Lady Of Shalott Gender

Throughout the Victorian Age, an expectation was placed on women to fulfill their domesticity role. Though a Victorian woman was to remain in the home, she could express herself through singing, weaving, and other artistic outlets. As Greenblatt expresses, “Victorian society was preoccupied not only with legal and economic limitations on women’s lives, but with the very nature of woman” (1957). Furthermore, society expected women to remain obedient, while appearing inferior to their husbands, just as Linda Gill expresses by saying, “A woman’s power was very limited, and her subjectivity was only granted if it were appropriatable by and contained within traditional and patriarchally determined narrative structures” (111). In Robert Browning’s …show more content…
Through the author’s use of the protagonists and themes in “My Last Duchess” and “The Lady of Shalott,” a Victorian mindset regarding both man and a curse’s control over a woman are accurately depicted. The protagonists in both “My Last Duchess” and “The Lady of Shalott” expertly communicate the Victorian mindset of gender roles within the culture. In researching the gender roles within “The Lady of Shalott,” one writer states Tennyson’s use of characters, “reiterated gender definitions as binary oppositions which confined women’s subjectivity to these private, interiorized spaces” (Gill 111). As was per Victorian culture, a woman was removed from the normalcy of everyday life, forced to maintain the homestead, and expected to obey her husband. Both the female protagonists, the Lady and the Duchess, had experienced this type of isolation and were forced to live an “imprisoned life” (Stockstill 13). However, the Lady experienced isolation from a mysterious curse’s control, whereas the Duchess experienced isolation from her husband’s control. Stockstill expresses the Lady’s isolation as she says, “This lady stands as an archetype for all women-a woman with a woman’s lot in the world. …show more content…
In the Victorian era, expectations were placed on women. This particular mindset regarding a woman’s place in society is devastatingly depicted in both “The Lady of Shalott” and “My Last Duchess.” Both the Lady and the Duchess yearned for a more fulfilling life, but Victorian expectations limited that fulfillment. The Duchess, who lived spontaneously, ultimately faced her death because she would not comply with her husband’s unspoken desires as well as the cultural norm. However, the Lady, who yearned for a passionate and loving partner, attempts to break the mold of the Victorian mindset and in doing so, she faces her death as well. Both Robert Browning and Alfred Lord Tennyson present protagonists whose journey through the poem, brings the reader to a deeper understanding of both the Victorian expectations and the unfortunate cultural norm that occurred regarding women. It is through these discoveries that the reader can relate to both the women’s struggles during the Victorian