How does Tennyson portray women in his poems? What is the outcome for Mariana and the Lady of Shalott? How does this relate to the Victorian Era? Your answer should be at least one hundred words.
Answers
Tennyson in his poems, portrays women as isolated, sensitive, pathetic and full of grief. Tennyson's women live in a solitary place, away from the world.
Outcome of the poems: In the poem, "Mariana", there is a lady awaiting for her lover to return. The lady is alone and her house is isolated like her. In the poem, "The lady of Shallot" a lady lives in a tower and is cursed from leaving the tower. In both the poems, loneliness surrounds the women. They are isolated both physically and mentally.
Relation to Victorian Era: Both these poems indicate fallen women of the Victorian period. Women in Victorian period were considered inferior to men. and were looked down with disgrace. They were forced to perform only domestic duties and refrain from any social duties.
Tennyson portrays women in his poems in such a way that is appropriate to the time in which he lived where the women were not very expressive or they were conditioned to be like that.
He also shows them to be ignorant of the outside world and also they have been portrayed as being in distress and he saw the evils of the way that women were treated.