To conclude the poem of Tennyson’s “Lady
of Shalott”, I would just like to follow up with just a few more thoughts
before moving on to the “Idylls of the King”.
When it comes to the lady looking down the stream into Camelot, I knew
it wouldn’t be a smooth sail into the town when the comparison “Like some bold
seer in a trance, seeing all his own mischance- With a glassy countenance did
she look to Camelot”. After finding out
that ‘mischance’ basically meant bad luck, I knew things were not going to end
well for this lady. Like we discussed in
class, I agree that dying from your blood freezing would definitely be a
terrible way to go, but at least she was singing up to that point and supposedly
died without pain. I don’t think I’d
sing knowing that my body was going to end up lifeless in some town I’ve never
been to. As for the townsfolk of Camelot
“crossing” themselves for fear, I would also be frightened to see a dead woman’s
body flowing down a stream. It would
definitely add more hype had these townsfolk assume that the grim spectacle to
be an “omen” as we had discussed. Lastly
I would just like to say that I stand to my comment made earlier during class
which was my theory as to how Tennyson portrayed Lancelot as the bravest of the
other fear-stricken knights because he was brave enough to say something
positive about the “unknown” lady.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Atkinson_Grimshaw_-_%22The_Lady_of_Shalott%22_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg |
I thought this photo representation
of the Lady of Shalott by John Atkinson Grimshaw was pretty spot on and was the
exact what I had imagined when reading the poem. The white robe that she was wearing and how
it looks like she is pale from her frozen blood paints a perfect image.
J.H
I partially believe that once you know you're about to pass, you go into a state of mind of being calm (depending on the way you're dying). After all, it's not like it will matter because you will be dead. The singing may have been a way for her to keep herself calm and looking forward to heading to the afterlife.
ReplyDeletePerhaps she was singing her own requiem. Maybe it was a song of freedom.
DeleteI also think she was calm knowing she was going to die because back then they had a very strong belief in God and Heaven and felt that they would live on in the next life. but i do think that it would not be a fun way to die from your blood freezing.
ReplyDeleteWhen people die from hypothermia/cold they become tired and fall asleep. Pretty peaceful...
DeleteMaybe if she had known she was going to die when she got up to look out the window, does anyone think she would she have tried to sit back down? Or was looking at Lancelot worth dying over?
ReplyDelete