The Lady Of Shalott

Part 1 of “The Lady of Shalott” serves mainly as exposition, establishing the poem’s setting and imagery, and introducing the title character. While the poem’s principal themes do not center around natural beauty or rural life, Part 1 makes use of descriptive language typical of contemporary pastoral poetry: “the yellow-leaved waterlily / The green-sheathed daffodilly” (Lines 6-7). The reaper, another symbol of simple, pastoral life, hears the Lady of Shalott singing while he works all day but knows little about her. The reader is thus introduced in Part 1 to one of the poem’s central concepts: the separation between the Lady of Shalott and the people of the world. This separation comes to serve several themes, including the artists’ role in society and the association of purity and innocence with femininity. Tennyson also emphasizes the motion of the landscape around Shalott; trees “shiver,” and the stream “runneth over” (Line 12). This descriptive language contrasts the solitary castle of Shalott with the flow of life outside of it and establishes the poem’s setting in a medieval, Arthurian world that is infiltrated by supernatural forces.

The conditions of her isolation are further developed in Part 2. While the source of her curse is unknown to both the Lady of Shalott and the reader, it is established that she must never stop weaving, that she cannot “look down to Camelot” (Line 41), and that her only connections to the outside world are the sounds she hears, and the reflection she sees in a mirror that hangs in front of her. The Lady of Shalott’s lonely confinement contrasts with the language of movement and openness that describes the surrounding territory. All kinds of people pass by along the road, but the Lady of Shalott is stationary in her castle. Tennyson describes her mood with some variation. The sixth stanza begins: “she lives with little joy or fear” (Line 46), as “no other care hath she” (Line 44) than her daily weaving. The eighth stanza begins with the claim that “in her web she still delights” (Line 64), but it ends with a pointed expression of boredom and frustration: “I am half sick of shadows” (Line 71). Here, the shadows refer both to the reflection she sees in the mirror and to her life in the tower, unknown to the outside world, cloaked in shadows. The Lady of Shalott finds the mirror image to be a poor substitute for reality and desires something more.

Sir Lancelot, who is described in the first four stanzas of Part 3, embodies all these desires. Tennyson’s long description of Lancelot’s appearance emphasizes the Lady of Shalott’s interest in him and contrasts his grounded, bold, masculinity with her shrouded, ethereal femininity. In contrast with her confinement, Lancelot is allowed to travel freely, and Tennyson’s verse underscores his movement and freedom, along with his appearance: “he rode between the barley-sheaves… the gemmy bridle glitter’d free” (Lines 73, 82). Lancelot’s stanzas also raise questions about the narrator’s perspective. The poem is titled “The Lady of Shalott,” but the extent to which Lancelot is described exceeds her limited view in the mirror. The reader might assume, then, the narrator’s omniscience, or conversely, that Lancelot’s dazzling image is partially a concoction of the Lady of Shalott’s imagination. Despite Lancelot’s colorful depiction, it is the combination of his image with his voice, singing “Tirra lirra, tirra lirra” (Line 107), that compels the Lady of Shalott to forego her restrictions and break her curse. The narrative comes to a climax in the 13th stanza, when the Lady of Shalott leaves her loom and looks “down to Camelot” (Line 112). The curse is immediately broken, and everything changes: the web is ruined, the mirror cracks, and she knows immediately that the curse has been enacted. This moment emphasizes the intense gravity of the Lady of Shalott’s decision. She knew exactly what would happen, but she went to the window anyway.

Part 4 clearly demarks this swift shift in mood and imagery. The beautiful, pastoral landscape described in the preceding stanzas is replaced with “the stormy east-wind straining, / the pale yellow woods… waning,” and “the broad stream in his banks complaining” (Lines 117-19). The Lady of Shalott’s personal mood has changed as well. Described earlier in the poem as peacefully content, she is now characterized by her “steady stony glance” and “glassy countenance” (Lines 135, 138). In the 15th stanza, she disconnects the boat’s chain, representing her simultaneous freedom and sealed fate. This paradox is drawn out over the next few stanzas; the Lady of Shalott finally experiences freedom and movement as she floats down the river, but she is barely alive to enjoy it. Nevertheless, the letter discovered on her person affirms her decision, despite its fatal consequences. The lines “draw near and fear not, —this is I, / The Lady of Shalott” (Line 180), written as she is dying, imply that the price of death is worth what she gains: her moment of freedom and agency, and the fact that her existence, while still mysterious, is finally acknowledged and proven to others.

The poem’s alternate 1842 ending does not include this letter. Instead, the townspeople crowd around but are afraid of the body of the Lady of Shalott. Lancelot asks for “a little space” (Line 168), calls her pretty, and says a short, perfunctory prayer. Lancelot, who made such a deep, emotional impression on the Lady of Shalott, gives a dispassionate benediction, and the reader is left to consider the Lady of Shalott’s decision and to what degree her solitary condition was ever truly broken.