The Lady of Shalott: Themes

The Pain of Isolation

The events recounted in “The Lady of Shalott” arguably happen because of the title character’s profound and painful sense of isolation. Her isolation is at once geographical, architectural, and social. It’s geographical in the sense that she lives on an inaccessible island in the middle of a river, but in eyeshot of Camelot. The Lady’s isolation is architectural in the sense that she’s confined to a structure the speaker describes as being just “four gray walls, and four gray towers” (line 15). Though the reference to towers may suggest the grandeur of a castle, it’s clear that this structure is quite small. So small, in fact, that when she gets up from her loom at the end of Part III, it only takes her “three paces” (line 110) to cross the entire room. Then there is the social isolation. Although many people pass by along the road that runs parallel to the river, nobody aside from agricultural laborers have cause to cross over. Furthermore, the only way she can see outside is through the mirror above her loom. Only able to interact with “shadows of the world” (line 48), the Lady grows increasingly frustrated.

The Satisfaction and Sacrifice of Artmaking

Although the Lady’s isolation is painful for her, it also affords her the time and space to master her craft as a weaver. She spends both “night and day” (line 37) at her loom, weaving an artful tapestry that illustrates scenes from the outside world, which she sees reflected in the crystal mirror set up above her loom. Her isolation enables the focus required to make such a “magic web with colours gay” (line 38). It’s important to underscore the satisfaction the Lady derives from the act of artmaking. The speaker acknowledges this satisfaction by indicating how much she enjoys the work, insisting that, “But in her web she still delights/To weave the mirror’s magic sights” (lines 64–65). Yet the intricate work of her weaving also comes at the cost of her confinement. Thus, even as she has the time and space to work in peace, her isolation must also be understood as a sacrifice. When her lengthy quarantine from the outside world leads to frustration, the Lady accidentally activates the curse that leads to her death.

The Danger of Unexpressed Desire

The frustration the Lady of Shalott feels due to her isolation makes her vulnerable to the dangerous intensity of unexpressed desire. What makes this desire particularly dangerous is that the Lady doesn’t seem fully aware of it until it washes over her all at once. As the speaker describes in Part II, the Lady does little more in her confinement than apply herself to the craft of weaving “by night and day” (line 37). Amidst this tireless work, she directs her attention to the mirror hanging above her loom, where she can see partial reflections of what’s going on outside her window. Weary of work and distracted by the world, the Lady spends minimal time contemplating her frustrated desire for a fuller life. It’s only when she sees a moonlit vision of “two young lovers lately wed” (line 70) that she finally acknowledges her frustration, saying, “I am half sick of shadows” (line 71). This latent, yet not fully-expressed desire for a romance of her own explains the intensity of her reaction when she sees Sir Lancelot. It’s this intensity that causes her to leave her loom, look to Camelot, and bring down the curse that ultimately kills her.

The Incarceration of Female Desire

One purpose of the Lady of Shalott’s confinement is to incarcerate her desire. The key to understanding this theme is the mysterious curse that the speaker introduces in Part II (lines 37–41):

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
      To look down to Camelot.

Yoked to her loom, the Lady weaves tirelessly. Though she “still delights” (line 64) in this work, she also labors as a way of avoiding the enigmatic curse that forbids her from looking toward Camelot. King Arthur’s court is a symbolically masculine place, famously populated by valiant knights. The speaker subtly references this symbolism by referring to the king’s court with crude suggestiveness, as “many-tower’d Camelot” (line 5). Understood in this way, it’s forbidden for the Lady to look toward Camelot since it would represent an explicit desire. This idea is confirmed when the arrival of handsome Sir Lancelot causes her to look to Camelot and activate the curse. Her draw to Lancelot is undeniably sensual, as indicated by the suggestive juxtaposition of lines 111–112:

She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume

The blooming water-lily symbolizes the Lady’s awakening sexuality, activated by the vision of Lancelot and his masculine regalia. This pair of moments then leads her to look toward Camelot, thereby activating the curse that will kill her. Seen in this light, the curse must be interpreted as punishment for her having an active desire.

Previous section Setting Next section Motifs