The Lady of Shalott

In Part I, readers see the isle of Shalott with its tall towers and imprisoned, fairy-like Lady. The interior where she is embowered is “silent” and immovable, whereas the world outside hums along in a busy and cheerful way. The placement of the great city of Camelot by the river emphasizes the progress, purposefulness, and ever-present sense of movement and vitality of the men and women outside of the tower, in stark contrast to the Lady of Shalott. The fact that there exists a connection between the inhabitants of Camelot and the Lady but that it is mysterious and magical further emphasizes the distinction between the realms of the external world and the tower. In Part II, readers are introduced to the Lady herself, who is under the spell of a mysterious curse that does not allow her to look out her window. She seems happy regardless, and she spends her days weaving her “magic web” and singing (alluding to Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, who weaves while her husband is away, and other myths that involve a woman’s weaving). Her web, a symbol of artistic fecundity but also of her enslavement,…

I. Introduction “The Lady of Shalott,” by Alfred Tennyson, is an extraordinary poem about a lady that is trapped in a tower in the city of Camelot. The lady of this tower is longing to be free of confinement, sadness, and of loneliness. Even though she can see out of the tower through the view of her mirror, she is so very lonely and isolated from the world. Eventually, the lady becomes so, very desperate for love and a relationship that she leaves her castle; and in leaving she realizes that…

purpose. In 1842 Tennyson wrote the “Lady of Shalott,” and in 1888 John Waterhouse painted a picture illustrating Tennyson’s character, the Lady of Shalott. Although Tennyson and Waterhouse use different mediums, they both illustrate the position of a nineteenth century woman and Waterhouse uses images from the poem to recreate the mood. The main focus in John Waterhouse’s painting is the woman in the boat. The boat has a lantern hanging off the front and inside the boat are a few candles, a…

The Lady of Shalott is about a mysterious young adolescent girl who is cursed to remain in the tower surrounded by water. Her curse is to continuously weave and only see the world through mirrored reflections and not experience life directly. She is forbidden to look out of the window at the world going on around her, so she looks through a mirror that is ever so conveniently placed where it has the view of Camelot. The mirror magically showed the truest colors of the yarn. She longs to be a…

visualize the setting and feelings of the poem. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem and Waterhouse’s painting, both titled “The Lady of Shalott,” depict the lady not experiencing reality and only seeing life through a reflection. Her life is lived in complete isolation, and remains that way even after she departs from the real world. Although the painting of “The Lady of Shalott” is a neatly characterized piece of work with vibrant colors, only one example of the analyzed theme, isolation, is…

People face isolation every day in many ways. It could be eating by yourself, having no one to talk to, or even having nobody to love. Some say loneliness is a big effect of isolation causing forms of “alzheimer's, obesity diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, neurodegenerative disease, and even cancer - tumors can metastasize faster in lonely people,” Loneliness leads to risky choices, choices people might regret later in life. But later might be a little too late for a very lonely girl…

What is a curse? One is typically thought of as the opposite of a wish, or a wish of misery to fall upon someone. The Lady of Shalott is a lady who has spent her days alone, because of a rumor that a curse is on her. She works through the days without really living her life, only watching others do so. In a poem about her she says that “she heard a whisper say, a curse is on her” if she leaves so she spends her days secluded from others (Alfred, Lord Tennyson 38-39). In "The Lady of Shalott" by…

people and world around us, in the poem “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the lady’s developing insanity warps her perception of the land she’s been cursed not to see. Her outlook on her situation darkens as her gripping insanity takes hold of everything she had left. Through cacophony, pathetic fallacy, and repetition it is shown how the lady’s being stuck in her own version of Plato’s allegory of the cave leads her to insanity. Lord Tennyson’s poem alludes to Camelot and the…

Integrity is considered to be the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. Wistfully, 59% of high school students admitted cheating on a test during the last year. Such impressive information contributes to the fact that now a days children don’t respect life. In this society were teachers try to do their best in educating the future of our country, it is at home were the big problem starts. Reluctantly, such integral values must be portrayed by society as…

The Lady of Shallot Romanticism was a time in European history that was all about feelings and emotion rather than reason. This era was also considered to be a philosophical movement for people to become more emotionally self-aware to improve society. During the romanticism period, artists, authors, etc. took a different route, then how it was in the Neoclassical era. Artists chose to go in a more emotional, creative style for their creations. These artists also chose to display more…