Poems of Seduction

Men and women are constantly accused of being the vehicles and the victims of seduction. In Alfred Tennyson’s “Lotos Eaters” and “The Lady of Shalott” embody this premise. Together, the characters are simultaneously the victims of seduction from an outside force: retreat. The theme of gender uses retreat as a tool to create a balance and expose contrast between the sexes. Specifically, both sets of characters leave their ordinary lives behind, recoil into another retreat, portray suicidal tendencies, and permanently give up the hassles of their former life. Through retreat, the poems’ representation of gender challenges the traditional stereotypes of men and women.

The “Lady of Shalott” uses the theme of retreat and allows her to escape from the conventions of Camelot. She escapes from the outside world into the plot of her poem. She continuously retreats into herself while exposing an assertive masculine identity. The lady takes her life into her own control by retreating from Camelot into the tower, further into her knitting, escapes from the curse with fear, and ultimately retreats from her life by death. This assertive behavior is not typical of the glittering and whimsical women in Camelot. She describes Camelot and traditional roles when she says, “a troop of damsels glad, /…and sometimes through the mirror blue, /the knight comes riding two by two:/She hath no loyal knight and true” (lines 55, 60-62). Women are bright and associated with imagery of the sun, yet she is in the dark and alone. The men even travel two by two and court the women. She has no knight, she is alone; she doesn’t represent either gender in the right way in this instance. The lady has made herself an enigma in the community by limiting her femin...

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...erentiate themselves from each other and those of their same sex. The action of retreat equalizes them in both regards. The men are forced to realize that their differences in disposition are not so extreme as stereotypes may seem. The retreats demand the characters to examine their own nature and to decide which roles to take. Instead of making a decision, the outside force takes over and they are seduced by an escape. They have opportunities to escape the retreat, but do not take productive steps to do it. This comparison is a moral victory for the women that cannot always be considered the weaker sex. Men have the capacity to be rendered submissive. Although they are equalized and reversed, it took the loss of life to gain the freedom of character that was sought from the beginning. The seduction of the retreat triumphs over the conventional roles of the sexes.