THE LADY OF SHALOTT

I'm going to analyse an extract (Part II) taken from Alfred Lord Tennyson's narrative poem The Lady of Shalott.

Right from the title you can notice the presence of the word "lady" which refers to a refined woman. You can understand that she may be the protagonist of the poem.

The extract is organized into 4 stanzas.

In the first stanza there is the introduction of the protagonist: a woman is confined in a tower and weaves a magic web without stopping and she cannot look outside the exterior world because she is under a mysterious curse. In the first stanza you can see the word Camelot which is a relevant space reference: Camelot is the legendary capital of King Arthur's kingdom so that the poem is set in Medieval times.

In the second stanza the poet explains that the lady can see the world only trough a mirror which captures the images of what happens outside her window. But she can see only shadows of the world. You can understand that the lady stays in an island's castle because she can see the bridge that connects the island with Camelot. The woman can look at the river and at the people of the village.

In the third stanza there is a more detailed description of what she can see: a troop of damsels, an abbot and the knights.

In the last stanza you can understand that the lady can also hear music that comes from Camelot and she can see two young lovers lately wed. At the end she says sadly "I am half sick of shadows": it means that she is condemned in this terrible situation but she cannot do anything.

The poet uses a lot of devices on the phonological level: rhythm, the rhyme pattern and alliteration. There is also the repetition of the same construction in the last line of each stanza "The Lady of Shalott".

The most important themes are:

1)The condition of women in Victorian society = they are secluded in their homes and have to focus their attention on family

2)The position of the artist in Victorian society = there is a distance between poets and society

3)Isolation