Symposium

THE LADY OF
SHALLOT
Sociological and
Psychological Aspects
"The Lady of Shalott" is a Victorian
ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord
Tennyson (1809–1892).

Like his other early poems – "Sir

Lancelot and Queen Guinevere" and
"Galahad" – the poem recasts
Arthurian subject matter loosely based
on medieval sources.

Tennyson wrote two versions of the

poem, one published in 1833, of
twenty stanzas, the other in 1842 of
nineteen stanzas.
The first four Stanzas of the 1842
poem describe a pastoral setting.
The Lady of Shalott lives in an
island castle in a river which flows
to Camelot, but little is known
about her by the local farmers.

And by the moon the reaper

weary,

Piling sheaves in uplands airy,

Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy

Lady of Shalott."
Stanzas five to eight describe the lady's life. She suffers from a
mysterious curse, and must continually weave images on her
loom without ever looking directly out at the world.

Instead, she looks into a mirror, which reflects the busy road and
the people of Camelot that pass by her island.

She knows not what the curse may be,

And so she weaveth steadily,

And little other care hath she,

The Lady of Shalott.

The reflected images are described as "shadows of the world", a
metaphor that makes clear that they are a poor substitute for seeing
directly ("I am half-sick of shadows".)

Stanzas nine to twelve describe "bold Sir Lancelot" as he rides by, and
is seen by the lady.

All in the blue unclouded weather

Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,

The helmet and the helmet-feather

Burn'd like one burning flame together,

As he rode down to Camelot.

The remaining seven stanzas
describe the effect on the lady of
seeing Lancelot; she stops weaving
and looks out of her window
toward Camelot, bringing about the
curse.

Illustration by W. E. F. Britten for a

1901 edition of Tennyson's poems

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 Shalott.

She leaves her tower, finds a boat upon which she writes her name, and floats down the river to
Camelot. She dies before arriving at the palace.

Among the knights and ladies who see her is Lancelot, who thinks she is lovely.

"Who is this? And what is here?"

And in the lighted palace near

Died the sound of royal cheer;

And they crossed themselves for fear,

All the Knights at Camelot;

But Lancelot mused a little space

He said, "She has a lovely face;

God in his mercy lend her grace,

The Lady of Shalott."

THE VIEWS OF THE CRITICS

Modern critics consider ‘The Lady of Shalott’ to be

representative of the dilemma that faces artists, writers and
musicians: to create work about and celebrate the world, or to
enjoy the world by simply living in it.

Feminist critics see the poems as concerned with issues of

women’s sexuality and their place in the Victorian world.

Critics argue that ‘The Lady of Shalott’ centers around the

temptation of sexuality and her innocence preserved by death.
The depiction of death has also been interpreted as sleep.

Critic Christine Poulson says that sleep has a connotation of

physical abandonment and vulnerability, which can suggest either
sexual fulfilment or be a metaphor for virginity.

So as related to The Lady of Shalott, Paulson says that “for in

death (she) has become a Sleeping Beauty who can never be
wakened, symbols of perfect feminine passivity”.
Much of the poem’s charm stems from its sense of mystery and elusiveness; of course,
these aspects also complicate the task of analysis.

That said, most scholars understand “The Lady of Shalott” to be about the conflict
between art and life.

The Lady, who weaves her magic web and sings her song in a remote tower, can be seen to
represent the contemplative artist isolated from the bustle and activity of daily life.

The moment she sets her art aside to gaze down on the real world, a curse befalls her and
she meets her tragic death.

The poem thus captures the conflict between an artist’s desire for social involvement and
his/her doubts about whether such a commitment is viable for someone dedicated to art.

The poem may also express a more personal dilemma for Tennyson as a specific artist:
while he felt an obligation to seek subject matter outside the world of his own mind and
his own immediate experiences—to comment on politics, history, or a more general
humanity—he also feared that this expansion into broader territories might destroy his
poetry’s magic.
TRAGIC DEATH

The lady in “The Lady of Shalott” brings about her own death by
going out into an autumn storm dressed only in a thin white
dress.

Similarly, the cavalrymen in “The Charge of the Light Brigade”

ride to their deaths by charging headlong into the Russian
cannons.

