I feel bad for the Lady of
Shalott. The entire story it feels like she just always had it bad for no real
reason. No one knows her, she can’t leave her weaving or interact with the real
world in any way, yet she has a mirror that lets her see what she is missing
out on. I think the mirror poses a very interesting question: If she didn’t
have that mirror she wouldn’t know any better and would live in a sort of
ignorant bliss, weaving because it’s all she’s ever known. So did she need to
have the mirror? Obviously for the story she did, but what about in a different
situation. Is it better to keep someone in the dark to prevent them from pain?
Personally I don’t think so, but that’s the question that popped into my head
as I read this.
While
the story is sad, I also find it very dramatic. The story is driving home a
point, but this girl has never even MET Lancelot and is so hung up that she
curses herself and dies over this man in a mirror. Love at first sight is
something I understand, that’s a very common occurrence in stories. I’ve even
watched it happen in real life. But to die… that’s a whole new level. Lancelot
never saw her, never knew her, yet she died over him. This wasn’t protecting
someone you love, or sacrificing yourself for them. No, to me her death was
because she decided her life that she had been living wasn’t worth living
anymore. Lancelot was merely the tipping point.
To
want a new life and to throw your old one away is a feeling that I think many
people have and can relate to. This story is dramatic because it’s a metaphor
for lost love, for the ones that got away. I don’t know if I can agree that
death should ever be an escape, but I do understand that life can feel
unbearable sometimes. For the Lady of Shalott there could be no light at the
end of the tunnel, but I’d hope for anyone reading this that they know for
people that aren’t cursed there is always a light, you just don’t always know
when it’s going to shine.
I think that this story was very interesting. There were so many things that made me stop and think, and I think that the point of writing something is to make your audience feel something. I definitely think this did.
ReplyDeleteI like your points on the dramatics of the poem and how the Lady of Shalott wanted to start over by leaving the tower. I personally viewed it as her wanting to chance the fates and break free of the destiny that had chained her to the tower. So I suppose starting fresh is a summary of what I was thinking too.
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