The Lady of Shalott is a poem written in 1832, then revised in 1842 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and tells the story of a cursed woman trapped in a tower near Camelot. She can only view the outside world through the reflection in a mirror, and she weaves a tapestry of what she sees through the mirror, a kind of distorted reality.
When she sees the knight Sir Lancelot through her mirror, she cannot resist looking at him directly, so unleashing the curse upon herself. She leaves the tower, finds a boat, and floats down to Camelot, but she dies before arriving.
The poem has been interpreted in many ways by literary critics, but most agree that the symbolism of entrapment refers not only to Victorian women and societal norms, but also to the artistic task of trying to capture reality in art.
The John William Waterhouse painting of the same name depicts the Lady just prior to her death in the boat as she faces her destiny. It is rife with metaphoric detail, such as the flickering candles, two of which have already blown out, signifying her imminent death. The Lady herself appears haunted, her expression one of hopelessness.
For all its tragic symbolism, the painting remains a beautiful Pre-Raphaelite representation of The Lady of Shalott.
