The Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott

• The Lady of Shalott is a
poem written by Alfred Lord
Tennyson.
• The Lady is thought to be
loosely based on Elaine of
Astolat.
• Tennyson claims that the
poem was based on an
Italian novelette Donna di
Scalotta, but there are
details in the poem not
present in the novelette.
This is one of Tennyson's most
popular poems.

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.

Tirra Lirra by the River, by

Australian novelist Jessica Lord Alfred Tennyson
Anderson, is the story of a modern was just 20 years old
woman's decision to break out of when he wrote this
confinement. poem.
The Story
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.
 Themes
1. Some think that "The Lady of Shalott" is a representative of
the dilemma that faces artists, writers, and musicians: to create work
about and celebrate the world, or to enjoy the world by simply living
in it.

2. Feminist critics see the poem as concerned with issues of women's

sexuality and their place in the Victorian world.

3. Critics such as Hatfield have suggested that The Lady of Shalott is a

representation of how Tennyson viewed society; the distance at which
other people are in the lady's eyes is symbolic of the distance he feels
from society. And the fact that she only sees them through a window
pane is significant of the way in which Shalott and Tennyson see the
world—in a filtered sense.
 In celebration of the 2009 bicentenary of the
birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
WAG Screen made a short, filmed
dramatisation of his poem The Lady of Shalott
to be shown at The Collection, Lincoln.
Inspiration for the visual imagery came from
the many Pre-Raphaelite paintings that the
poem inspired, but most especially the
paintings of the artist John William
Waterhouse.