Alfred Tennyson’s attitude towards nature and human life
Tennyson’s poetry can be seen in his treatment of and approach to Nature. Like Shelley, he presents the various aspects of Nature with a scientific accuracy and precision of detail. Influenced by the evolutionary theory, he discards the traditional idea of a benevolent and motherly Nature, and brings out her fiercer aspects as well. He also finds Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’, and shows the cruelty perpetrated in the form of the struggle for existence. His scientific temper blunts his sensitiveness to the soothing charms of Nature. Tennyson is a true representative of his Age, who voices the various feelings, sentiments, ideals and trends as well as social and moral concerns of his …show more content…
He favoured the typical Victorian virtues of domesticity, prudery and respectability. He delivered in the Victorian ideal of the separate of duty assigned to men and women. Such as when he …show more content…
He derides merely passionate love between man and woman, and preferred domestic love. The ideal of conjugal love is presented by him in the poem “The Miller’s Daughter”. In Idylls of the King, he points out the ruin brought about illicit love-affair such as that between Lancelot and Guinevere. This is a typically Victorian attitude which did not permit any laxity in sexual morals. Tennyson seeks to bring about a compromise between a total inhibition in sexual matters favoured by the Victorians, and the licentiousness favoured by earlier ages, by allowing love and sex within the bounds of married life. In matters of love, Tennyson laid emphasis on spiritual love as opposed to mere physical love, and on love between the husband and wife as opposed to the illicit sexual gratification by unmarried couples. He voices the typical Victorian feeling about sexual morality when he condemns sexuality and advocates the suppression of animal desires, as in the following lines from In
Tennyson’s poetry can be seen in his treatment of and approach to Nature. Like Shelley, he presents the various aspects of Nature with a scientific accuracy and precision of detail. Influenced by the evolutionary theory, he discards the traditional idea of a benevolent and motherly Nature, and brings out her fiercer aspects as well. He also finds Nature ‘red in tooth and claw’, and shows the cruelty perpetrated in the form of the struggle for existence. His scientific temper blunts his sensitiveness to the soothing charms of Nature. Tennyson is a true representative of his Age, who voices the various feelings, sentiments, ideals and trends as well as social and moral concerns of his …show more content…
He favoured the typical Victorian virtues of domesticity, prudery and respectability. He delivered in the Victorian ideal of the separate of duty assigned to men and women. Such as when he …show more content…
He derides merely passionate love between man and woman, and preferred domestic love. The ideal of conjugal love is presented by him in the poem “The Miller’s Daughter”. In Idylls of the King, he points out the ruin brought about illicit love-affair such as that between Lancelot and Guinevere. This is a typically Victorian attitude which did not permit any laxity in sexual morals. Tennyson seeks to bring about a compromise between a total inhibition in sexual matters favoured by the Victorians, and the licentiousness favoured by earlier ages, by allowing love and sex within the bounds of married life. In matters of love, Tennyson laid emphasis on spiritual love as opposed to mere physical love, and on love between the husband and wife as opposed to the illicit sexual gratification by unmarried couples. He voices the typical Victorian feeling about sexual morality when he condemns sexuality and advocates the suppression of animal desires, as in the following lines from In