The Lady of Shalott

--Alfred Lord Tennyson

05 Marks

1. Describe the background of the poem, "The Lady of Shalott".

Alfred Tennyson enamours us by projecting a beautiful background in "The Lady of Shalott".

There was a river. It has transparent water with light ripples. There are long fields on the both

side of the river. Barley and rye grow on the field. The expansion of Barley and rye had produced

an unearthly beauty of the fields. A road runs through the fields to a many towered city, called

Camelot. There is an island in the river. It is called the island of Shalott. Lilies blow round the

island. The people go through the road and gaze at the island surrounded by lilies. Willow trees

make the place white. There are aspen trees. A few barges are found in the river. The reapers go

there to reap grass or other things in the field. They hear a song that echoes cheerily from the

river. It may be the song of the lady, who dwells at the island. The island had a tower in which

the beautiful lady lives. This is the background of "The Lady of Shalott".

2. What does the lady in the island of Shalott do?

A beautiful lady dwells in the island of Shalott. She sings frequently. She lives there alone. She

never comes out of the tower. She is seen frequently standing at the casement of the tower. There

she weaves a magic web with colour. A whisper says her that a curse is linked to her life. If she

looks down to Camelot, the curse will rain on her. She has no knowledge of the outcome of the

curse. So, she weaves the magic web steadily and so she has little other care. There is a mirror in

the tower. She watches all the activities of the world from the reflections of the mirror. She

cannot watch anything at the physical form. She enjoyed the shadows of the world. Thus she

weaves the magic web. She watched the world's activities from the mirror. She sings alone. She
has made herself accustomed with her solitary existence having no touch of the reverberating

world. She does these things in the island of Shalott.

3. What did the Lady of Shalott watch in the mirror?

The Lady of Shalott observed all the things that usually appear on the glass of the mirror. She

watches that a road has gone to the city of Camelot in a zigzag way. The river flows with light

ripples. Everyday peasants and many market girls go towards Camelot. They go on the road with

their delight of life. Their gestures show their liveliness and the joy of life. Sometimes, she sees

that a priest rides a slow-paced horse. Sometimes she has seen a bevy of happy girls, a curly

shepherd-lad, a boy servant going through the road. Their destination may be the city of

Camelot. Sometimes brave knights are seen riding on the road. When she saw any knight riding

on the road, she felt jealous, hatred to herself because she has no knight who could love her. She

saw funeral procession coming from Camelot. Even she also saw two recently married couple in

the moonlight. Thus she saw the movement of the common people, priest, and knight on the

road. The more she saw them, the more she became distressed because she did not want to watch

their shadow on the mirror. One day she saw Sir Lancelot. Her heart cries for nature. She does

not accept the shadow of life. Rather she desires to watch the real world.

4. Describe the appearance of Sir Lancelot.

Sir Lancelot is a knight. His bold nature and his bravery are well-known to all. He is one of the

star-knights in Arthurian legend. Tennyson has sketched this knight in "The Lady of Shalott".

One day the courageous knight was passing by the island of Shalott. He wore armour and he was

decked with many arms. He had a shield. The shield shows the picture of a red-cross knight who
kneels before a lady to give something. Such pictures produce medieval courtesy. Sir Lancelot's

horse has a bridle. It is studded with gems. The gems have glittering light. The light has equal

glamour just like the stars of the Milky Way. The bridle bells of the horse ring. There is a big

silver bugle hanging from his baldric. The saddle-leather also shines brightly because there are

many jewels. When he rides down to his way to Camelot, he looks like a meteor. Thus the bold

Sir Lancelot appeared.

5. When did the curse fall upon the lady of Shalott and What was the consequence?

The Lady of Shalott saw the gorgeous figure of Sir Lancelot in the mirror. Sir Lancelot appeared

on the road on a chivalric horse. He was singing "Tirra, Lirra'. The lady had been irritated on

watching the shadows of life. She hated those shadows. She wanted to watch and feel the

activities of the world as in their reality. On watching Sir Lancelot she could not restrain herself

and went down. She left the web. She made three paces through the room. She looked down to

Camelot. At this time the curse fell upon the lady of Shalott.

