The Lady of Shallot – Alfred Lord Tennyson

by helen608

These paintings are from the Pre Raphaelite movement, they all depict the Lady of Shalott from Tennyson’s poem. The basic story the poem tells is of a lady imprisoned in a tower under a curse which forbids her from leaving or even looking out the window.  Having seen the handsome Sir Lancelot reflected from outside in the mirror she has, and deciding she is “half sick of shadows” , she disregards the curse and abandons her cell. Finding a boat on the river she floats in the direction of Camelot and the knight she hopes will fall in love with her.

Unfortunately by the time she reaches her destination she has died, the threat of the curse fullfilled. The people of Camelot find her and when Lancelot sees her he simply says  “She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace.”

The Lady of Shalott exists in entrapment yet she does so almost contentedly, if a little bored. She has no real desires or particular thoughts until she sees Lancelot and decides on a whim to pursue her love. She dies having never seen met him and becomes simply a “lovely face”. By painting their models as this character, the Pre Raphaelites have hidden the individuality of the models within this shell of a lady.