Thomas Albert
Professor Glanville
English Lit II
March 04, 2015

Reader Response: Victorian Age and the Female Role

The female role within the Victorian era formed a feminist movement in women working towards more rights in gaining independence from the home. In “The Lady of Shalott” by Tennyson, we see a portrait formed by words of a woman trying to break free of imprisonment to gain her independence in finding love. In Tennyson’s “Mariana”, we are given a look into the isolated life of a female during the Victorian Age. In A Letter to the Queen, Caroline Norton addresses the need in reforming English law in Parliament to prevent the further suffrage of women regarding their legal independence. In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”, we are given examples of the state of mind regarding the roles of women during the Victorian era. In relation to confinement to the home we are given allusions to confinement within the poem. Shalott (the island) represents a prison in comparison to the confinement of women to the domesticity of home life. “And the silent isle imbowers” (17) shows perhaps a prison or a form of escape from the lady’s reality (shelter). In lines 38 and 39 we are given, “A charmed web she weaves away/A curse is on her, if she stay”, a web can also be a form of imprisonment for the weaker prey. “Beside remote Shalott” also proposes a sense of loneliness which can signify the oppression of women during this time period. In Tennyson’s “Mariana”, we are also given examples of loneliness and despair. These themes can be expressive of the domestic role many women felt during the 1800’s. The poem shows a women who has been abandoned by her lover and shows her forlornness with. “My life is dreary”