Theorist William Rathbone Greg best summaries the feelings of the Victorian age towards fallen women: "If the passions of woman were ready, strong, and spontaneous, in a degree even remotely approaching the form they assume in the coarser sex, there can belittle doubt that sexual irregularities would reach a height, of which, at present, we have happily no conception" (Greg 10). The Victorian Age marked an era where a rise of oppositional creations ruled literary and social exemplifications of gender. These new rules divided men and women into two distinct worlds in which they performed different roles. While men were able to go about their business and indulge in politics in public, women faced exclusion from any social and public participation. .
The ideal woman in the Victorian Age had to stay at home, lack any sexual initiative, be selfless, and be morally accountable. She was to be the pillar of the home in both the physical and moral sense. Femininity during the Victorian Age was secondary to masculinity. The submission of women to men represented the enduring feature of the Victorian Age. This was in line with Victorian theorists who held the view that evolutionary reasons where the justification for the mental and physical differences between the genders. A woman, deemed as a fallen one, showed signs of disregard of the set norms, expressed sexual aggressiveness, and ignored the need to be submissive to the men in her life (Gilmour 18).The theme of a fallen woman became a popular topic in literary circles during this age. In my paper, I will use these two poems to explain a number of strategies that had utilization by the Victorians to treat women and their sexuality. The center of my discussion is the establishment of Victorian views of fallen women and the way the text endorses or condemns conventional Victorian views. Do they support or challenge these views? Moreover, the essay would illustrate how these two poems represent the fallen women of the Victorian society who deviated from the feminine virtue of their society.
In both versions, the Lady of Shalott is a body of creativity. ... The Lady of Shalott is an artist of both the loom and of images. ... It is these details that create a clear image describing the Lady of Shalott. ... In this version, the Lady of Shalott is awarded the last word. Her final words help construct an identity for the mysterious "fairy Lady of Shalott". ...
In Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson writes about a woman bound to her room by an unspoken spell possibly cast upon her. Howard Pyle, an American illustrator and author, created a picture depicting the Lady of Shalott in her room in which she resided. ... First off, in Pyle's art piece, the Lady of Shalott has extremely long hair, possibly emphasizing how long the Lady of Shalott has been personally captivated in her room, with the negligence of hair up-keep. ... Later in the poem Tennyson writes, "The first house by the water-side,/Singing in her song she di...
For The Lady of Shalott, this imprisonment takes form in the "four grey walls, and four grey towers.... Both The Lady of Shalott and Ophelia lead similar lives, prisoners and servants of a male dominant culture. ... For The Lady of Shalott, the descent begins with her inability to view the real world. ... Madness is the engine of freedom for The Lady of Shalott as well as Ophelia. ... For both Ophelia and The Lady of Shalott, death is the only true freedom. ...
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson tells of a woman cut off from society and human interactions - the simplicities of life. ... In addition to male dominance, deprivation is a significant idea explored in "The Lady of Shalott". ... "The island of Shalott/ The Lady of Shalott ' (line 9 and 18). In stanza 1, we are introduced to the setting of Shalott, and it is said it is an "island", in the following stanzas the description proceeds but now instead of the "island" the "Lady" replaces it. ... Furthermore, passivity is an idea very muc...
The Lady of Shalott ` Once upon a time there was a mystery lady who lived in a castle an island, in a river near a town called Camelot. ... In this castle this lady weaves night and day. ... She found a little boat moored underneath a willow tree and she carved the name, "The Lady of Shalott," on the side of the boat. ... People were spilling onto the wharf's and they read the name of the boat which read, "The Lady of Shalott." ... The knight who said that was none other than Sir Lancelot, maybe there could have been love if The Lady of Shalott hadn't of broken the curse. ...
English Coursework Pre 1914 Poetry John Keats and Alfred Tennyson Both "The Lady of Shalott" and "La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A ballad" are pre 1914 poetry. ... "The Lady of Shalott" is a romantic poem which twists with a mystical curse. The curse sets on the lady of Shalott as she looks out of the window down to Camelot and perceives the life around her. ... In the third stanza Tennyson uses rhetorical questions this makes the reader think that the lady of Shalott maybe a myth "but who hath seen her wave her hand? ... In these lines it describes the life around her dying a...
According to them, poem such as "The Lady of Shalott" portray "socially alienated and hostile artist figures" in conflict with the moral demands of society (Simpson, "Elaine the Unfair" 343). ... Alaya, for example, argues how "The Lady of Shalott" constitutes the ultimate "expression of the unresolved dialectic assumed to be characteristic of the early Tennyson, artistic detachment vs. social responsibility" (274). Being one of Tennyson's most famous works, "The Lady of Shalott" is a depiction of an isolated, artist-like figure ...
