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The Lady Of Shalott Essay

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Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott is a ballad involving a young woman who wishes to break free of her restricting lifestyle. With her curse she continues to weave the images from her mirror, only stopping when she sees Sir Lancelot and decides to confess her love. Ultimately, her goal was left unfulfilled as she dies while moving towards Camelot and is only remembered as a very pretty woman. Why would Tennyson write a ballad about the Lady, a character whose real name we never learn? Would her name have even made a difference since her life ends before she can do what she truly wished to? By looking into Tennyson's characters and his use of symbols throughout the poem, the reader is able to see just how similar the life of the Lady …show more content…

Within the ballad the mirror takes on two forms: Both complete and cracked. If the mirror is compared to men and their relationship with women, things begin to fall into place. The mirror itself is what allows the Lady to see the “shadows” though it does not allow for her to experience them herself (Tennyson l. 48). Women had to live vicariously through their husbands or loved ones, not experiencing the moments but simply admiring them from afar. They only knew the knowledge that their husbands would share, essentially making them “mirror images” of their husbands. Once the Lady rejects the mirror’s images in favor of her own sight, it cracks. If a woman were to force her way into the world and experience situations without her husband’s knowledge, this would cause a shift in their relationship and end horribly for the women. They would have to try and maintain their dignity, but he men might label them as untrusting and selfish.The fight or separation in a relationship would be the “crack” in a real world situation. While the women may not have faced dying a physical death as The Lady did: they would have faced dying a social or even financial

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