{"id":390,"date":"2023-04-01T04:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T04:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/?p=390"},"modified":"2023-04-01T04:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T04:00:04","slug":"the-labor-movement-of-shalott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/2023\/04\/01\/the-labor-movement-of-shalott\/","title":{"rendered":"The Labor Movement of Shalott"},"content":{"rendered":"

Typical readings of Tennyson\u2019s \u201cThe Lady of Shalott\u201d explore the depiction of female sexuality. I would like to offer an alternate interpretation: \u201cThe Lady of Shalott\u201d as a double poem criticizing factory labor.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first section of the poem, Tennyson\u2019s description of the island of Shalott evokes a nineteenth-century factory as much as it does a castle. The very first description of the building itself is thus: \u201cFour gray walls, and four gray towers\u201d (line 15); this monochromatic, monotonous description is especially jarring given the surrounding lines are laden with natural images. Her castle seems out of place and imposed on the environment. Even its location beside a river recalls the real-world mills which derived their power from running water.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lady\u2019s curse bears an equal resemblance to factory work. \u201cNo time hath she to sport and play,\u201d Tennyson writes (line 37), for her labor occupies her life. \u201cNo other care hath she\u201d (line 44). She is entirely consumed by her weaving. Her actions as well as her home evoke the life of a textile worker.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that she is not allowed to gaze directly upon Camelot recalls more generally the political situation of the nineteenth-century working class, who were shut out of direct representation in politics. She is only able to see the seat of political power through a mediating mirror. Her eventual decision to reject this subjugation ends in disaster: she loses her life in a one-woman revolution. Just as for real-world industrial workers, her choice is to do the work available or to die.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it must be noted: the feminist and Marxist interpretations of this poem need not be separate. The poem in fact becomes a much stronger political statement if gender and politics are considered in tandem. After all, industrial labor often made explicit steps to suppress women\u2019s sexuality so as to produce more devoted workers. (For a relevant fiction treatment of this topic, I would recommend \u201cThe Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids\u201d by Herman Melville.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Typical readings of Tennyson\u2019s \u201cThe Lady of Shalott\u201d explore the depiction of female sexuality. I would like to offer an alternate interpretation: \u201cThe Lady of Shalott\u201d as a double poem criticizing factory labor. In the first section of the poem, Tennyson\u2019s description of the island of Shalott evokes a nineteenth-century factory as much as it … Continue reading The Labor Movement of Shalott<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","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\/5133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}