Freedom for "The Lady of Shalott"

The Victorian era was a very stifling time period for women because they lacked rights and power. Ladies were regarded by society as holy creatures that had to be kept pure at all times. Women were inferior to men and both belonged to two separate spheres in the Victorian era. A woman was the property of her husband and she performed household duties while he had the freedom to work anywhere he chose. The oppressed Victorian women had no other choice but to follow the stigmas and ideologies set in place by men. If she became rebellious or disobedient she was considered an outcast and quickly booted onto the cold streets. Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” is a mythical poem that depicts women’s suffrage during the Victorian time and her desire to experience freedom from confinement.
“The Lady of Shalott” opens with beautiful natural imagery that eloquently describes the pristine beauty of the island of Shalott. Then Tennyson elaborates on the contrast of the quiet landscapes and the energetic city of Camelot, “And up and down the people go, / Gazing where the lilies blow/ Round and island here below,” (Tennyson lines 6-8). The island of Shalott is a secluded untouched island where as the city of Camelot is teeming with life and action. The gorgeous imagery of flowing grain fields and beautiful rivers halts during the introduction on line fifteen of the “four gray walls, and four gray towers” that imprison the Lady of Shallott. A woman in a castle depicts a typical damsel in distress found in a Camelot tale, but Tennyson uses the castle as a symbol of the imprisonment of women who are confined in the household. The people around her move freely and busily in the city. The Lady of Shalott is guarded by stone walls to protect her from the outside world, which is no place for a woman. The castle prevents her to experience freedom and go in the outside world, a desire she holds close to her. The poem in part one continues and states that although the young lady sees people in Camelot, only the reapers in the field hear her jubilant singing. Her life is exceptionally lonely but she abides to the restrictions that have been placed upon her throughout the poem.
The poem in part two continues on about how the damsel weaves her web, an example of a domestic chore performed by women during the Victorian era. The Lady of Shalott is more than just a typical depiction of a beautiful woman; she is a perfect example of a holy woman, a characteristic found in women during that era. Tennyson describes her as a virginal, proper, and obedient woman who performs her duties without a complaint:
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott (41-45).
The young woman obediently continues her duties assigned to her and never looks down at Camelot for the fear of disobeying her orders. If she is disobedient she will face a curse that will be fatal. Tennyson blends into his mythical poem the attitudes of women during his own time period to portray how submissive and passive women were. Women during the Victorian time were considered as nurturing figures and had to be respectful and loyal to men. Women lacked a voice because they had no rights and no property. If the ladies argued about their dissatisfaction of their roles they would be thrown out or divorced. Tennyson reveals through his writing that women during the 1800’s lived lonely lives full of suppression and deprivation. Their lack of rights, respect, and opinions made them powerless to the rules and ideologies made by man that governed them. He places this material in his writing to highlight the poor treatment of women with hopes that they will have more freedom.
The damsel is constantly tempted of the outside world by mirrors she has mounted for her weaving. The damsel is reminded of the joy of freedom the outside people experience, “Sometimes a troop of damsels glad, / An abbot on an ambling pad, / Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,” (55-57). The variety of people and culture in Camelot are only shadows in her world and she desperately wants to make them her reality, ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said / The Lady of Shalott” (70-71). Tennyson makes a connection with the suffering damsel in Shalott to the women in the Victorian era. He relates how the women in the 1800’s want to escape their roles as submissive housewives and take on a freer and limitless life. Unfortunately, the young mistress in Shalott must face a deadly curse if she rebels against her orders.
Part three of “The Lady of Shalott” is about the charming heart throb Sir Lancelot who rides on his elegant steed to Camelot. The knight is eloquently described as fearless, bold, and incredibly courageous as he rides his horse at a wild gallop to Camelot. The third part of the “Lady of Shalott” illustrates the typical Camelot chivalry tale with strong fearless knights and gorgeous damsels. It sounds like it comes right out of a fairytale, “On burnished hooves his war-horse trode; / From underneath his helmet flowed /His coal-black curls as on he rode,” (101-103). The gorgeous lady in the castle is greatly excited about the commotion and abandons her chores and orders to look out to Camelot. She then lays eyes on the handsome Sir Lancelot and sees how charming and wonderful he is. During this moment, she is rebelling against her powerlessness and takes a stand of rebellion. However, just as a woman during the Victorian ages would be exiled from the act of rebellion, the Lady of Shalott’s punishment comes in the form of a curse, a more mystical form of punishment. Tennyson’s mystical tale is meant more than to be entertaining. Instead he disguises the controversial issue of women’s inequality in a fairytale so it is less obtrusive. His purpose of incorporating these issues in a mythical tale is to expose the readers of his work with the struggles of women without his content being too problematic in society.
The fourth part of “The Lady of Shalott” is about her preparation to go into the town of Camelot to experience the freedom she desperately craves. She realizes that the curse is upon her and that she only has minutes of freedom before she faces her death. She gets into a boat and prepares to float down to Camelot and signs her name:
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her sing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott (140-144).
The young lady’s blood freezes over and she dies just when she gets into the heart of Camelot where the townspeople and Sir Lancelot reside. Although in death, the young lady is no longer lonely or imprisoned like in her past. She is greeted by knights, burghers, and lords and they all read her unfamiliar name. She is for once noticed and finally is given the social interaction she has forever dreamed of. At last, the heart-stopping Sir Lancelot is close to her,
“He said, ‘she has a lovely face; / God in his mercy lend her grace, / The Lady of Shalott’ (169-170). The young woman is remembered by all as a beautiful and mysterious woman and she will no longer go on unnoticed. Tennyson creates a beautiful virginal character and then brings her to her death. He does not kill her to be cruel but to bring forth change in the future of how women are treated. In his story, a woman who wanted freedom and change was punished for her rebellion and died, but in Tennyson’s reality, he wants women to experience change and equality without the threat of danger or death.
Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” perfectly depicts the roles of women during the Victorian Era. Women of the Victorian time are similar to the Lady of Shalott because they also could not freely experience the freedom they desire. In his beautifully woven fairytale he is able to incorporate his society’s treatment of women and his feelings about it. The power of his writing and the fate of the mistress are solid reasons of why his work leaves an astound impact on his readers. As attitudes changed about the treatment of women, it is people like Tennyson that are responsible for creating the changes that we see today.



