The Lady of Shalott

Pre-Raphaelite Representations of the Poem by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ashley Pratt
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Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott” has been a great

inspiration for many Pre-Raphaelite artists. Pre-Raphaelites greatly delighted in

medieval legends. Set within the realm of Arthurian literature, the Lady’s

mysterious and lonely story is that of a woman cursed to remain in a tower and

endure the consequences of a desired but forbidden affection. “The Lady of Shalott”

presents a commentary of Victorian women, in which their gendered and assigned

roles were that of domesticity and suppression. Though their lives were tainted, a

romanticized and idealized representation of them remained and was expressed

through artwork. Additionally, there was much debate during the mid-19th century

over the union of painting and poetry. Tennyson sought to celebrate life and death,

reality and spirit, and the necessity of love in human experience.1 Artists such as

William Holman Hunt and John William Waterhouse depicted the Lady as a glorified,

tragic heroine, and similar to a “femme fatale,” whereas Elizabeth Siddal depicted

the Lady as a more realistic “femme covert” who was suppressed by Victorian

society, which was reflected in Siddal’s own experiences.

“The Lady of Shalott” takes place on an isolated island where the Lady is

forbidden to look outside her window to the world of opportunity. The Lady only

sees the world through a mirror of shadows, and from this reflection, she weaves a

tapestry. The Lady is cursed to solitary confinement for reasons unknown, and she

yearns for real experience.2 It is later known that the curse the Lady suffers under is

1 Edgar F. Shannon, Jr., “Poetry as Vision: Sight and Insight in “The Lady of Shalott”,”
Victorian Poetry 19.3 (1981): 208.
2 Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women: Images of Femininity (New York: Harmony

Books, 1988), 23.

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that of original sin – the sin of pain and death manifested upon all of humanity.3 The

Lady experiences a burst of insight into the real world, as is from blindness; this

occurs in various stages of perception. The tale of “The Lady of Shalott” became a

concept instead of an archetype, and in fact became a notable romantic idiom and

catch-phrase.4

The Lady of Shalott, having been started around 1886, was William Holman

Hunt’s last and greatest work, as it was completed in 1905 when his eyesight began

to fail. Hunt depicted the fatal moment

when the Lady sees the reflection of Sir

Lancelot in the mirror and looks out the

window to see him. The tapestry

unravels and the mirror cracks, as she

has broken her vow to uphold the curse

(Figure 1).5 The mirror is a symbol of

the projection of the self, so the fact that

it cracked means that a new identity

could be unveiled for the Lady – one

Figure 1: William Holman Hunt, "The Lady of filled with the comprehension of love,
Shalott", 1886. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from:
ARTstor database.
both human and spirit.6 A series of

visual puns litter this painting, such as ‘coming undone’, ‘moral loosening’, and

3 Shannon, Jr., “Poetry as Vision,” 216.

4 Lynne Pearce, Woman/Image/Text: Readings in Pre-Raphaelite Art and Literature
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991): 71.
5 Christopher Wood, The Pre-Raphaelites (New York: The Viking Press, 1981), 109.
6 Shannon,Jr., “Poetry as Vision,” 215.

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‘letting one’s hair down’.7 What the audience is witnessing is an emergence of

sexuality. It’s no accident that the tip of Lancelot’s spear is piercing through one of

the loops of the weaving, which serves as another visual pun. In addition, his name

“Lance-a-lot” serves as a play on words. The spear enters her realm, referring to

sexual release and contrasting with the dull tower, which protected the sterility of

her personal life.8

In the background of Hunt’s representation of “The Lady of Shalott,” reliefs of

the Virgin and Child, Hercules in the Garden of Hesperides, and friezes of cherubs

depict religious and mythological symbolism. Hunt wanted to portray the Lady’s life

as engulfed in moral earnestness to show that religious faith was a key element of

her character.9 The Lady’s neck is pointed toward the image of Lancelot, which

shows that she made her choice to reject a life of religious celibacy.10 In addition to

this, Hunt illustrated discarded sandals, modeled after the Arnolfini Wedding

Portrait (1434) by Jan Van Eyck, to depict walking on sacred ground, as well as birds

flying away to symbolize her freedom.11

The moment chosen by Hunt was a common choice for Pre-Raphaelite artists

in that it is the most dramatic – the moment when the Lady is condemned to die.12

This depiction calls upon the passage:

She left the web, she left the loom,

7 Richard L. Stein, “The Pre-Raphaelite Tennyson,” Victorian Studies 24.3 (1981):

294.
8 Ibid., 294.
9 Wood, The Pre-Raphaelites, 109.
10 Stein, “The Pre-Raphaelite Tennyson,” 294.
11 Sharyn R. Udall, “Between Dream and Shadow: William Holman Hunt’s “Lady of

Shalott”,” Woman’s Art Journal 11.1 (1990): 37.