Immediately after her gaze on Camelot, the mirror cracked from side to side. Then she felt that

the curse had fallen upon her, She caught a boat and at the close of the day she disconnected the

chain and the boat moved towards the city of Camelot. On the boat the lady died. As a

consequence we find the crack of the mirror, the vanishing of the magical web and ultimately the

death of the lady of Shalott.

6. What happened at the end of "The Lady of Shalott"?

The lady of Shalott left the mirror and came down. She left the tower and caught a boat. There

was a sudden change in atmosphere. There was a sunny weather but after the entry of the curse's
activity the weather became stormy. There was a possibility of rain. On the prow of the boat she

wrote her name: 'the Lady of Shalott'. The soft-faced damsel has been stricken. Her face had

been hardened. She seemed to be in a trance. She could foresee the coming destruction just like a

fortune-teller. It seems that she lost her sense. At the end of the day she loses the chain of the

boat. The boat flows down to the city of Camelot. She was singing her last song on the boat.

Gradually blood freeze her and her eyes lost its former brightness. The boat reaches to a side of

the river. There is a house by the river side. Then the white robed damsel died. People of the city,

lords and ladies, knights came to watch the body on the boat. There was a merry-making party in

the royal chambers. The party was stopped. The knights cross themselves as a religious custom.

People were telling who this beautiful lady was. Sir Lancelot also came and he meditates that

God may bless the soul of this beautiful lady.

7. "The Lady of Shalott" can be called a "parable concerning the problematic of

mimesis"(Gehard Joseph). Illustrate the quote in reference to the poem mentioned.

Mimesis is a Greek word. It means imitation of the real world in art and literature. Poets watch

the world and imitate the ideas and express them in their magic of language. So, it is a general

supposed assumption that all poets represent the reality in the form of mimesis. Such things have

been presented in the case of the Lady of Shalott. The Lady watched the shadows of the world in

the mirror. So, she did not watch the reality. The Lady could not tolerate this habit of watching

the shadow. She left the tower and died. The problems arise here. It presents the idea that if a

poet leaves the world of shadow or imagination, there is nothing left to him or her. Thus in a

symbolic way the problematic of mimesis has been presented in "The Lady of Shalott”.
8. What does the lady of Shalott symbolize?

In Alfred Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott we get the lady in the island tower of Shalott. The lady

dwells there alone with a curse on her head. She weaves a magic web and observes the world in

the mirror. When she comes out of the tower, she dies. Through these incidents the lady of

Shalottsymbolises the isolation and loneliness of Victorian woman, a poet's journey from the

world of imagination to the world of reality, the secrets of author's creation. In Victorian period

woman were considered as an object of possession. They were confined in home to avoid the

loss of their chastity by mischievous youth. Here the lady of Shalott had been imprisoned in the

tower. The curse is the symbol of patriarchal threat. Being at home the women feels isolated and

solitary. They were not given the scope to watch the world. The Lady's condition is identical.

The lady saw the shadows of the world and weaved them in a magic. This represents her

creation. An artist should remain in the world of imagination. Detachment from the world of

imagination indicates the death of the artist. Detachment means to grasp the world of reality. The

same thing happens with the lady. Ultimately we say that the lady created many things and her

dead body is the symbolic text here and the reader is Sir Lancelot but he does not know how the

lady has created the world of art.

9. Is there any irony in "The Lady of Shalott"? Explain the irony.

"The Lady of Shalott" comprises irony. The ending of the poem carries a bitter irony. The lady of

Shalott left her tower, magic and mirror to watch Sir Lancelot, to hear Lancelot's "Tirra, Lirra",

to watch the burly, bold figure in her own eye's in physical form and lastly to love him. She

knows the condition of her life. Her passionate urge leads her to meet Sir Lancelot. Consequently

she died on a boat that floated down to Camelot. Many people, lords and ladies, knights came to
watch the dead body of the damsel. Sir Lancelot also came there and meditated that the lady was

beautiful. He prayed to God to bless the lady. Here lies the bitter irony. Here Sir Lancelot prays

for the dead damsel but it is Sir Lancelot who is the unwitting cause of her death.