On Monday our group, when discussing The Lady of Shallot,
talked about its references toward women in the Victorian society. We concluded
that the act of her weaving represented a mundane place where women resided,
this place being the home and womanly domestication. The mirror represented, to
us at least, a skewed view of society. This skewed view helped keep "The
Lady of Shallot" in “her place”, as well as the fear of a curse. The curse
was a sort of warning to women in general, that leaving their post of domestication
would result in disastrous repercussions. However, when Lancelot comes into her
mirror in shining armor, we see the Lady of Shallot forsake her post and gaze
at this man. It was at this point when our group realized the wording of the
poem changed, before this romantic natural words were used, after the words
became more metallic just like the armor of Sir Lancelot. It wasn't until her
eventual death that the words reverted back to the romantic natural words. In
regards to the pictures we discussed on the way in which she sat on her
tapestry and allowed it to dip into the murky water. Perhaps this symbolized
defiance of her former life before seeing Lancelot. She had spent every day
looking through this mirror and weaving this tapestry, then when the curse
befell her it provided a new life to be opened up, cursed or not, causing her
to forsake the former and take the boat to journey into the new.
I love this rendition of the poem and the pictures are great!
It does seem almost to be a cautionary tale in a way. I find it to be completly ironic that in an age of progress in both science and technology we see a state of near regression on the views of women in society. I think that The Lady of Shallot puts a good light to this kind of thinking. I found it interesting that Lancelot was used Arthur or another of the members of the round table.
ReplyDelete