12 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 24.

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She made three paces thro' the room,

She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.

Out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.13

Tennyson expressed that he wanted the first part of this specific passage to

be depicted, but the reason why is not certain.14 However, Hunt insisted on

illustrating the Lady’s downfall, which deeply perturbed Tennyson.15 It is not

certain as to what the nature of the relationship was between Hunt and Tennyson,

but Hunt’s representation is the only one upon which Tennyson personally

commented. Tennyson was perturbed by Hunt’s insistence to portray this moment

because the Lady would be frozen forever in a decision of defiance, which describes

the Lady as a naïve yet rebellious seductress. This is not how Tennyson wished to

portray her.16 Hunt defended his actions by stating that he “had only half a page on

which to convey the impression of weird fate, whereas you [Tennyson] use about

fifteen pages to give expression to the complete idea.”17 Hunt’s Victorian values may

have enticed him to turn a suppressed woman into a glorified rebel and create a

social commentary of his own.

13 “The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson,” The Camelot Project at the
University of Rochester, http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/shalott.htm
(accessed April 3, 2011).
14 Elaine Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” Woman’s Art Journal 9.1

(1988): 25.
15 Ibid., 25.
16 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 25.
17 Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” 25.

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William Holman Hunt depicted the Lady as a seductive woman entangled in

the web of her unraveling tapestry with her hair messed wildly above her head.

This rather dramatic representation was not condoned by Tennyson, who

disapprovingly asked, “why was her hair wildly tossed about as if by a tornado?”

and “why did you make the web wind round and round her like the threads of a

cocoon?”18 In this regard, Tennyson believed, “an illustrator ought never to add

anything to what he finds in the text,”19 stressing the importance of the painting as

an imitation of literature. Firstly, Hunt was probably offended by Tennyson’s

remarks because he had modeled the hair after Mrs. Amelia Milnes, which took

three years to finish as he purposefully and carefully draped her hair over an easel

for a windblown effect.20 This representation of threads spiraling and hair loosening

(long flowing hair being the symbol of female sensuality) illustrates the release of

feminine energy.21 Secondly, Hunt interpreted the poem as a fable illustrating the

“failure of the human soul towards its accepted responsibility,”22 therefore viewing

the Lady’s response as a failure to accept the responsibility of original sin and her

rebellion against it.

However, Hunt misinterpreted the poem in this sense, for the Lady accepted

her fate: the curse of original sin had entered reality and became human.23

Tennyson stated his intended interpretation was that of “the new-born love for

18 D. S. R. Welland, The Pre-Raphaelites in Literature and Art (New York: Barnes and
Noble, Inc., 1953), 210.
19 Ibid., 210.
20 Wood, The Pre-Raphaelites, 109.
21 Udall, “Between Dream and Shadow,” 36.
22 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 24.
23 Shannon, Jr., “Poetry as Vision,” 216.

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something, for someone in the wide world from which she has been so long

secluded, takes her out of the region of shadows into that of realities.”24 Hunt’s

iconography illustrated moral disobedience and a conflict between good and evil,25

but by being trapped inside the tower, the Lady could not have accepted the

responsibility of original sin because she was shielded from its existence in the first

place. Instead, she was opened up to the world of reality. More importantly, Hunt,

overriding Tennyson’s wishes, wanted to depict the woman’s quintessential role

and domestic duty of weaving as savagely destroyed by the power of the curse to

show order exploding into chaos.26

Hunt was an individual and original artist with what some art historians

describe as a “highly personal vision.” In fact, Hunt himself was rather lonely and

isolated, causing him to identify with “The Lady of Shalott.” Psycho-biographical

readings have been conducted regarding images of the Lady, and this has shown

that the Lady’s failure often strikes a nerve in the personal lives of artists.27 Some

critics from the 1950’s even stated that the Lady’s tapestry was a manifestation of

the problematic nature of an isolated artistic life.28 Therefore, Hunt depicts the Lady

much like himself, as she remains in her room while the consequences of her actions

leave her momentarily paralyzed, looking down at the world of opportunity below.29

