{"id":355,"date":"2023-03-31T15:46:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T15:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=355"},"modified":"2023-03-31T15:46:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T15:46:34","slug":"the-kersh-and-skalak-mash-up-extravaganza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/03\/31\/the-kersh-and-skalak-mash-up-extravaganza\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kersh and Skalak Mash-up Extravaganza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prior to the era of Victorian poetry, the genre of medieval romance had flourished in Europe from around the eleventh to the fifteenth century. Having taken several medieval literature classes with Professor Skalak and being somewhat knowledgeable on the subject, I found the parallels between thirteenth century Arthurian romances and Alfred Tennyson\u2019s nineteenth century \u201cThe Lady of Shalott ” especially interesting. Throughout his poem, Tennyson draws on traditional medieval tropes and references famous medieval icons, like Sir Lancelot and Camelot, to critique the subjugation of women in the nineteenth century; framing the narrative of his poem hundreds of years before the time period of his criticism allows Tennyson distance from his otherwise obtuse commentary on the repression of female agency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tennyson establishes the Lady of Shalott\u2019s lack of agency throughout the first three parts of the poem. Despite being the main character of the narrative, the Lady of Shalott, trapped within \u201cfour gray walls, and four gray towers” on a desolate island, remains unnamed and unknown to everyone else; the poem\u2019s narrator rhetorically asks, \u201cwho hath seen her wave her hand?\u201d and \u201cis she known in all the land?\u201d to emphasize the Lady\u2019s isolation and invisibility (134). While she is trapped in the physical space of her tower, she is also trapped emotionally by a curse that prohibits her from directly looking at the outside world. Instead of seeing and interacting with the outside world, the Lady has no choice but to stay in her tower, watch the world through a mirror, and weave. Many traditional medieval romances also employ this \u201cdamsel in distress\u201d (and often trapped in a tower) trope, such as Marie de France\u2019s \u201cYonec\u201d <\/span>and <\/span>Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes\u2019s <\/span>The Knight with the Lion<\/span><\/i>, to depict female helplessness and the necessity of male saviors. By falling under the subjugation of a mystical curse and being characterized similarly to the \u201cdamsel in distress\u201d trope, the Lady of Shalott experiences repression similar to that of women in nineteenth century Europe. In both instances, the women are expected to stay inside, engage in traditionally feminine activities like weaving, and avoid certain social interactions- especially those of a sexual or romantic nature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lady does not remain helpless or without agency for the entire poem, however. Upon observing a knight, Sir Lancelot, through her mirror, the Lady\u2019s intense feelings of attraction compel her to act. Tennyson describes the Lady\u2019s actions in successive order, as \u201cshe left the web\u2026 [and] the loom\u201d, \u201cshe made three paces thro\u2019 the room\u201d, \u201cshe saw the water lily bloom\u2026[and] the helmet and the plume\u201d, and \u201cshe looked down to Camelot\u201d (137). The use of anaphora, through the repetition of the phrases \u201cshe left\u201d, \u201cshe made\u201d, \u201cshe saw\u201d, and \u201cshe looked\u201d, amplifies the verbs that signify the Lady\u2019s actions and agency. Ironically, the Lady only develops this sense of agency in response to a man, and acting upon it triggers her curse and leads to her death. Unlike traditional medieval romances, the Lady of Shalott is not saved by a man or knight and instead attempts to save herself. Her death, then, acts as a punishment for her earlier displays of independent agency. The Lady cannot win- remaining without agency means being unhappily trapped in a tower, but developing agency and leaving the tower leads to her death. Reading \u201cThe Lady of Shalott\u201d as a double poem that criticizes the oppression of nineteenth century women shows the lack of attention given to women\u2019s desires and capabilities, as well as the negative repercussions for challenging these gender norms. <\/span><\/p>\n



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Prior to the era of Victorian poetry, the genre of medieval romance had flourished in Europe from around the eleventh to the fifteenth century. Having taken several medieval literature classes with Professor Skalak and being somewhat knowledgeable on the subject, I found the parallels between thirteenth century Arthurian romances and Alfred Tennyson\u2019s nineteenth century \u201cThe … Continue reading The Kersh and Skalak Mash-up Extravaganza<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4793,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}