Alfred, Lord Tennyson--> The Lady of Shalott

Alfred, Lord Tennyson grew up in a very large family and was well educated. He was a known for writing short lyrics and blank verses. In 1833 he published The Lady of Shalott, which was criticized immensely. That same year, a close friend and advisor to Tennyson, Aurthur Hallam, died suddenly. Hallam was as a huge support system for Tennyson and his death was devastating, putting him into a deep depression where Tennyson did not publish for ten years. However, he spent that time writing several of his most renowned works as well he was able to improve upon some of his previous published works including Lady of Shalott, which was re- published in 1842. In 1850 he was named Poet Laureate. Tennyson was best known for his musical ear and his ability to put words together to give them a lyrical quality.
The Lady of a Shalott is about a woman who has been “cursed”. She is forced to stay in a tower and is only able to look down from her tower to the world by looking through a mirror. She weaves different images of what she sees down below her. As previously stated, Tennyson published two versions of The Lady of Shalott. Two distinct differences between the versions that Dr. Glance points out in his pod cast are the rhyming schemes and the alternative ending. In his first version, in the first stanza, Tennyson writes, “ They yellowleav’d water lily,/ The greensheath’d daffodilly,/ Tremble in the water chilly” verses the second version, “And up and down the people go,/ Gazing where the lilies blow/ Round an island there below”. I don’t think the change makes a difference in the meaning or interpretation of the poem, but because Tennyson had such a creative and lyrical ear, he probably reworked it so that the words would resonant verses constrict your throat when read aloud; therefore, the second publication had a more impressive rhyming scheme. The second major difference is the ending; in the first publication, the Lady of Shalott has the last word, but in the second publication, Lancelot ends the poem. We discussed Tennyson’s reasoning and the reader’s interpretations of the alternative endings in our chat session, so I do not plan on going into detail about that.
However, I am going to go out on a limb and point out a connection to Plato's Allegory of the Cave that I noticed while reading the poem. I am assuming that this was not Tennyson’s intention, however I think it is interesting and will spend my remaining blog on this topic. As Tennyson states, “Four gray walls, and four gray towers,/ Overlook a space of flowers,/ And the silent isle embowers/ The Lady of Shalott” (p. 589). So, we know that the Lady of Shalott lives in a tower overlooking the people of Camelot. Tennyson continues explaining the Lady’s situation, “A curse is on her if she stay/ To look down to Camelot./ She knows not what the curse may be,/ And so she weaveth steadily… And moving thro’ a mirror clear/ That hangs before her all the year,/ Shadows of the world appear” (p. 590). In Part 2, the reader is able to see that the Lady of Shalott is held prisoner up in a tower and forced to weave images or “shadows” of things that she sees down below her. If you remember is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, there are a group of prisoners who have been chained and held captive in a cave since childhood, forced to stare at the wall of the cave. The wall has shadows cast onto it from free people outside the cave behind the prisoners. Plato’s Allegory has two main ideas about intellectual enlightenment including questioning one’s truth and reality as well as Plato explains the path to enlightenment for an individual. Although these are not directly things that Tennyson is probably pointing out, I do see an interesting comparison. The Lady of Shalott and the prisoners are both forced to stay in a place, the prisoners must "experience" life through the shadows of people who really are experiencing the world and the Lady of Shalott wakes up every day to see the world below her through a mirror and must live through the images she weaves.
In line 70, “Came two young lovers lately wed;/ “I am half sick of shadows,” said/ The Lady of Shalott” (p. 590). I think this shows that The Lady of Shalott realized that human’s were designed for love and she would never experience that from in her tower. Later in the poem, upon setting her eyes on Lancelot, “She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces thro’ the room/…She look’d down to Camelot/… “The curse is come upon me” (p. 591). I think what makes this poem so intriguing is the question, was it worth it? The Lady of Shalott dies and she isn’t even able to spend time with her “lover”. But, even for a moment she was able to experience freedom and life. The prisoners were ignorant to the truth, but the fact that they experienced the shadows, they were better able to appreciate the true reality. I think its easy to look at what happens to the Lady of Shalott as a tragedy, but I choose to look at it differently. Due to the fact that she was forced into the darkness of her tower and withheld from true life with human interaction, even if just for a moment, once out of the tower, she was finally able to experience true life and that makes it completely worth it.