Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott"
The term "Naturalism" has been utilized in many ways by numerous writers and poets since its introduction in the mid to late 19th century, especially in England and France. Basically, naturalism can be defined as a literary movement which placed human beings in situations similar to that experienced by other living things in the natural world, controlled primarily by the environment and internal emotional conditions, both of which are beyond the control or comprehension of the individual. In contrast, Romanticism relied heavily on aspects of the natural world which could be controlled and manipulated by man while also demonstrating elements of the supernatural world. In his beautiful poem "The Lady of Shalott," first published in 1833, Tennyson has skillfully combined elements of naturalism and romanticism, mainly through its construction, beginning with a description of the natural world in Part One, the portrayal of the Lady isolated in her ghostly and enchanted room in Part Two and the suffering reality of the true worl
d in Part Three as she searches for Lancelot and beyond to the towers of Camelot. All of these poetical images create powerful emotional states in the reader, yet it is clear that Tennyson was relying mostly on Naturalism in order to express the tension between creativity and social allegiance and the conflict between privacy and social involvement. the lilies blow"), Tennyson makes it clear that her confinement has not allowed anyone to see her ("But who hath seen her wave her hand?/Or at the casement seen her stand?), an indication that the Lady is a prisoner in the "grey towers" and has no control over her situation, a reflection of her inability to live in the world that she so desperately wishes to enter. The mysterious nature of "The Lady of Shalott" seems to revolve around the tapestry and the Lady, due to her life in the grey towers being a reflection of the images she had woven together in the tapestry. Certainly, her death at the end of the poem symbolizes her inability to interact with the natural world outsid
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Approximate Word count = 695
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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