In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott”, a mysterious, nameless woman resides in a tower on an island near Camelot, bound by an unexplained curse to weave a magic web and see the world through her mirror.
The Passive Victorian Woman
The Lady of Shalott has been perceived as representing the role of women in Victorian society. As Martha Vicinus writes, the ideal Victorian lady “combined total sexual innocence, conspicuous consumption and the worship of the family hearth” (Vicinus ix).
Young girls of the era were raised to be “perfectly innocent and sexually ignorant”; once married, the “perfect lady” did not work, and had servants to manage the house. The Victorian woman’s only socially acceptable outlet of passion was maternal affection, which was felt to be innate (Vicinus ix).
But even the exalted role of motherhood only applied at certain times, as nannies and governesses took over much of this responsibility.
The Victorian lady was totally dependent first on her father, and then on her husband, always remaining subordinate to a man. She was a passive figure, constrained and usually silent.
The Lady of Shalott as Trapped and Watched
The Lady of Shalott is literally trapped, both physically hidden from the world and prevented by her curse from engaging with society. This echoes the lack of freedom Victorian women enjoyed.
The Lady of Shalott is “encircled in a ‘socially constructed’ feminine space”, including flowers (“Four grey walls, and four grey towers,/ Overlook a space of flowers”) (Jeffers 58). Phallic towers “overlook” her and her flower garden – “both ‘survey’ and ‘not see’” (Jeffers 58).
She is watched, but also ignored, like an object or a slave. Her ceaseless weaving suggests the embroidering that “kept Victorian women’s minds and fingers from pursuing higher ends” (Jeffers 58).
Women are supposed to be innocent and sexually ignorant, and so she is cursed after looking directly at Lancelot. Without a socially acceptable venue through which to express her sexual desire, she dies (Jeffers 59).
Freezing Blood and Purity
Her “snowy white” robe acts as both a virgin’s bridal dress and her shroud. As Jeffers notes, “her ‘slowly’ freezing blood ‘suggests, in this poem of moons and curses, a repression of menstruation as ‘unfeminine.’” (59).
In the Victorian Era, menstruation was surrounded by taboo and superstition; menstruating women were considered “unclean”, “unwell”, “unusually susceptible to shocks”, and “undoubtedly more prone than men to commit any unusual or outrageous act” (Showalter 39-40).
Menstruation is as socially unacceptable (and inevitable) as sexual desire; as the Lady slowly freezes, her unacceptable desires fade, and she becomes pure in death.
Expressing Desire Through Artwork
The Lady of Shalott initially appears freer than most respectable Victorian women: she has no familial responsibilities and is able to devote herself to weaving, which apart from idle embroidery, can represent a legitimate artistic pursuit. If so, she is flaunting another Victorian notion that the ideal lady should not work.
But although the Lady of Shalott is free from maternal and familial responsibilities, this freedom paradoxically leaves her trapped, isolated, and unable to express her emotions in any acceptable way. Her weaving illustrates the life in Camelot — the life she cannot have.
Her socially unacceptable desires cannot be fully expressed through her art, and ultimately condemn her to death. Her object of desire remarks only, “She has a lovely face;/ God in his mercy lend her grace”, viewing her superficially, as an object, as did the harsh society that condemned her.
Sources
Jeffers, Thomas L. “Nice Threads: Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott as Artist.” Yale Review 89 (2001): 54-68.
Showalter, Elaine and English. “Victorian Women and Menstruation.” Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age. Ed. Martha Vicinus. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1972. 38-44.
Vicinus, Martha, ed. Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1972.
Wright, Jane Cooke. “A reflection on fiction and art in ‘The Lady of Shalott’.” Victorian Poetry (2003): 54-68.
John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott
Rebekah Richards - Rebekah Richards has published fiction and nonfiction in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Brandeis Law Journal, Where the Children Play, ...
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