The Lady of Shalott: Critical Appreciation
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Before going to the Critical Appreciation of “The Lady of Shallot”, let’s go through the short questions and answers of the poem.
Q 1: Who is the author of the poem "The lady of Shallot" and in which year was it published?
Answer: The author of the poem "The Lady of Shallot" is Alfred Lord Tennyson and the poem was published in 1842.
Q 2: How many parts are there in the poem "The lady of Shallot" and how many lines are there in each part?
Answer: There are a total of four parts in the poem. The first and second parts have four verses; the third part has five verses and six verses in the fourth part. Each verse has nine rows.
Q 3: The basis of the poem "The lady of Shallot" is inspired by which mythology?
Answer: Most critics believe that this poem is inspired by the Arthurian story "Elaine of Astalot" or "Maid of Astalot", in which a woman dies due to her unilateral love.
Q 4: How is the description of "Shallot Island" in the first part of the poem?
Answer: In the first part, Shallot Island is painted with a woman like high towers and fairy. The atmosphere of the tower is "silent" and stable, while the outside world is happy and active.
Q 5: What was the curse on "The Lady of Shallot" in the poem?
Answer: "The lady of Shallot" was a mysterious curse due to which she could not see out of the window. She only looked at the outside world as a reflection in the mirror and weaving a magical web.
Q 6: How is "Sir Lancelot" depicted in poetry?
Answer: In the third part, "Sir Lancelot" is depicted as a beautiful and brave man. Their appearance and singing mesmerizes the "The Lady of Shallot", due to which she sees out of the window and the curse becomes active.
Q 7: What is the fate of "The Lady of Shallot" in the fourth part of the poem?
Answer: In the fourth part, "The Lady of Shallot" faces his death. She sings the last song on her boat flowing into the river. People get scared to see him and in the end "Sir Lancelot" looking at him and says that his face is beautiful and God bless him.
Q 8: According to critics, which main idea is presented in the poem?
Answer: Most critics believe that the poem presents stress between art and life. The Q arises whether artistic solitude is necessary or not. According to Tennyson, solitude and silence are essential for great art.
Q 9: What is the main symbol of the poem "The lady of Shallot" and what does it mean?
Answer: The main symbol of the poem is the "magical web", which is a symbol of artistic creation and bondage. This reflects the woman's captivity and her creative solitude through web art.
Q 10: What is the importance of mirror in the poem "The lady of Shallot"?
Answer: The importance of mirrors is that it is the only medium in the outside world for women. She cannot look out directly and only sees the world reflected in the mirror. The breakdown of the mirror is a symbol of the end of his life and the destruction of artistry.
Q 11: What is the contrast between "Camelot" and "Shallot" in poetry?
Answer: "Camelot" symbolizes life, stir and vibrancy, while "Shallot" symbolizes solitude, silence and stability. Thus, both places reflect the contradiction between life and art.
Q 12: What is the importance of "Tirra Lira" of "Sir Lancelot" in poetry?
Answer: Singing of "Sir Lancelot" "Tirra Lira" becomes a source of attraction for the woman and at that moment she looks out of the window violating the curse. This song is a symbol of joy and craving of life in the life of a woman.
Q 13: In what symbolic form can the death of "The Lady of Shallot" be seen in poetry?
Answer: The death of "the lady of Shallot" can be seen as a result of moving towards the end and reality of artistic solitude. This indicates that entry into real life causes the end of artistry.
Q 14: What conclusion did critic Harold Bloom give about this poem?
Answer: Harold Bloom believes that the end of artistic solitude causes the death of creativity. According to him, solitude and silence are necessary for great art.
Q 15: In what form has critic Flavia M. Alaya seen the boat of "The Lady of Shallot"?
Answer: Flavia M. Alaya believes that the boat is a woman's expansion and is a symbol of artistic solitude. His death in the boat reflects the indispensability of solitude of artistry.
Q 16: Which Shakespeare references to the story of "The Lady of Shallot"?
Answer: In the poem, "Tirra Lira" reference is taken from Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale. It is a Bowdi (porn) song that symbolizes the joy and celebration of life.
Q 17: What is the character of "The Lady of Shallot" in poetry?
Answer: The character of "the lady of Shallot" is solitude, artistic and sensitive. She is engrossed in her art, but eventually comes into the attraction of life and breaks her solitude, which leads to her death.
Q 18: What is the symbolic meaning of singing the song of "The lady of Shallot"?
Answer: The song is a symbol of his artistic life and self-expression. The last song sung at the time of death is a sign of the freedom of his soul and the end of artistry.
Q 19: How is the curse of "the lady of Shallot"?
Answer: The curse is active when the "the lady of Shallot" sees "sir lancellot" directly out of the window. After this, his mirror breaks and his web blows out.
Q 20: What was the response to "Sir Lancelot" at the end of the poem?
Answer: At the end of the poem, "Sir Lancelot" praised the beautiful face of "The Lady of Shallot" and said that he wished God for her blessings.
