not so long ago) when a man's superiority and authority wasn't a question, but an accepted truth. In the two short stories, "Desiree's Baby", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", women are portrayed as weak creatures of vanity with shallow or absent personalities, who are dependent on men for their livelihood, and even their sanity. Without men, these women were absolutely helpless and useless. Their very existence hinged on absolute and unquestioning submission…alone, a woman is nothing.
Several people rely on caffeine to wake them up or give them a boost of energy when they feel down. Acting as a stimulant, caffeine not only improves concentration and focus, but also stops fatigue (Staff 1). Considered the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world, approximately 90 percent of adults consume it daily (“MedicineNet.com” 1). But do caffeine buyers really stop to evaluate the possinle harmful effects on their body? Health scares similar to this are not recent. In fact, they have been going on for over 100 years. In 1911, the US Government sued the Coca-Cola company for making their drinks hazardous to other’s health (Lovett 2). Although the Coca-Cola company won, it proves that people worry about what they put into their bodies, even if it does help them stay up to finish their homework. Not everybody will experience the same effects from caffeine. Some people seem more sensitive to caffeine than others (Staff 1). While some will express unwanted effects after only one cup of coffee or tea, others will not notice these same effects until after maybe four or five cups. Although caffeine does include benefits, many downfalls exemplify the stimulant as well. Drinking even small amounts of caffeine daily develops harmful effects on most people’s body and health.
At the beginning of Mendelssohn's career, a man named Johann Caspar Lavater attempted to challenge and convert Mendelssohn to Christianity. In trying to get him to convert, Lavater proposed that he proved and prevent evidence against Christianity or thus convert to Christianity. Mendelssohn did not directly respond to Lavater's proposal and attack. Instead, he promptly stated his firm alliance and loyalty to Judaism. Lavater's attack upset Mendelssohn, as he did not want to make a big deal of his religious background and wondered why Lavater was simply bothering him.
Caffeine, commonly found in coffee and many other beverages, and containing certain chemicals compounds leading to the constant necessity of fidgeting, jitters, sleepless hours, and health hazards as though being tormented by a hobgoblin with the irresistible sweet aroma and multiple flavors trapping you into a path, not being able to truly quit as desired or consequences attached, but is it the world’s most used legal drug addiction or something enjoyable, you decide? “The delicious chemical in caffeine is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine”(Linn). “Caffeine is made by pressuring cooking beans with CO2 to produce the drug in powder form”(Linn). “In caffeine the consumption breakdown in Coffee is 54%, Tea it’s 43%, Food and misc it’s 3% and used as a common mood-altering drug in the world, most popular way of ingesting is through coffee”(Linn). The issue with drinking coffee is due to the fact that caffeine can cause some troubling effects like insomnia activity in the brain that prevents sleep, constant need to urinate leading to dehydration due to the lack of fluids in the body, and diarrhea causing the food right out because it accelerates the digestion in the stomach. The consumption of too much caffeine can cause damage in human health also causing an overdose leading to death. The impact in society is through how much caffeine Americans consume daily, and the effects it causes in human health and sleep patterns. Throughout the years past caffeine consumption in America has increased jarasicaly, about 90% in some form daily. “On average Americans have been known to consume 280 mg of caffeine per day or 2-3 cups of coffee”(Linn). Strangely enough, caffeine is still contained and found in decaffei...
...en one cannot see it. While the morality of men is still there, Tennyson no longer seems to care when it comes. He now has God on his side and he knows that God shaped him for a reason… He will not let Tennyson rest until that reason is fulfilled. While Hallam’s death is still tragic, he still exists today, in Tennyson’s memories. Tennyson finishes his series with the phrase, “I shall not lose thee tho’ I die” (CXXX 16). Although Hallam no longer exists physically, his life has extended past that into the spiritual world and in the minds of those who loved him. Even today, he is still remembered thanks to Tennyson’s works of poetry. Unintentionally, Tennyson has answered his own questions about the morality of mankind. That even though our bodies might die, what we did and what we wrote will remain immortalized. Perhaps that is what God intended after all…
As mentioned earlier, caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system by working against another molecule, adenosine. Adenosine is a type of purine that is attached to a ribose sugar molecule. Adenosine is a part of...
