The Lady of Shalott

1. The Lady of Shalott Jermaine Carlton Kianna Webb Giovonti King English 4 Mrs. L Johnson D 7

2. The Lady of Shalott • Alfred Lord Tennyson • Brief Biography • Historical Background • Brief summary of the plot • Thesis Statement

3. Alfred Lord TennysonBrief Biography • Alfred Tennyson was born August 6th, 1809, at Somersby, Lincolnshire, fourth of twelve children of George and Elizabeth (Fytche) Tennyson. The poet's grandfather had violated tradition by making his younger son, Charles, his heir, and arranging for the poet's father to enter the ministry. (See the Tennyson Family Tree.) The contrast of his own family's relatively straitened circumstances to the great wealth of his aunt Elizabeth Russell and uncle Charles Tennyson (who lived in castles!) made Tennyson feel particularly impoverished and led him to worry about money all his life.

4. Alfred Lord TennysonHistorical Background Tennyson (1809-1892) is not the last Romantic, but he is the last poet of the nineteenth-century to fully capture, in his early poems, the lyrical spirit of his great predecessors. An early poem like “Timbuctoo” echoes the naturalistic cadences of Byronand Wordsworth while also resonating with the voice of the Victorian bard-sage to be. Tennyson’s attitude toward nature, like that of his strong precursors, is hard to represent in singular or unified terms. Whatever consolations nature offers in Tennyson are almost always overshadowed by a sense that nature does not care about human beings or that nature swallows up petty human concerns in its vastness and impersonal timelessness. Because his beloved Arthur Henry Hallam died of a sudden brain aneurysm at the age of 22, Tennyson came to doubt most of the faith of his youth, many of the details of a theology that asks humans to believe in a loving God–Hallam is dead at 22–who cares about us; Hallam is dead and Tennyson seeks some consolation in a world that now seems increasingly defined by scientific facts: the world has been here for countless eons of time that humans can barely imagine, the dinosaurs and other long-lived forms of life may have ruled the planet for millions of years, but now they are reduced to dust, and human history is just a tiny blip on the scale of biological, much less geological, time.

5. Brief summary of the plot The Lady of Shalottborrows from the Arthurian legend and is a poem about a woman who is isolated in a tower with a curse hanging over her. She cannot venture outside into the world to be with others. What is worse, she cannot even look directly outside. She sits at her loom weaving daily and looks at shadows of the world cast in a mirror. She envies the freedom of others and grows sick of her limitations. When Sir Lancelot appears, she spies a gallant knight and dares to look outside. The curse is set in motion as she races toward Camelot in a boat. Yet, the Lady of Shalott cannot escape her doom.

6. Thesis statement • This the case for the Lady who lives in isolation in a tower on an island called Shalott, unable to participate in daily work or activities. The Lady perfectly embodies the Victorian image of the ideal woman, virginal, mysterious and dedicated to her womanly tasks, such as weaving tapestry.

7. Theme and Tone The theme of this poem is "live every day to the fullest, no regrets, make the best out of what you are given."The lady was put in a bad situation all of her life, never realizing it. She made the best of it. She was quietly content until Sir Lancelot passed by. She gave up a life of nothing to be with her true love if only for moments.

8. Tone (Cont.) • At the opening of the poem the Lady is calm, but frustrated (she does not like being locked away in her tower). After she sees Lancelot, she becomes agitated, and turns to look out through the window (which is forbidden). When the lady has broken the curse she again becomes calm, as she prepares for death, but this time it is the calm of resignation - one might almost say satisfaction.

9. Figurative language and poetic Devices The poet uses figurative language, which includes, metaphors, and personification. Metaphor: Suggests that the fields clothe the world.... • In the poem, it used a lot of poetic/literacy techniques. Such as : Personification - "beard barley" (part 1, stanza 4, line 2) the barley doesn't have a beard but it has sort of long wheat-looking  type that looks like a beard. • Pathetic Fallacy - "In the stormy east-wind straining" (Part 4, stanza 1, line 1) *Pathetic Fallacy is when the human feelings/emotions are the same as the weather, art etc  • Similie - "Like to some branch of stars we see" (Part 3, stanza 2, line 2) Basically the bridle of the horse was sparkling, like the starry skies.* A similie is when you compare one thing with another, oftenly use the word "like" or "as"There's more personification - "And the silent isle imbowers" (Part 1 , stanza 2, line 8)I think there's also a assonance (I'm not sure though) - Whillows whiten, aspens "quiver" (Part 1, stanza 2, line 1) and Little breezes dusk and "shiver" (Part 1, stanza 2 line 2) "Quiver" and "Shiver" are the assonance that are use. • And if you notice there's a rhyme scheme which is "aaaabcccb"

10. Poem Interpretation • The lady of Shallot is a woman that is not allowed to see the town of Camelot. She lives in a tower and is not allowed to look out the window as she can see the town but she has placed a mirror so she can see out her window but just not far enough so she can see the town. She weaves what she can see. She is not allowed to because she has a curse put on her. Sir Lancelot visits her everyday but apart from him nobody knows her. We do not know why he visits the lady of shallot. One day she gets fed up and looks out the window and the curse is upon her. she is then found the next morning floating down the river of Camelot in a boat dead. on the boat she has in engraved her name...The lady of Shallot.

11. Conclusion • The Lady of Shalott is a magical being who lives alone on an island upstream from King Arthur's Camelot. Her business is to look at the world outside her castle window in a mirror, and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. She is forbidden by the magic to look at the outside world directly. The farmers who live near her island hear her singing and know who she is, but never see her. • The Lady sees ordinary people, loving couples, and knights in pairs reflected in her mirror. One day, she sees the reflection of Sir Lancelot riding alone. Although she knows that it is forbidden, she looks out the window at him. The mirror shatters, the tapestry flies off on the wind, and the Lady feels the power of her curse. • An autumn storm suddenly arises. The lady leaves her castle, finds a boat, writes her name on it, gets into the boat, sets it adrift, and sings her death song as she drifts down the river to Camelot. The locals find the boat and the body, realize who she is, and are saddened. Lancelot prays that God will have mercy on her soul. • This is one of Tennyson's most popular poems. The Pre-Raphaelites liked to illustrate it. Waterhouse made three separate paintings of "The Lady of Shalott". Agatha Christie wrote a Miss Marple mystery entitled "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side", which was made into a movie starring Angela Lansbury. TirraLirra by the River, by Australian novelist Jessica Anderson, is the story of a modern woman's decision to break out of confinement.

12. Work cited • http://www.shmoop.com