Work Cited
Tennyson, Alfred. “The Lady of Shalott.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: W.W Norton, 2004. 621. Print.

Explication of Frost at Midnight

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Romantic poem “Frost at Midnight” opens on a peculiar placid night inside a sleepy cottage. All occupants of the town seem to be in a deep slumber except a Father perplexed by the stillness of the night. Enveloped by the overwhelming silence, the Father recalls his unhappy childhood in industrious London and recently finds his niche in the heart of the country. “Frost at Midnight” is about a Father’s journey to live a natural life in order to give his son a beauteous childhood.
The poem begins in present time on a silent night which is elaborately illustrated through natural imagery, “The Frost performs its secret ministry, / Unhelped by any wind. The owlett’s cry/ Came loud- and hark, again! Loud as before” (Coleridge lines 1-3). The absence of the wind, the secretive etching of the frost, and the alarming screech of an owl complete the mood of an almost eerie night. The Father’s submersion with nature in this poem is a very common theme in romantic poetry, but in this case the silence is almost overwhelming.
The poem has a very appropriate mood to match the calm sleepy night Coleridge depicts. The dream-like tone is seen throughout the poem’s entirety during the current night, in the father’s past, and the future for his son. The dreamy tone is highly effective because the duration of the poem is about recalling his past and planning his child’s future, which all is created and recreated in the mind through images or dreams. As the poem continues the Father watches over his sleeping infant and notices movement in the house besides his own, “Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, / Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing” (15-16). He calls the fluttering pieces of ash strangers because they are wandering far away from the stove from which they came. He personifies the piece of ash as a type of companion since it is the only moving object in the quiet of the night. “By its own moods interprets, everywhere, / Echo or mirror seeking of itself, / And makes a toy of thought” (21-23).The film or ash fluttering from the dying fire is the vehicle which trigger’s his thoughts and memories and brings him to the past of his childhood.
The new setting takes place in an urban schoolhouse in London where the Father, now a young, boy is a pupil. He has been taken away from his family in the countryside for schooling in the crowded city. He feels imprisoned in school and by his “stern preceptor.” The young boy uses daydreaming as a way to escape his confinement and relive his freedom, “With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt/ Of my sweet birth place, and the old church- tower, / Whose bells, the poor man’s only music” (27-29). The absence of his natural lifestyle and freedom as a child helps shape his lifestyle choices for his son. He becomes so desperate for his freedom that he relives his memories of his birth-place. Daydreaming keeps his thoughts strong that someone is his family will come to his rescue and bring him back to the country. “For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face, / Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, / My playmate when we both were clothed alike! (41-43).The stranger in this context refers to someone who would bring him away from school. The word “still” communicates that to this day he wishes he could be back with his family in the country. However, he realizes this is not possible and returns to the present again.
The Father directs his attention to the sleeping infant and tenderly speaks about how lovely of a life his child will live so different from the life he had, “And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, / And in far other scenes! For I was reared/ In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,” (50-52). The Father realizes the importance of a happy child hood and he makes sure that his child will live a happier life than he did. He hopes to raise his child away from the constraints of the city and in the open countryside. He states that his child will not learn the same knowledge found in textbooks because nature will be the teacher of his child. He wants his son to grow from the land itself and be free from the inhibitions of man and city. The Father predicts that living through nature is a more wholesome type of life that yields many benefits like a happiness and fulfillment. Coleridge glorifies the concept of country living which is a very common theme in romantic poetry. The picturesque imagery Coleridge describes in nature reveals how his son and the natural world will work in tandem:
But thou, my babe! Shalt wonder like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lake and shores (54-57).
Coleridge provides beautiful natural imagery that in fuller context describes the life of the Father’s child and describes how nature and the child will be one. To illustrate unity he uses a simile to describe the child as a breeze which also represents freedom. The comparison of the child and the wind signifies that his child has no limitations and can freely explore all the untold beauties of the world. During the process where the Father will give his son a natural life and freedom, he will also attain this happiness and freedom. The Father is reliving the missing parts of his childhood he once day dreamed in school, but now his country dream is a reality. Later, the poem continues with the Father stating that the education his child derives from nature will allow him to understand and appreciate the seasons, “Therefore, all seasons will be sweet to thee, / Whether the summer clothe the general earth/ With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing” (65-67). All seasons have an importance and a purpose, a natural lesson that the young child will learn from his learning sessions from Mother Nature.
Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” illustrates the Romantic Movement accurately because it places a high emphasis on the importance of childhood and the proper raising of children. The opposite childhoods of the father and the child reveal the poem’s central idea that a childhood immersed in nature is the idealistic and happy lifestyle. Coleridge glorifies country living through the abundant use of sublime natural imagery and the unison between man and nature. Happiness to the Romantic is a life isolated from industry and enlightenment, in a land still untouched by the destructive hand of man.














Work Cited
Coleridge, Samuel. “Frost at Midnight.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. By Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: W.W Norton, 2004. 325. Print.