24 Stein, “The Pre-Raphaelite Tennyson,” 293.

25 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 24.
26 Udall, “Between Dream and Shadow,” 36.
27 Ibid., 37.
28 Jane Wright, “A Reflection on Fiction and Art in “The Lady of Shalott”,” Victorian

Poetry 41.2 (2003): 288.

29 Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” 24.

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John William Waterhouse was by far the most enigmatic of the Pre-

Raphaelites and produced the most aesthetically appealing works. Waterhouse

produced three separate painted versions of “The Lady of Shalott.” Waterhouse’s

first depiction, titled The Lady of Shalott, was produced in 1888. It showed the Lady

casting her boat off into the overgrown brush and backwater of the Thames, floating

down toward Camelot with her tapestry web trailing in the water as she dealt with

the consequences of her inevitable death.30 Waterhouse’s first depiction played off

of the following passage:

And at the closing of the day

She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white

That loosely flew to left and right--
The leaves upon her falling light--
Thro' the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,

Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darken'd wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot;
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,

30 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 26.

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The Lady of Shalott.31

Loosening the chain and floating

up to Camelot is symbolic of the Lady

releasing herself from her previous

bondage of illusion and into real time

(Figure 2). The Lady floats down the

river singing as she dies, and when at

last Sir Lancelot greets her in death, he

Figure 2: John William Waterhouse, "The Lady of

has no idea what he meant to her in life
Shalott", 1888. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from:
ARTstor database. or that he caused her death. Ironically,

it was he who actually indirectly gave her insight, freeing her from social death

during life.32 Although the Lady had once perceived things through a mirror

without grasping the meaning, now she passes through death and can rest assured

that she will face eternal reality.33 This willingness to subject herself to the

unknown is a profound and sacred rite of passage from social death to social life.

Although it leads her toward death in the physical realm, the Lady decided that

taking her chances with physical death was better than enduring the social death

she had in life. As she floats down the river of eternal death, the Lady’s self-

assertion to free herself from the curse and to empower faith within herself as an

31 “The Lady of Shalott, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson”

32 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 27.
33 Shannon, Jr., “Poetry as Vision,” 221.

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individual and as a part of mankind was a powerful message not yet understood by

Victorian standards.34

Waterhouse’s Lady is illustrated with candles and a crucifix at the bow of the

boat – two items which Tennyson would have condemned since they weren’t

mentioned in his poem. In addition to this, the Lady is seen as having taken the

tapestry with her; moreover, it never unraveled in the first place and in fact

survived, which is not true to the poem. Waterhouse defended his position by using

Tennyson’s own words against him: “art, even beyond the perception of the artist,

speaks of reality and both can and must exist in a real world.”35 Waterhouse

interpreted this as an approval of his depiction. Since, as Tennyson stated, art must

exist in the real world, her tapestry entered reality at the same time as the Lady did.

However, Tennyson countered Waterhouse’s illustration of the tapestry

remaining. In the poem, the Lady’s tapestry was destroyed once she entered the

real world because since the Lady created the tapestry from mirrored images, this

form of art became removed from reality.36 Weaving the web of tapestry from

mirrored images portrayed art as imitation – a theory that was challenged during

Tennyson’s years.37 Tennyson stated that realism in art asserts fiction in poetry and

that the close relationships between artistry and realism should make an analogous

visual reproduction of reality. Tennyson also stated that the artist’s production can

only display a present time in and of itself and that the artist’s representation

destroys the medium of poetry not to criticize it, but to prove redundancy once the

34 Ibid., 216.
35 Wright, “A Reflection on Fiction and Art in “The Lady of Shalott”,” 289.
36 Ibid., 289.
37 Shannon, Jr., “Poetry as Vision,” 211.

