FREE ESSAY ON LADY OF SHALLOT

LADY OF SHALLOT

The Lady of Shalott
"The greatest social difficulty in England today is the relationship between men and
women" (NAEL, 1719). These words express awareness and the beginning of a change in the
Victorian period. The role of the woman began its change throughout this period. Such
changes seemed to only take place in the middle class. These changes caused many to
question the role of the woman in society, thus the "woman question" evolved. The woman
became less and less involved with the every day drudgeries and had more and more time on
her hands. How women actually felt about this change is questionable, many took a middle
ground that Walter Hougton said was "entirely characteristic of the time in its mediation
between conservative and radical thinking" (349). This is where we find Tennyson. In "The
Lady of Shalott" there are times where traditional womanly characteristics are present,
and at the same time we see very liberal ideas expressed. Remember that the middle class
woman's role is the one going through this transformation, and the primary focus of this
"Woman Question". As a result of this new role we see a clash between traditional and
radical thought, along with feelings of isolation, and questions of sexuality.
The "traditional" roles of the woman as a wife and mother became increasingly more
popular through the Victorian period, predominately in the middle class. Although this
wasn't the only perception of women at the time the role of woman as "the submissive
wife" (Hougton, 348) whose sole purpose was to please her lord and master is the best
known. Coventry Patmore's poem "The Angel in the House" (NAEL, 1722) is a poem that
focuses predominately on such traditional woman's duties. He feels that he gives woman a
role in the home as a wife and mother, by "sing(ing) her worth as Maid and Wife"(NAEL,
1724). These two roles were usually the only options for a middle class woman, and there
was a progression from one to the other. He wraps the poem up by saying, "The nuptial
contrasts are the poles/ On which the heavenly spheres revolve". He again is stating that
the woman is both wife and maid, but one is not complete without the other. This
statement gives insight to why the Lady of Shalott felt the need to escape her personal
prison; she could not progress from maid to wife. Traditionally woman was to "love,
honor, obey-and amuse-her lord and master, and to manage his household and bring up his
children" (Hougton, 348). The Lady of Shalott could not progress to the role of wife
because of the curse that trapped her in her tower. The writing of Sarah Stickney Ellis
supports this idea of woman belonging in the home. She is to take care and comfort the
man who spends the day working in the market, "the remembrance of her character, clothed
in moral beauty, has scattered the clouds before his mental vision, and sent him back to
that beloved home, a wiser and better man" (1724). She is there for the pleasure of the
man. I suppose that if the Lady of Shalott was a traditional reflection of a woman in the
Victorian period she would have stayed in he tower and waited for her "prince". Since she
ventured out on her own to find him and left the boredom that surrounded her in the home
she is quite the opposite of the conservative views of the woman submissive. She became
more of a reflection of the radical idea. Through her death Tennyson stifled this radical
rebellion and leaves us standing on an intermediate ground.
In the nineteenth century the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and Nostalgia were also
very prominent. Since "they felt isolated by dividing barriers; lonely for a lost
companionship, human and divine; nostalgic for an earlier world of country peace and
unifying belief"(Hougton, 77) we can assume that these feelings are mirrored in the
literature of the times. The Lady of Shalott is literally isolated in her tower with only
the distorted view of the world through her mirror. This is a reflection of not only how
women were viewed and treated; it is one of the isolation everyone felt at this time. The
cause of this isolation was an effect of the invention of steam power that connected
towns and led to a larger number of employees (Hougton, 78). This growth in industry
broke relationships between men that they had known and worked with since childhood. They
now worked along side strangers. Since there was an increase in industry there was a
decrease in nature's beauty, and man lost his traditional connection with nature that we
see in poets like Wordsworth. This caused artists and architects alike to create art that
functioned as a reminder of nature (Hougton, 80). This kind of art would include the
tapestry that the Lady of Shalott was weaving in her tower. In this tapestry she wove all
of the things she saw through the mirror, she trapped her memories of nature. The
unraveling is an example of the loss of connection between (wo)man and Nature, and again
a rebellion against popular traditional roles of woman. These tapestries might also be
considered a reflection of the nostalgia "which is inseparable from loneliness" (Hougton,
85). They longed for the earlier world of peace. By unraveling the tapestry she again
rebels against the traditional thought.
When the Lady of Shalott tries to escape the role of maid/virgin, she meets her death.
This scenario brings the Victorian views on sexuality to light. "Victorians perceived sex
as chaotic and anarchic, a threat to the social order and to the self"(Reddy, 62). Women
like the prostitute that wrote to the editor of The Times question the perverted
Victorian view of sex, when she points out the blame should not fall on her alone, and
that it is the men of the upper and middle classes who employ her. "The Lady of Shalott
seeks to break away from the suppression of her sexuality represented by the curse, and
is stopped by death. Her leaving the tower might also be of sheer boredom which was a
problem faced by many women of the time since servants did most of the work for women,
yet the were still expected to stay in the confines of the home so that they could 
"The Lady of Shalott" is a poem that embodies both traditional and radical thoughts; this
contrast results in a median between the two ideas, which is the "woman question". The
well known traditional role of woman, as maid and wife are conflicting with the radical
rebellion of many women of the time; a new role for women is the result. We also see an
increase of isolation and nostalgia as a result of the loss of the connection between man
and Nature, which is reflected quite literally in "The Lady of Shalott". Then we have
questions that arise about sexuality, and the popular views of sex in the Victorian
period is that it is a threat to social order. There are both traditional and radical
thoughts represented in "The Lady of Shalott". These thoughts come together and form a
middle ground that many Victorians found themselves standing on. This mediation is the
sole basis of the "Woman Question".
Work Cited
Hougton, Walter E. The Victorian Frame of Mind 1830-1870. New Haven: Yale University
Press,1957.
Reddy, Maureen. "Sex, sexuality, and culture: not 'the other' Victorians" College
Literature 22 (1995): 159-64.