The structural aspects of The Lady of Shalot hold a resemblance to oral folklore poetry, the latter usually built on themes of the heroic struggle. The imagery of the “four gray walls and four gray towers” bring out aspects of the monotony and the hermit-like focus that is a pre-requisite for artistic accomplishment. The creative process that produces a brilliant work of art (the woven tapestry in the case of Lady of Shalott) also includes the artist’s rigid focus and discipline. Depictions such as “Four gray walls, and four gray towers” suggest the degree of monotony that the artist must go through. In order to gain this advantage, the artist sacrifices casual involvement with the society and its trappings which are the objects of her study. This distance gives the artist the requisite vantage position from which he can gain fresh perspectives on life, society and institutions. In order to be able to produce works of art that contain insight, intelligence and an aesthetic sense, it is necessary to remain at a distance to the world that is being captured in the art work.

The artist’s dedication to work is at once a compromise on many aspects of quotidian life. And therein lies the heroic element in what is apparently a tragic end. Her mortality is definite whereas her works will outlast history. These final lines of the poem encapsulate the fall from grace of the once proud artist: ‘The web was woven curiously,/ The charm is broken utterly,/ Draw near and fear not,-this is I,/ The Lady of Shalott.’ There is an implicit acknowledgement of the magical works of art she had woven in her life as an artist. As Lady Shalott lies dead in the premises of Camelot, Lancelot and other inhabitants arrive to witness the corpse. But what is also amply evident is the celebration of the heroic in the poem. It is easy to regard Lady Shalott’s eventual surrender to temptation as a proof of human frailty and the inevitability of tragedy in human endeavors.

The lady of shalott pdf