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real work it enables is separated from

it. Because of this, art changes the

nature of the object once it has been

released from the process of

production. Therefore, as the Lady

died, her art was released.38

Waterhouse’s second painting,

titled The Lady of Shalott and finished

in 1894, was similar to Hunt’s

composition in that it depicted the Lady

in entangled threads. The powerful

imagery of confinement and bondage

was foretold by the poem’s established

tale of solitary confinement (Figure 3).

Figure 3: John William Waterhouse, "The Lady of
Shalott", 1894. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from:
Interestingly, the bondage motif was www.jwwaterhouse.com.

chosen despite Tennyson’s claim that poetry expressed the dilemma in art, meaning

that art was stuck between fantasy and reality. In other words, Waterhouse’s

bondage imagery is ironic in the fact that Waterhouse was unaware that Tennyson

felt art itself was held in bondage, not poetry. This bondage motif doubles as a

motif for the suppression and restraint of Victorian women, who were cursed by the

double standard of sexuality and faced the consequences of religious imposition

38 Wright, “A Reflection on Fiction and Art in “The Lady of Shalott”,” 289.

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alone.39 The Lady bound by tangled

strands demonstrates the docile and

passive condition women were supposed

to portray, as well as the wish to break free

from these constraints. 40 Sadly, the desire

for independence is what initiated the

curse, but the Lady made this decision

knowingly; she would rather face the

reality of death than to live within the

social death ascribed to her in life.

Figure 4: John William Waterhouse, "'I am Half Waterhouse’s third and final
Sick of Shadows' said the Lady of Shalott", 1915.
Retrieved April 3, 2011, from: painting, produced in 1915, was titled ‘I
www.jwwaterhouse.com.

am Half Sick of Shadows’ said the Lady of Shalott. In this painting, Waterhouse

elaborately illustrated the loom and focused on the Lady’s gaze in the mirror, in

which two young lovers are in the distance of Camelot (Figure 4). This depicts the

passage:

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott41

39 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 26.

40 Marsh, Ibid., 26.
41 “The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson”

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The rejection of the shadowy sphere of assigned femininity, demonstrated by the

approved domestic activity of weaving, illustrates ostracism and social death.42 This

is the moment when the Lady rejects complacently weaving all day, thereby

remaining cut off from the opportunity that awaits just outside her window.

Elizabeth Siddal presented one of the earliest and most accurate depictions

of “The Lady of Shalott.” In the male dominated Pre-Raphaelite movement, Siddal

combated Victorian values and attitudes towards her roles as a woman and as an

artist. The woman artist was depicted as a mere dabbler and painting itself was

viewed as a hobby or even a luxury of the classes, but never something by which a

woman could be taken seriously. Even statements by contemporary Pre-Raphaelite

artists did not give credit to her ability, but rather focused superficially on her

physical image: “a stupendously beautiful creature… a queen magnificently tall, with

a lovely figure, a stately neck and a face full of the most delicate and finished

modeling.”43 Clearly, the visual representation of women took precedence over any

belief in notable talent. And since “The Lady of Shalott” was a popular subject due to

the notion of the romanticized Victorian woman as a victim, Siddal was forever

influenced by the lack of respect from these men.44

42 Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 26.

43 Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” 21.
44 Ibid., 28.

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Siddal augmented Victorian

values of the suppression of women in

her drawing The Lady of Shalott. Siddal

portrayed the Lady seated at her loom

in an awkward stance and gazing out

the window to Lancelot (Figure 5).

Although probably the least

Figure 5: Elizabeth Siddal, "The Lady of Shalott",
1853. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from:
aesthetically appealing of the Pre- www.lizziesiddal.com.

Raphaelite representations, Siddal’s is the most important when conveying the

historical context of Victorian values. Like Hunt’s and Waterhouse’s second

representations, Siddal’s drawing also depicts the crucial moment when the Lady

seals her tragic fate. Siddal’s drawing remarkably contrasts with that of Hunt, in

which Hunt depicted that same moment to be one of confusion, excitement, and

disorder, whereas Siddal depicted the Lady as calmed, ordered, and quiet.45

Siddal’s Lady shows the dichotomy of struggling between two worlds. The

exterior world, symbolized by the mirror image of Sir Lancelot on the landscape,

and the interior world, where she has been solidly placed because of her femininity,

is juxtaposed. Siddal’s Lady does not occupy the same space as Sir Lancelot, unlike

Hunt’s representation, meaning that Siddal offers a non-romanticized view of

reality. This passage depicts the domestic suppression of a Victorian woman’s

world:

There she weaves by night and day

A magic web with colours gay.