Q 21: How is nature described in the poem "The lady of Shallot"?
Answer: In the fourth part, the description of nature is full of turmoil and sorrow. The wind is stormy, the forests are yellow and withering, and the sky is raining heavily. All this symbolizes the tragedy and death of the woman.
Q 22: What is the central idea of the poem "The lady of Shallot"?
Answer: The central thought of poetry is a struggle between art and life. This shows that artistic solitude can be a source of great creativity, but attempts to connect with reality may be disastrous.
The Lady of Shalott: Critical Appreciation
The Lady of Shalott is one of Tennyson’s most famous and beloved poems. It was originally written in 1832 and was published in 1842. The poem has four parts, with the first and second parts containing four stanzas, the third part containing five stanzas, and the fourth part containing six stanzas. Each stanza has nine lines with a rhyme scheme of AAAABCCCB. The syntax is also line-bound, meaning that the lines do not carry over from one to the other.
Most critics believe the poem is based on the episode in Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astalot, or the Maid of Astalot, who died of her unrequited love for the famous knight. Tennyson’s engagement with Arthurian legend is, of course, most notably seen in his Idylls of the King. Tennyson complicated the origins of his poem by claiming his source was the Italian romance Donna di Scalotta. This may be true in some sense, but it is impossible to ignore the Arthurian components of Camelot, Lancelot, knights and ladies, and even the name Shallot, which sounds somewhat like Astalot.
In Part I, readers see the isle of Shalott with its tall towers and imprisoned, fairy-like Lady. The interior where she is embowered is “silent” and immovable, whereas the world outside hums along in a busy and cheerful way. The placement of the great city of Camelot by the river emphasizes the progress, purposefulness, and ever-present sense of movement and vitality of the men and women outside of the tower, in stark contrast to the lady of Shallot. The fact that there exists a connection between the inhabitants of Camelot and the Lady but that it is mysterious and magical further emphasizes the distinction between the realms of the external world and the tower.
In Part II, readers are introduced to the lady herself, who is under the spell of a mysterious curse that does not allow her to look out her window. She seems happy regardless, and she spends her days weaving her “magic web” and singing (alluding to Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, who weaves while her husband is away, and other myths that involve a woman’s weaving). Her web, a symbol of artistic fecundity but also of her enslavement, depicts the world outside, but only as reflected in her mirror. She sees knights and pages and boys and girls, and sometimes she sees the two great events of earthly life, funerals and weddings. This state of affairs is what causes her to assert her identity by claiming that she is sick of shadows, for her life is paralyzed and stagnant. She feels a sense of loss and exclusion.
In Part III, the handsome and courageous Sir Lancelot is introduced. The language is sensual and heroic, and the Lady of Shallot is as entranced as the reader. She breaks the stipulation in the curse and strides to her window to look down on the great knight. Some critics have noted that it is the song of Lancelot, “Tirra lira,” that breaks down the Lady’s resistance, for song is one of her means of expression. Thus, she feels an intense connection with the man below (“Tirra lirra” is a bawdy song from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale). Once the mirror cracks and the web flutter out the window, she and we know she is doomed.
Finally, in Part IV, when she lets the river carry her, Tennyson emphasizes the disruption of the Lady’s being through scenes of chaotic and mournful Nature: the wind is “stormy,” the “pale yellow woods were waning,” and the “low sky” was raining heavily, the banks of the river straining. The inhabitants of Camelot are frightened and curious as they hear her last song and see her pale shape. The poem ends with Lancelot looking down at her and commenting that she “has a lovely face” and that he hopes God will lend her grace. One might compare the famous death of Hamlet’s sister Ophelia and other scenes where a lady dies in a river or ocean.
Most critics approach the poem as expressing the tensions between art and life. It raises the question of whether or not artistic seclusion is necessary for achievement. In the beginning of the poem, despite her isolation, the Lady of Shallot experiences artistic fulfillment and accomplishment in her safe haven of Shallot. She works on her web and sings her song, blissful and happy. However, her art is doubly removed; it mimics the shadows glimpsed through a mirror and is far from direct observation of real life. This isolation finally prompts her to a gesture of passion and thus an embrace of her own death. The mirror cracks, symbolizing the end of her artistic abilities. Harold Bloom concludes that “the end of artistic isolation leads to the death of creativity. The artist’s intense loneliness is completely necessary, for all great art demands solitude and silent reflection.”
Another critic, Flavia M. Alaya, agrees, noting that the lady is placed in an eponymous-named boat which is an extension of herself, and that Tennyson is suggesting through this lonely scene that “an essential loneliness is the one element of the artistic condition that cannot be revoked, even by love.” She even interprets Lancelot’s last words, commonly perceived as callously and regrettably ironic, as redemptive: “Lancelot, who earlier had provided the symbolic type of cosmic love and human sympathy, is the only knight to precise the mystery of her presence in language we find so curiously appropriate, recognizing her beauty and providing the benediction which her act of renunciation and egoism have sought and required.”
*****
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