Lady Shallot and Her Nature in the Men's Fence; An Interdisciplinary Approach to Tennyson’s Poetry and Waterhouse Paintings

Abstract

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot” is the portrayal of a woman’s active confrontation with the patriarchal society. By the woman’s seclusion from the social interactions, Tennyson debunks the bitter reality embedded within the social structure and by the lady’s manifestation of bravery in her social activism so as to prove her individuality, he depicts the annihilation of the woman in revolting against patriarchy. Parallel to the subjugation of femininity in the poem, ecology shows a pattern of tranquility and chaos through which masculine cultural codes reveal themselves. John William Waterhouse, a contemporary painter with Tennyson, has portrayed three suggestive scenes of the poem; how he portrays femininity and nature is the manifestation of patriarchal manipulation of the two aforementioned concepts. In congruence with the mentioned analysis, ecofeminism, by attributing resemblances to femininity and ecology, aims to divulge the patriarchal injustice inflicted upon them; by giving awareness about the rights of women and nature, it tries to rehabilitate their genuine identity. With the application of ecofeminism on Tennyson’s poem and Waterhouse’s paintings, with an interdisciplinary approach, the author discloses the patriarchal subordination of women and nature. I do hope that by the ecofeminist reading of “The Lady of Shallot” and its projected paintings, the authentic rights of femininity and ecology are defended, the importance of interdisciplinary studies is highlighted and the awareness about the original identity of these concepts is created.