To me, the most interesting aspect of the poem The Lady of Shallot is the mirror itself, rather than the reflections the Lady saw in said mirror. After reading through the poem a couple times, I looked further into what types symbolism mirrors hold, and the general consensus is that mirrors represent awareness, truth, and wisdom. To me, in the context of this poem, this symbolism is extremely interesting. For the Lady's mirror to have shown her Lancelot is to make her aware of the apparent goings on of the world outside her little bubble, but there is no way for her to know the truth behind those events happening around her. So the mirror is showing her things that are certainly happening outside her reality, yet at the same time, the Lady is unable to verify if those things are actually true. And also, for the mirror to be the reason she made a decision that could be seen as "unwise" is ironic as well.
I don't know if this really makes much sense, but it doesn't make much sense to me either. I'm interested to see what others are thinking.
Interesting! I like the way you brought the mirror symbolism into the poem. It certainly doesn't seem like the Lady has much awareness or wisdom, unless it's just not revealed to us through the poem. I agree that she's unable to verify the truth of what she sees. This is probably why she leaves. Then, the fact that she dies on her way to find truth is that much more tragic.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I think that the mirror is showing something other than what the 'reality' may be. I think that by showing her Lancelot the Lady is supposed to have the wisdom to not go after him knowing that there is a curse in place, but she foolishly still goes for him.
ReplyDeleteIt's especially interesting when we think about what a medieval mirror would actually show. They didn't have mirror glass like we do that showed a really accurate representation; their mirrors were like really highly polished metal. You would have been able to see your reflection, but not as clearly or accurately as we would expect now. How does that tie into what you're thinking about the mirror as a symbol? How much less could she really see or be aware of? How much bigger and brighter was the actual world once she got out of her tower?
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Tennyson's readers' mirrors would be much closer to the mirrors we have today. I find all this kinda stuff pretty fascinating, so here's a link with some info about the history of mirrors in case anyone else is wondering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror#History
This, paired with Jacob's comment, is really interesting to me. Because she wouldn't have fully been able to see Lancelot, it was likely her mind creating what she wanted to see. This brings me back to the idea of a mirror representing truth. The mirror is offering her a truth, but it may be distorted. This could be meant to parallel the idea that once she leaves her reality, she's cursed. There is a world outside of what she knows, that much is positive, but it's been tainted with her curse, if that makes sense.
DeleteI think that it is interesting how you chose to focus on the mirror, but I think that the mirror makes the bubble and reality that she is trapped within. The mirror can only show so much to the Lady. In a way the mirror distorts her reality and perception of the world with its limited range and inverted images. She cannot look out the window, so the mirror is her only access to the world and is in a sense her entire world.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! You put words to something I was thinking as well but couldn't articulate--how the mirror distorts her reality because of of it's limited range. I find this pretty ironic because of the symbolism of the mirror as bringing awareness and wisdom.
DeleteIt is interesting to me that you also chose to highlight the mirror in a story but from a different perspective than mine. I think that the Lady only subconsciously sees what she wants to in the mirror. The fact that she saw Lancelot the way that she did after only seeing blurs of other objects for years and years speaks volumes about how she immediately felt about him.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that's really interesting! The idea that suddenly she created an image she wanted to see, rather than something she was actually seeing, and that was what ultimately sent her to her death is a fascinating one.
DeleteI definitely agree with your description of the symbolism in the story. I thought about this as well when I was reading and it left me wondering about the fact its explicitly mentioned how she saw a wedding and a funeral in her mirror. She falls in "love" with Lancelot and seemingly activated her curse to catch a real glimpse of him, then dies because of her curse.
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