The Reconciliation of Religion and Science
Tennyson lived during a period of great scientific advancement,
and he used his poetry to work out the conflict between religious
faith and scientific discoveries. Notable scientific findings and
theories of the Victorian period include stratigraphy, the geological
study of rock layers used to date the earth, in 1811;
the first sighting of an asteroid in 1801 and
galaxies in the 1840s; and Darwin’s theory
of evolution and natural selection in 1859.
In the second half of the century, scientists, such as Fülöp Semmelweis,
Joseph Lister, and Louis Pasteur, began the experiments and work
that would eventually lead to germ theory and our modern understanding
of microorganisms and diseases. These discoveries challenged traditional
religious understandings of nature and natural history.
For most of his career, Tennyson was deeply interested
in and troubled by these discoveries. His poem “Locksley Hall” (1842)
expresses his ambivalence about technology and scientific progress.
There the speaker feels tempted to abandon modern civilization
and return to a savage life in the jungle. In the end, he chooses to
live a civilized, modern life and enthusiastically endorses technology. In
Memoriam connects the despair Tennyson felt over the loss
of his friend Arthur Hallam and the despair he felt when contemplating
a godless world. In the end, the poem affirms both religious faith
and faith in human progress. Nevertheless, Tennyson continued to
struggle with the reconciliation of science and religion, as illustrated
by some of his later work. For example, “Locksley Hall Sixty Years
After” (1886) takes as its protagonist the
speaker from the original “Locksley Hall,” but now he is an old
man, who looks back on his youthful optimism and faith in progress with
scorn and skepticism.
The Virtues of Perseverance and Optimism
After the death of his friend Arthur Hallam, Tennyson
struggled through a period of deep despair, which he eventually
overcame to begin writing again. During his time of mourning, Tennyson
rarely wrote and, for many years, battled alcoholism. Many of his
poems are about the temptation to give up and fall prey to pessimism,
but they also extol the virtues of optimism and discuss the importance
of struggling on with life. The need to persevere and continue is
the central theme of In Memoriam and “Ulysses”
(1833), both written after Hallam’s death.
Perhaps because of Tennyson’s gloomy and tragic childhood, perseverance
and optimism also appear in poetry written before Hallam’s death,
such as “The Lotos-Eaters” (1832, 1842).
Poems such as “The Lady of Shalott” (1832, 1842)
and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854)
also vary this theme: both poems glorify characters who embrace
their destinies in life, even though those destinies end in tragic
death. The Lady of Shalott leaves her seclusion to meet the outer
world, determined to seek the love that is missing in her life.
The cavalrymen in “The Charge of the Light Brigade” keep charging
through the valley toward the Russian cannons; they persevere even
as they realize that they will likely die.
The Glory of England
Tennyson used his poetry to express his love for England.
Although he expressed worry and concern about the corruption that
so dominated the nineteenth century, he also wrote many poems that
glorify nineteenth-century England. “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
praises the fortitude and courage of English soldiers during a battle
of the Crimean War in which roughly 200 men
were killed. As poet laureate, Tennyson was required to write poems
for specific state occasions and to dedicate verse to Queen Victoria
and her husband, Prince Albert. Nevertheless, Tennyson praised England
even when not specifically required to do so. In the Idylls
of the King, Tennyson glorified England by encouraging
a collective English cultural identity: all of England could take
pride in Camelot, particularly the chivalrous and capable knights
who lived there. Indeed, the modern conception of Camelot as the
source of loyalty, chivalry, and romance comes, in part, from Tennyson’s
descriptions of it in the Idylls of the King and
“The Lady of Shalott.”
