English 2033E Lecture : The Lady of Shalott - Tennyson
16 Apr 2014
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Document Summary
Natural world portrayed as prosperous, fertile, unified, harmonious, beautiful in first lines. World outside tower contrasted with world inside the tower isolation/stasis vs. movement/community in camelot as center of activity. Desire to move from isolation to integration, connect to community. She"s embowered/contained by the towers, the island, and the river. Desire to make herself known, express her identity at first mysterious and unknown. Tower as domestic space (and expectations associated with it) and woman escapes into public sphere question of women at the time. A curse overhangs her if she doesn"t behave in the way she is supposed to. She can"t look directly at things; must look at them through her mirror. Similarities to eve in prohibitions placed on her behaviour, then she is cast out. Curse as social prohibition designed to keep this woman (and women) in her place in the domestic sphere and punishes her if she oversteps that space.
