The Art Movement Most Closely Related to the Lady of Shalott Is the

ennyson taught the Pre-Raphaelites to use woman every bit a metaphor for the artist's soul ii poems — "The Lady of Shalott" (text; 1832, revised 1842) and "The Palace of Art" (text; 1832, revised 1842) that influenced the Pre-Raphaelites. Both poems deal with the conflict between interiority and exteriority, a mutual concern for artists who consider their work to be an expression of their soul that gets sent out into the greater earth. As Lorenz Eitner explains in her article, "The Open Window and the Tempest-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism," newly personal themes for art made it even more difficult for Victorian artists to experience their piece of work linked to society: "Every bit artists endeavored to limited individual meanings, rather than broadly shared ideas, they found it difficult to maintain bear on with their public" (282). Tennyson examines this problem in "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Palace of Art." In these works, female allegorical figures representing the artistic soul are confined in elaborate symbolic spaces. These structures are ultimately abandoned or destroyed, representing a failure to reconcile a secluded interior life of art with society at big. Though the poems are similar in theme and structure, each leads to a dissimilar conclusion about the role of the artist and the relationship between the aesthetic soul and society.

In "The Lady of Shalott," the titular lady lives on a secluded isle in a space enclosed by "iv greyness walls" (Tennyson 50. 15). Forbidden by some power to interact with — or even look at — the exterior world, she passes the fourth dimension by looking at her mirror, which shows all those who laissez passer by her enclosure. The Lady spends her days weaving a swell tapestry of what she sees. Information technology is described equally a "web with colours gay" (l. 38). This artistic creation serves to ally the Lady with the artistic temperament. She becomes a metaphor for the soul of the artist.

In the verse form, when the lady defies her role and turns outward, looking out the window and seeing the knight Lancelot, her carefully synthetic interior space falls apart. Tennyson writes, "Out flew the spider web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side" (ll. 14-15). Once the lady has connected straight with the outside world, her piece of work of fine art is irreparably compromised. This perhaps represents the style the exterior world compromises the artistic output of a soul. This poem represents a very anxious and pessimistic view of the disharmonize betwixt the inner life of the artist and the influence of the external world. When the creative soul, represented by the Lady of Shalott, remains separated from society, the production of art is unfettered and successful. When the outside world enters in, fine art suffers or even becomes impossible — the weaving tools are cleaved or scattered. Contact with society is also damaging and peradventure mortiferous to this soul. The verse form ends with the death of the Lady. Tennyson seems to imply that interiority and exteriority cannot be reconciled for the sensitive creative person. In "The Palace of Art," the poet presents a different perspective on this conflict, over again through apologue.

In "The Palace of Fine art," a female person figure, referred to as the "soul," inhabits an elaborate mansion. Each room inside represents an exquisite example of some artistic technique or fashion. Altogether a splendorous variety of art is on display, from "every landscape fair, As fit for every mood of mind to "choice paintings of wise men." As in "The Lady of Shalott," the female character in this poem is secluded and enclosed by her creative environment. She sits in "God-similar isolation" in contact just with the beautiful attributes of the palace the narrator has constructed for her. At showtime, there is nothing to disturb the conscience of the "soul." As James Kincaid explains, "the palace stands finally as a symbol of the life of imagination, its ability to integrate and residuum." The soul "can thrive only insofar equally its distance from social concerns is marked and definite. Just to the extent that the demands of the archaic self are met, the demands of social being are ignored."

However, the poem eventually shifts in tone, as God admonishes the soul for her solitude and distance from humanity. The charms of the palace become menacing and finally the soul quits her fortress of aestheticism for "a cottage in the vale." There is no destruction in this verse form, as there is in "The Lady of Shalott," but a judgment is expressed. The creative soul cannot concern herself only with aesthetics, ignoring society. Some morally defensible balance must be formed between art for art's sake and art with moral purpose.

In these works, Tennyson expresses his concern with questions near the inner spirit of an artist. Through elaborately constructed and beautiful allegories, the poet experiments with two dissimilar ways of defining the relationship between interiority and exteriority in the life of the artist.

Picturing the life of the heed: Pre-Raphaelite Preoccupation with Interiority

• Introduction
• Domestic interiors as extensions of the feminine soul
• Rossetti'southward dreaming women: Three pictures of visions and imagining
• Decision

References

Eitner, Lorenz. "The Open Window and the Storm-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism." Art Message 37 (1955).

Kincaid, James. Tennyson's Major Poems. New Oasis: Yale University Press, 1975. (chapter 3)

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Final modified 26 December 2006

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