Words: 1499
Women in Victorian England were seen and treated very differently to how they are treated now. Common Victorian ideas about the “ideal woman” were that she should be innocent, passive, and always obedient to men. Women had no significant place in political society, and had no right to vote, work, or even own their own money. They were more or less an object owned by either their father or their husband. “The Lady of Shalott”, “Cousin Kate” and “Mariana” are all poems on the subject of the role of woman in Victorian society and how men sculpt their lives. All three poems revolve around a woman who is alone and hurt by a man.
In the “Lady of Shalott’s” case it was in fact a man’s fault that she came to the end she did. In “Mariana,” the only character present is the Victorian woman, Mariana, who has locked herself away from the outside world after being heartlessly left by her fiance. She lives in her own world while rejecting the real one. She cannot look apon the “sweet haven,” which refers to the world beyond her “moated grange. ” The personification of the “lonely moated grange” and the “sad and strange” sheds give the poem a feeling of melancholia, and contribute to the feeling of sympathy the reader feels towards Mariana’s plight.
The last four lines of each stanza are used as a chorus, and this puts emphasis on the fact that she has lost almost all hope of her lover ever returning, shown by the way she says “he cometh not. ” In all but the last stanza, Mariana says “he cometh not,” implying that although he hasn’t returned today, she still has some hope he may still arrive. In the last stanza, however, she instead says, “He will not come. ” These words have more finality to them, and show she has finally accepted that he will probably never come back to her.
Mariana is portrayed in this poem as a woman who has given up on life. She has been left by her fiance and takes it extremely badly. She is depicted as a stereotypical Victorian woman. She is shown to not be able to manage on her own without a man, and to also be weak and emotional, by saying Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears fell ere the dews were dried. ” The way she took being left by her man, however, was on the whole very different to that of the “Cottage maiden” in “Cousin Kate. ” “Cousin Kate” has many similarities, but also a lot of differences, from the other two poems.
The main differences between this poem and the others, is that it is written in the first person, from the point of view of “the cottage maiden,” whereas the other two are both narratives, told by an omniscient narrator. “Cousin Kate” is about a “cottage maiden” who was “lured” by a Lord and taken in as his mistress. Kate’s Cousin, as we find out in the last stanza, did in fact have a baby with the Lord. She was then, however, cast aside and replaced by the narrator’s Cousin, Kate, who the Lord then moves on to marry.
The narrator describes the lord as changing her “like a glove” and using her as his “plaything. ” It also says after this that she is an “unclean thing, who might have been a dove,” describing how women and (more importantly) single mothers were viewed in Victorian times; either dirty or pure, with no middle ground. The Cottage maiden, however, is not as weak and forgiving of her lover as Mariana is, and although she is cast out from society, she manages to turn her hurt and upset into bitterness and pity.
Rossetti uses sharp words and monosyllabic phrases to create a more bitter impact on the reader. The narrator says she would “spit into his face” if the Lord had asked her to marry him, which is a very strong thing to say about a Lord, especially a woman, and in the last stanza she says, “And seem not like to get,” which is a monosyllabic phrase, putting emphasis on the fact that even though her cousin is married to the Lord, it seems she won’t have a son to be heir to his fortune. The Lady of Shalott,” although still trapped like the two other women, is trapped physically rather than mentally or socially. She is confined to “four grey walls, and four grey towers,” and can only look outside indirectly, through her “mirror clear. ” Although trapped in her tower, she seems, unlike the other women, almost completely content with her situation. She is what could be described as the “ideal woman,” because she is passive and obedient. She never does anything out of the ordinary.
The only thing the Lady of Shalott seems slightly unhappy about is the fact she has no “loyal knight and true. ” This is shown by the way she says she is “half sick of shadows” after seeing “two young lovers” through her mirror. Tennyson uses lots of different poetical devices such as rhetorical questions, (stanza three,) and adjectives and adverbs to add to the sympathy the readers feel towards the Lady. “The Lady of Shalott,” just like “Cousin Kate” and “Mariana” has a rigid rhyme scheme and Structure, possibly to symbolise the planned and strict life that the Lady leads.
In parts one and two of the poem, the Lady has kept very passive, doing nothing out of the ordinary, she just sits and “weaves by night and day. ” In part three, however, a new character enters, called Sir Lancelot, who makes a very large imprint on the Lady of Shalott’s life. To emphasise Lancelot’s importance, Tennyson used a lot of light-related adjectives, such as “dazzling” and “burning” to make him stand out. He also changed the rigid structure of the poem, so where it usually says “Camelot” in line five of each stanza, it said “Lancelot,” showing what an impact he has had on the story.
At the arrival of Lancelot, The Lady of Shalott sees him through the mirror, but instead of carrying on her simple life, she fails to fight the urge to not look out the window, and looks straight out of it, into the real world. At this, she cried, “the curse is upon me. ” The fact that she is severely punished when she does something not expected is a reflection of how women were expected to behave in society ??? with respect and obedience. Disobeying rules (especially when set by men) was seen as disrespectful and almost unforgivable.
All three of these poems share the theme of the role of women in Victorian society, and get their points across in different ways. “Cousin Kate” and “Mariana” both show how women can be treated badly by men. Kate’s cousin was thrown aside without a thought, as was Mariana, and both of them were left to themselves ??? seen as outcasts ??? while their lovers were both allowed to carry on with their lives, unmarked. This reflects the opinion that all women should stay innocent and virginal until they are married, and any woman who does not isn’t worthy of a husband.
Men, on the other hand, are allowed to have as many relationships as they want, before deciding to get married. “The Lady of Shalott” is different from these other two poems by the way that men treat her. Although she is punished for going after her man, the man himself does not realise he has had anything to do with the tragedy. This differs from the other two, as in this case the man has in fact done nothing wrong. It was “the curse” which brought the Lady to the end she did.
Each poems structure is quite similar to each other’s, as they all have a rigid rhyme and line structure. This is probably done to show the strict rules in which Victorian women had to abide by. Although the structure is very similar, the language used is quite different in each poem. Language in “Mariana” is all extremely bleak, giving a sense of hopelessness and sadness, “Cousin Kate” uses language that has a less straight forward meaning, and changes in some parts too.
In the first few stanzas, there is use of rhetorical questions and similes to cast a sense of pity over the reader, as well as showing a bit of self-pity also, but by the last couple of Stanzas the self-pity had been turned into bitterness, using strong, short words like “writ” and “spit” to show this. “The Lady of Shalott’s” language changes like “Cousin Kate’s”, but goes from peaceful and relaxing, (created by soft words and sounds like “flitteth” and “echoes”,) to bright, powerful and cheerful, when Lancelot enters the equation.