Elaine’s Fate in Tennyson and Malory

As we briefly discussed in our library session in Winchester, both Thomas Malory’s “Fair Maid of Astolat” and Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” are at least partly based on the figure of Elaine from Arthurian legend. Both stories depict the tragedy of Elaine’s life: she is doomed to love Lancelot, who either cannot or will not reciprocate her love in the same way.

I noticed that even though both works tell a version of the same story, their respective focuses differ greatly. Malory is concerned with telling the whole story, complete with plot details that include all of the involved parties. Tennyson’s poem, however, focuses entirely on the condition of the cursed Lady of Shalott. Though Tennyson does not tell the complete story, he brings new life to the story through the perspective of Elaine’s captivity, curse, and fate.

After reading Malory’s “Fair Maid of Astolat,” I can place Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott” in a greater context. I now understand what is happening to Guinevere, Arthur, Lavine, and Lancelot, while Tennyson’s Elaine is trapped in her tower. The plots vary slightly here, as Malory does not afflict Elaine with a physical entrapment like Tennyson does. Instead, he places her in the middle of a mess of affairs: she is doomed to love Lancelot, whose lover is Guinevere, whose husband is Arthur. When she discovers that she cannot be with Lancelot, she sails off and pronounces that she must die, defending her love as such:

Why sholde I leve such thoughtes? Am I nat an erthely woman? And all the whyle the brethe ys in my body I may complayne me, for my belyve ys that I do none offence, though I love an erthely man, unto God; for He fourmed me thereto – and all manner of good love comyth of God, and othir than good love loved I never Sir Launcelot du Lake. And I take God to recorde, I loved never none but hym, nor never shall, of erthely creature; and a clene maydyn I am for hym and for all othir (Malory 641).

Knowing the full story of Malory’s version of the legend of Elaine, I can better understand the much more romantic, ballad-style poem by Tennyson. As we discussed, the Victorians had an obsession with all things medieval and took inspiration from medieval art and literature, admiring the beauty, simplicity, and idyllic themes of the Medieval era. (The Medieval period and Arthurian legends also became a source of political legitimacy for the monarchs, so medieval themes were important for many reasons).

In part one of “The Lady of Shalott,” Tennyson sets the scene of beautiful Camelot and the island of Shalott. It is briefly hinted at that the Lady of Shalott lives here in her tower, unseen by many that pass through. In part two, her curse is revealed, though not fully explained:

There she weaves by night and day

A magic web with colours gay.

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 (Tennyson 37-54).

The reader soon finds that Elaine is cursed to remain in the tower, weaving on her loom to create a picture of the world below. The only glimpses she has of this world, however, are limited to what she can see reflected in her mirror—she calls these glimpses “shadows.”

Elaine’s restricted access to the world around her acts as her main source of conflict, whereas for Malory, this conflict comes from the mess of love affairs that I described earlier. I interpreted this to be Tennyson’s way of depicting Elaine’s internal struggle with her isolation from Lancelot and a free life. Elaine’s isolation and struggle are further highlighted with lines such as “She hath no loyal knight and true” and “‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said/The Lady of Shalott” (Tennyson 62, 71-72).

In part three of the poem, Elaine breaks the curse when she sees a reflection of Lancelot in her mirror, and turns around to see him, the real him, out of the window. It is the first time she has looked out of her window, and not viewed a mere reflection of it. Elaine immediately recognizes her mistake, as her weaving falls apart and her reflecting mirror shatters. She has lost her protection at the cost of her freedom. She finally has reality, which she has always wanted (just like Malory’s Elaine, who is at last reunited with Lancelot, only to learn that she cannot be with him). Both stories are beautiful, haunting, and adhere to medieval values of chastity, purity, honor, and pride, and as a result, in both, when Elaine finally gets what she wanted, she realizes it is not what she wanted after all, and knows she must die.