King Arthur and Camelot
To Tennyson, King Arthur symbolizes the ideal man, and
Arthurian England was England in its best and purest form. Some
of Tennyson’s earliest poems, such as “The Lady of Shalott,” were
set in King Arthur’s time. Indeed, Tennyson rhymes Camelot,
the name of King Arthur’s estate, with Shalott in
eighteen of the poem’s twenty stanzas, thereby emphasizing the importance
of the mythical place. Furthermore, our contemporary conception
of Camelot as harmonious and magnificent comes from Tennyson’s poem. Idylls
of the King, about King Arthur’s rise and fall, was one
of the major projects of Tennyson’s late career. Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert envisioned themselves as latter-day descendents
of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their praise helped
popularize the long poem. But King Arthur also had a more personal representation
to Tennyson: the mythic king represents a version of his friend
Arthur Henry Hallam, whose death at twenty-two profoundly affected
Tennyson. Hallam’s death destroyed his potential and promise, which
allowed Tennyson to idealize Hallam. This idealization allows Tennyson
to imagine what might have been in the best possible light, much
as he does when describing King Arthur and his court.
The Imprisoned Woman
The imprisoned woman appears throughout Tennyson’s work.
In “Mariana,” a woman abandoned by her lover lives alone in her
house in the middle of desolate country; her isolation imprisons
her, as does the way she waits for her lover to return. Her waiting
limits her ability and desire to do anything else. “The Lady of Shalott”
is likewise about a woman imprisoned, this time in a tower. Should
she leave her prison, a curse would fall upon her. Tennyson, like
many other Victorian poets, used female characters to symbolize
the artistic and sensitive aspects of the human condition. Imprisoned
women, such as these Tennyson characters, act as symbols for
the isolation experienced by the artist and other sensitive, deep-feeling
people. Although society might force creative, sensitive types to
become outcasts, in Tennyson’s poems, the women themselves create
their own isolation and imprisonment. These women seem unable or
unwilling to deal with the outside world.
