In Sir Thomas Mallory’s The Fair Maid of Astolat the maid is given very little agency as compared to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Lady of Shallot, which features the lady as having great, almost magical, skills. Tennyson’s poem gives a very different view of the Lady and focuses much more attention on the Lady, differing from Mallory’s work that focuses greatly on the glory of the knights and their significance. I found Tennyson’s poem to give more dignity to the Lady as the tone of her dying from grief in Mallory’s work came across as condescending in the story as it gave very little possibility that the Lady could live independently from her lover. I think that Tennyson’s view on the Lady is influenced by the rise in women’s agency that occurred during the Victorian Era. The contrast between the two works is distinguished by the very different view points the entire situation is described in both pieces.  The aspects of the original Arthurian legend that Tennyson’s poem leaves out greatly impacted the initial comparison I made when I read both works, and the image of the story that I had from reading both works was very different. I think it is also significant that I read Mallory’s work first because I feel that having read the Tennyson piece first would result in a disappointing resolution to the mystery about the Lady that is laid out in The Lady of Shallot.

After Reading Malory’s “The Fair Maid of Astolat” so many things have changed in how I interpret and feel about Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot”. Since I clearly read the Lady of Shallot first, I originally felt that Lancelot was shallow in seeing only this dead woman’s beauty, but the story was more focused on the mystical place and how the Lady only saw the outside world through a reflection. Lancelot doesn’t even come into the story until a couple of stanzas in and the two never interact. The story by Tennyson is far more focused on the Lady, her escape from the bounds in her castle, and her yearning for a love she will never have as she remains (in Victorian times) the property of her father until wed.

While reading Malory’s poem I noticed the extreme influx in characters. There were so many knight names, real places referenced, more famous names from Arthurian Legend, and so much more backstory. During the first few pages I was overwhelmed with the listing of names and the immense amount of characters that I had no ties to and no way to know if they would remain important throughout the story. During this time, it felt more like a war story or poem in all of its listing of names and battles. The Maiden of Astolat isn’t even referenced until a couple of pages in. There is no mythological or magical interworking in Malory’s story and it is very focused on recounting the exact happenings in the locations, history, and often referenced the round table.

I got a new take on Lancelot throughout Malory’s piece. As much as I despised him in the “Lady of Shallot”, you can see how he only had her beauty to comment on since there was no relationship between them prior to her death. The truth is completely different within Malory’s telling. Lancelot is a cheating bastard. He had an affair with a woman before battle, wore a symbol of her during his fight, hid the fact that he was married from her, used her to nurse him back to health, and then when she revealed her love for him, he turned her down and said he could never be tied down. If you ask me it was karma that he got injured and that Gwenyvere found out, but it was his fault the Fair Maiden of Astolat died in this version. She told Lancelot that she was going to die without him and he still lead her on and lied to her. It was upsetting that the story ended with Lancelot coming out on top. Lancelot used the Maydyn’s dead corpse and note, twisted her telling of their affair, screwed over Lavayne, ruined Lavayne’s reputation, and he got back on good terms with Gwenyvere. This all only makes Lancelot more hated in Malory’s telling.

As far as the Maidens go in each work, my perspective is quite different in each telling of the tale. In Tennyson’s poem, the Lady is someone the reader feels sorry for, she is trapped in a tower, and in solitude. When reading Malory’s version, you realize how much is left unexplained in Tennyson’s tale that is essential to the poem. Is the Lady bound by force? Has she gotten herself stuck in her own weaving? Is their magic or a curse placed upon the Lady? It is never revealed. When I first read the “Lady of Shallot”, there was a work by William Holman Hunt that was placed next to the poem.It persuaded me into reading the poem as she was trapped, caught in her own weavings (art pictured on left). In Malory’s version we have all of the details we need on the Maydyn. She is not stuck in a tower, but gives herself to a man she just met, falls in love to fast, shows feelings he doesn’t seem to have, and commits suicide because she can’t live without this man. The Maydyn is someone you feel sorry for at first when she has been lied to and used, but not when she kills herself because she can’t have Lancelot. She appears weak and dependent whereas the Lady appears strong, rebellious, cursed, and held against her will.

After reading Malory’s poem I realized that Tennyson more or less took the easy way out. He referenced Camelot, Lancelot, and “The Lady of Shallot”, but he ignored Arthur, Gwenyvere, Lavayne, the round table, the injury of Lancelot, and pretty much removed the historical aspects of the Arthurian Legend. Truth be told, I realized that nothing in Tennyson’s story makes me think of the historical Arthur, Lancelot, or Gwenyvere (until I was told that is what Tennyson based his poem off of). There is not enough information in Tennyson’s poem to complete a story and the reader is left questioning so many aspects, but that may be just what Tennyson was going for to keep the reader coming back for more. The sing-song rhythm in his poem is much easier and more interesting to read. As much as I find is missing from Tennyson’s piece, I love his adaptation of the legend told solely from the Lady’s perspective where Lancelot is not such a bad guy and the Lady is someone we pity and come to love as a symbol of rebelling against the constraints of the world.

Blog Post 4: Tennyson vs. Malroy

The two poems “The Lady of Shallot” by Tennyson and “Fair Maid of Astolat” by Malroy are two poem of women who die presumably from a lack, or denial of love. “The Lady of Shallot” focuses around a mysterious maybe even mystical maiden who leaves her tower after seeing the face of fair Lancelot and then dies from an unknown curse. “Fair Maid of Astolat” is about the lady Elaine who falls in love with Lancelot while he is participating in a tournament and tells her father that if they do not wed she will die, and she indeed does when Lancelot refuses to marry her.

Though both the Lady of Shallot and Elaine are from two different stories the two ladies are very familiar. They both live in towers away from the town and both end up falling in love with Lancelot and dying because of unrequited love (or a curse), either way both maidens have shown that falling in love with Lancelot does not do anyone any good. Something interesting that both women also share is their initial descriptions include the fact that they live in towers. To the Lady of Shallot the tower is a place that she is kept away from the world and her only contact is with the world is through a mirror, but Elaine is free to leave if she pleases.

However, when reading “Fair Maid of Astolat” after reading “Lady of Shallot” something that has changed my perspective of the two ladies is who different they really are. Elaine actually meet Lancelot and her stories has more religious overtones than The Lady of Shallot’s. Elaine has a pretty strong voice in her poem and advocates for her heart as well as her life while the Lady of Shallot only has about two lines throughout her entire story. The Lady of Shallot’s death also has a different kind of meaning after reading “Fair Maid of Astolat”. Elaine dies fighting for her right to love and to love who she wants while The Lady of Shallot’s death can have multiple meanings. She could’ve died from the curse, or unrequited love, but after reading about Elaine’s death it just seems like a waist of life. She left her tower to die for a reason we don’t know. Elaine’s purpose is straight forward and righteous but The Lady just kind of fades away out of existence from a place that barely knew she was there.