45 Ibid., 25.

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She has heard a whisper say,

A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.46

This construction of the private, indoor domain for women, and the public, outdoor

world of men was a very real part of Victorian values in the mid-19th century. As

seen clearly in this representation, it is ironic that the Lady even looks out the

window, because at first all she sees is Sir Lancelot’s shadow, a mere reflection in

her mirror, meaning that she took her chances on an image she didn’t even know

was truthfully real.47

Siddal carefully pursued the Victorian formula by portraying the Lady as

gazing out the window past the crucifix. Although Tennyson might not have

appreciated Siddal’s addition of the crucifix, as also seen in Waterhouse’s first

depiction, this adds an element being ignored by the Lady: religion. As the Lady’s

hands carelessly finger the loom, Victorian audiences interpreted her gaze out the

window to Lancelot as the fall of humanity in which the Lady conducted an act of

moral disobedience. In fact, in Siddal’s depiction, the Lady gazes past the crucifix,

meaning that she does not care about the consequences of the curse. Instead, she

longs for reality and tangibility. Since the focus is solely on the Lady, the Lady

transforms into a mere object, which is also reflected in Victorian values.48

46 “The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson”

47 Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” 25-26.
48 Ibid., 25-26.

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Siddal saw herself reflected in the Lady to a much greater extent than the

extent to which Hunt claimed to have been affected. As the Lady was confined to the

tower, Siddal was confined to the inside world. Both remained restricted to

reproducing simple mirror reflections of the world. As the Lady weaved steadily for

no one, Siddal’s hopes of reaching the outside world were remote, and her works

were not created for the public eye of the market.49 Unlike the wildly sexual,

longhaired Lady depicted by Hunt, Siddal portrayed the Lady as having hair pulled

back and tied at the nape of the neck, much like herself – a demure, modest,

downcast look.50 However, the fashion of the time consisted of a tight-fitting one

piece dress belted over the hips at the waist, proving that Siddal’s own self-image

catered to the role of Victorian women in that both she and the Lady were meant to

look innocent, yet sensual at the same time; although remaining a prisoner, she

continued dressing to please men.51

“The Lady of Shalott” became wildly popular among Pre-Raphaelite artists

for its endearing Arthurian quality. The Lady gained insight into the world by

combating the curse of original sin and the confinements of domesticity, thereby

embracing reality and human nature. The victimized Victorian woman and

Tennyson’s advocacy of human affection is shown in these depictions. The debate

between poetry and artwork is clear; Tennyson emphasized art as an imitation of

poetry. The works of William Holman Hunt and John William Waterhouse are very

aesthetically appealing representations of the Lady and present her as a rebellious

49 Ibid., 25-26.
50 Udall, “Between Dream and Shadow,” 34.
51 Shefer, “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”,” 26-28.

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enchantress. However, the Victorian values of suppressed women are best

presented from the female perspective of Elizabeth Siddal.

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Works Cited

Marsh, Jan. Pre-Raphaelite Women: Images of Femininity. New York: Harmony

Books, 1988.

Pearce, Lynne. Woman/Image/Text: Readings in Pre-Raphaelite Art and Literature.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Shannon Jr., Edgar F. “Poetry as Vision: Sight and Insight in “The Lady of Shalott”.”

Victorian Poetry 19.3 (1981): 207-223.

Shefer, Elaine. “Elizabeth Siddal’s “Lady of Shalott”.” Woman’s Art Journal 9.1

(1988): 21-29.

Stein, Richard L. “The Pre-Raphaelite Tennyson.” Victorian Studies 24.3 (1981):

278-301.

Udall, Sharyn R. “Between Dream and Shadow: William Holman Hunt’s “Lady of

Shalott”.” Woman’s Art Journal 11.1 (1990): 34-38.

Welland, D. S. R. The Pre-Raphaelites in Literature and Art. New York: Barnes and

Noble, Inc., 1953.

Wood, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. New York: The Viking Press, 1981.

Wright, Jane. “A Reflection on Fiction and Art in “The Lady of Shalott”.” Victorian

Poetry 41.2 (2003): 287-290.

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