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 even though the bad will come, she is willing to take that risk for the one moment of happiness.
II. Part One
The poem starts off pretty descriptive about the surroundings of Camelot and the lady of Shalott. Tennyson does a great job of bringing …show more content…
She carves her name in it and gets in. She glances back at Camelot before she drifts away. She knows that this will probably be the last time she sees this place called Camelot. This will be the last time that she sees the confined and lonely place where she has been all this time. She must wonder if all those years in the castle are worth dying for and is this one moment of freedom worth dying for. After she finishes gazing at Camelot, knowing that this will be it, “She loos’d the chain, and down she lay;” (Greenblatt, 2013, p. xx) and she drifts away. She begins to sing the beautiful, wonderful songs that she sang while she was in the tower. The people of the city hear her singing through the trees and fields. They know in their heart this will be the last song that is sung from the Lady of …show more content…
Eventually, this lady became so desperate for love and a relationship that she left her tower; and in leaving she realized that even though the bad will come, she was willing to take that risk for that one moment of happiness. She longed so, very much to have a relationship outside of the four walls and beyond the mirror. Being in the tower made the lady very desperate; which led her to escape the prison that she was in, the prison of confinement. After coming out and discovering the world on the other side of mirror, she realized that her few moments of freedom and joy were well worth every single minute. She did, in fact, enjoy those moments until death took her.
References
Gehrman, J., & Phelps, E. (1997). "I am half-sick of shadows": Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's Ladies of Shalott. Legacy, 14(2), 123-136. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/stable/25679230?seq=3
Greenblatt, S. (2013). The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the major authors (9th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Schwarzbach, F. S. (1985). The Lady of Shalott in the Victorian Novel (review). The Henry James Review 7(1), 51-52. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Udall, S. (1990). Between Dream and Shadow: William Holman Hunt's "Lady of Shalott". Woman's Art Journal, 11(1), 34-38. Retrieved from
“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 even though the bad will come, she is willing to take that risk for the one moment of happiness.
II. Part One
The poem starts off pretty descriptive about the surroundings of Camelot and the lady of Shalott. Tennyson does a great job of bringing …show more content…
She carves her name in it and gets in. She glances back at Camelot before she drifts away. She knows that this will probably be the last time she sees this place called Camelot. This will be the last time that she sees the confined and lonely place where she has been all this time. She must wonder if all those years in the castle are worth dying for and is this one moment of freedom worth dying for. After she finishes gazing at Camelot, knowing that this will be it, “She loos’d the chain, and down she lay;” (Greenblatt, 2013, p. xx) and she drifts away. She begins to sing the beautiful, wonderful songs that she sang while she was in the tower. The people of the city hear her singing through the trees and fields. They know in their heart this will be the last song that is sung from the Lady of …show more content…
Eventually, this lady became so desperate for love and a relationship that she left her tower; and in leaving she realized that even though the bad will come, she was willing to take that risk for that one moment of happiness. She longed so, very much to have a relationship outside of the four walls and beyond the mirror. Being in the tower made the lady very desperate; which led her to escape the prison that she was in, the prison of confinement. After coming out and discovering the world on the other side of mirror, she realized that her few moments of freedom and joy were well worth every single minute. She did, in fact, enjoy those moments until death took her.
References
Gehrman, J., & Phelps, E. (1997). "I am half-sick of shadows": Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's Ladies of Shalott. Legacy, 14(2), 123-136. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/stable/25679230?seq=3
Greenblatt, S. (2013). The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the major authors (9th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Schwarzbach, F. S. (1985). The Lady of Shalott in the Victorian Novel (review). The Henry James Review 7(1), 51-52. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Udall, S. (1990). Between Dream and Shadow: William Holman Hunt's "Lady of Shalott". Woman's Art Journal, 11(1), 34-38. Retrieved from