What Does Tennyson Make You Feel About the Lady of Shalott?

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Tennyson depicts the Lady of Shalott to be a beautiful, having a “lovely face”, and yet mysterious person, when defining to be like a “fairy”. The poem tells the story of her secluded lifestyle and shows how her beauty is vastly juxtaposed by the dull, repetitive life she lives. She lives a life in fear of death, an image which Tennyson uses over and over, such as the area around the Island, “where the lilies blow”. The lily is a flower that is linked with death, so therefore Tennyson is showing how the Lady of Shalott is surrounded by the thought of death and the Island and towers are there to imprison her, but also to protect her from the harsh realities of life and death. Tennyson also uses words such as, “Gazing” and “Overlook”, to portray a sense of longing. The longing for life, but also for romance, and it is romance that brightens her life, but then so suddenly ends it. Tennyson repeats the theme of isolation, time after time. The Lady of Shalott is said to be, “Half sick of shadows”, half sick of her repetitive life and her isolation. However, this is juxtaposed by the fact that she, “delights”, in her weaving and the “mirror’s magic sights”, but once again longs for something new. This is where Sir Lancelot enters the picture. For it is from his introduction, by Tennyson, that reveals more about the Lady of Shalott’s character. Upon seeing him we learn that she can be impulsive, and act on an instinctive trance powered by romance. The sheer pace of stanza five, Part III, shows how impulsive she really was, also backed up by the fact that she took “three paces through the room”, showing that there was no hesitation. There is a sense that Tennyson may have been using the Lady of Shalott as a puppet to show a different meaning. That, maybe, Tennyson was using the Lady of Shalott to represent Artists, in general. Showing the “delights” in the art

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