During the colonial times, all of the legal rights were granted to men, leaving women to be looked at as sub-sets to their husbands. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century women were portrayed as being weak and delicate, unable to fend for anyone, not even themselves. Men were looked to in handling intellectual matters and all physical work, which in turn placed the women in a so-called “inferior” ...
Most people aren’t aware that caffeine can act as a stimulant to the central nervous system. So once someone consumes a caffeinated beverage they may begin to notice a slight change in the way their body begins to feel. Caffeine can be found in many different places such as energy drinks, coffee, candy and also in other common beverages and over the counter medications. Caffeine can have major side effects on those who consume it on a regular routine, but caffeine can also have side effects on those who rarely even consume caffeine . “These side effects include sleep deprivation, nausea, cramping, anxiety, fatigue, and headaches (Braun 73).” Not only does drinking a couple of caffeinated beverages come with its list of side effects, caffeine consumption has also been proven to show drastic changes in the kidneys. “Also, caffeine has been known to weaken the detrusor muscles in the bladder, which provokes the need to urinate (Chambers 42).” So once a person has been consuming caffeine past a certain period of time it begins to become difficult for them to regulate their trips to the bathroom. The list of harm caffeine does on the human body could continue forever, but I will review some of the most relevant categories. Caffeine can have harmful effects on the human body that people are not aware of, therefore I believe that people should be informed what exactly caffeine is and how it affects them directly in terms of where caffeine can be found, the effects it has on the brain and the heart and also the pregnancy effects. Also, people should be provided with a general knowledge of how caffeine can play a part in someone’s life, and some steps to help slow down the consumption of caffeine.
Kaplan, G., D. J. Greenblatt, M.A.Kent, and M.M. Cotreau-Bibbo. 1996. Caffeine treatment and withdrawal in mice: Relationships between dosage, concentrations, locomotor activity and A1 adenosine receptor binding. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 266:1563-1573.
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson was one of the most famous poets of the Victorian era, some of his most famous poems include Ulysses, In Memoriam or Lady of Shalott. This paper will focus on his poem published in 1830 entitled Mariana. Mariana is Tennyson's well known poem, inspired by the charactre of the same name in shakespear's play Measure for Measure. T.S Eliot heard in Mariana 'something new happening in English verse”, and critics such as Carol Christ or Dwight Culler have “commented preceptively on its use of atomistic detail to create a landscape of strangeness appropriate to this sick-spirited maiden”. Mariana is a complex poem it is both a lyrical poem and a pathetic fallacy.
In an essay on feminist criticism, Linda Peterson of Yale University explains how literature can "reflect and shape the attitudes that have held women back" (330). From the viewpoint of a feminist critic, "The Lady of Shalott" provides its reader with an analysis of the Victorian woman's conflict between her place in the interior, domestic role of society and her desire to break into the exterior, public sphere which generally had been the domain of men. Read as a commentary on women's roles in Victorian society, "The Lady of Shalott" may be interpreted in different ways. Thus, the speaker's commentary is ambiguous: Does he seek to reinforce the institution of patriarchal society as he "punishes" the Lady with her death for her venture into the public world of men, or does he sympathize with her yearnings for a more colorful, active life? Close reading reveals more than one possible answer to this question, but the overriding theme seems sympathetic to the Lady. By applying "the feminist critique" (Peterson 333-334) to Tennyson's famous poem, one may begin to understand how "The Lady of Shalott" not only analyzes, but actually critiques the attitudes that held women back and, in the end, makes a hopeful, less patriarchal statement about the place of women in Victorian society.
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.