These poems lyrically mourn those who died tragically, often

finding nobility in their characters or their deaths.
SYMBOLS: KING ARTHUR AND
CAMELOT
To Tennyson, King Arthur symbolizes the ideal man, and Arthurian
England was England in its best and purest form.

Some of Tennyson’s earliest poems, such as “The Lady of Shalott,”

were set in King Arthur’s time. Indeed, Tennyson rhymes Camelot,
the name of King Arthur’s estate, with Shalott in eighteen of the
poem’s twenty stanzas, thereby emphasizing the importance of
the mythical place.

Furthermore, our contemporary conception of Camelot as

harmonious and magnificent comes from Tennyson’s poem.
Idylls of the King, about King Arthur’s rise and fall, was one of the
major projects of Tennyson’s late career. Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert envisioned themselves as latter-day descendents of
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their praise
helped popularize the long poem.

But King Arthur also had a more personal representation to

Tennyson: the mythic king represents a version of his friend
Arthur Henry Hallam, whose death at twenty-two profoundly
affected Tennyson.

Hallam’s death destroyed his potential and promise, which allowed

Tennyson to idealize Hallam. This idealization allows Tennyson to
imagine what might have been in the best possible light, much as
he does when describing King Arthur and his court.
SYMBOLS: THE IMPRISONED
WOMAN
The imprisoned woman appears throughout Tennyson’s work. In
“Mariana,” a woman abandoned by her lover lives alone in her house
in the middle of desolate country; her isolation imprisons her, as does
the way she waits for her lover to return.

Her waiting limits her ability and desire to do anything else. “The Lady
of Shalott” is likewise about a woman imprisoned, this time in a tower.

Should she leave her prison, a curse would fall upon her.

Tennyson, like many other Victorian poets, used female characters to

symbolize the artistic and sensitive aspects of the human condition.
Imprisoned women, such as these Tennyson characters, act as
symbols for the isolation experienced by the artist and other
sensitive, deep-feeling people.

Although society might force creative, sensitive types to become

outcasts, in Tennyson’s poems, the women themselves create
their own isolation and imprisonment.

These women seem unable or unwilling to deal with the outside

world.
SYMBOLS: SIR LANCELOT

Sir Lancelot represents high aspirations.

Even if we fulfil our aspirations, we do not get exactly what we

want, which results in spiritual wreck.

It means that to fulfil aspirations through good values, we have to

scarify either our ethics or the aspirations themselves.

Thus, sociological evils are responsible for psychological evils.

SOCIOLOGICAL AND
PSYCOLOGICAL ASPECTS
Tennyson’s poetic output covers a breadth difficult to comprehend in
a single system of thematics: his various works treat issues of political
and historical concern, as well as scientific matters, classical
mythology, and deeply personal thoughts and feelings.

Tennyson is both a poet of penetrating introspection and a poet of

the people; he plumbs the depths of his own consciousness while also
giving voice to the national consciousness of Victorian society.

As a child, Tennyson was influenced profoundly by the poetry of

Byron and Scott, and his earliest poems reflect the lyric intensity and
meditative expressiveness of his Romantic forebears.
Tennyson uses nature as a psychological category.

He conveys via his natural setting the consciousness of a woman waiting

vainly for her lover, and her increasing hopelessness.

Not only is Tennyson a poet of the natural and psychological landscape, he

also attends frequently to the past, and historical events

Tennyson’s personal past, too, figures prominently in his work.

The sudden death of his closest friend Arthur Henry Hallam when
Tennyson was just 24 dealt a great emotional blow to the young poet, who
spent the next ten years writing over a hundred poems dedicated to his
departed friend, later collected and published as “In Memoriam” in 1850.

This lengthy work describes Tennyson’s memories of the time he spent

with Hallam, including their Cambridge days.
The new discoveries in biology, astronomy, and geology implied a
view of humanity that much distressed many Victorians, including
Tennyson.

Tennyson also spoke to his Victorian contemporaries about

issues of urgent social and political concern.
REFERENCES

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shallot

www.victorianweb.org/art/design/gothic/intro.html

www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section2.rhtml

www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/themes.html
–By Priya Netke