This poem reveals the consequences of this ideal and its destructive nature to a woman’s wellbeing. Her seclusion from the world and lack of socialization shows a more radical version of a proper Victorian woman: an “angel of the house.” The ideal woman was passive, meek, and had a preference to a life restricted to the confines of the home (Aihong 2061). The Lady is extremely isolated from the world outside of her tower, and to some extent even disconnected from the reader, as her name is never revealed in the poem. She is only known by those who hear her singing in the early morning hours or late at night. This contrast between outside and inside gives the reader a sense of her loneliness. The poem describes a lively and colorful scene outside, but the Lady is trapped in “four gray walls, four towers” (Tennyson lines 15-16).
The poem can then reasonably be read through the lens of “the woman question.” William Maw Egley. The poem itself, as well as its initial reception, inadvertently exposes the inequality of men and woman and gendered prejudices of the Victorian era. The poem is told from a man’s point of view, rather than a woman’s such as the Lady of Shalott, the titular character (Haluk 48). This poem was often read as an artist’s struggle, specifically Tennyson’s and through a gendered lens. She floats down the river in a boat, on which she writes “The Lady of Shalott,” and then dies. When she sees Sir Lancelot in her mirror, she is compelled to leave her loom, awakening the curse. She spends her days and nights weaving, only able to see the outside world through her mirror. “The Lady of Shalott,” written by Alfred Lord Tennyson originally published in 1832 but revised in 1842, is a poem about a woman who is trapped in a tower by an unknown curse.
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