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Women in Victorian England

Tennyson lived during the Victorian period, which was a time of massive economic growth and societal change in England. As industrialization churned on into the nineteenth century and people flocked from the country to the city, British urban centers became crowded and subject to poverty and disease. Even so, working-class people enjoyed expanded voting and labor rights and an overall increase in their standards of living. Women both did and did not benefit from these economic and social shifts. Even though many aspects of daily life were changing, Victorian society remained conservative and patriarchal. Men—whether fathers, husbands, uncles, or brothers—continued to exert control over women’s lives. As such, a woman’s mobility remained highly circumscribed and mostly constrained to the domestic sphere. This constraint on women’s agency reflected deep-rooted moral conventions that expected women to uphold traditional values such as humility, purity, and service. When women failed to uphold these values, they were liable to be punished, often through violence that intended to bring them back under male control. Tennyson understood the dynamics of Victorian morality, and he brought this understanding to the tragic tale of the Lady of Shalott, who’s cursed to die for her desire.

Arthurian Legend

The phrase Arthurian legend refers to a body of stories and romances about King Arthur and his famous Knights of the Round Table. According to medieval tradition, Arthur reigned as the king of England in the period after Roman rule. With the help of a motley crew of knights, he helped unify the land, shaping it into something like the nation that still exists today. The stories associated with the Arthurian tradition tell of a wide variety of magical quests and fleshly intrigues. Most famous is the adulterous love affair between Sir Lancelot and King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere, which brought about the legendary king’s ruin. Though penned by a variety of authors in both English and French, the most important English-language source is Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, written in the fifteenth century. Many later adaptations have appeared, often reframing the politics of King Arthur’s court to address contemporary issues. Tennyson had a deep fascination with Arthurian legend, and he composed numerous adaptations of stories from this tradition. Aside from his important cycle of twelve poems known collectively as Idylls of the King (1859–1885), “The Lady of Shalott” is his best-known adaptation of an Arthurian tale.

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