Poor Poor Lady of Shalott

So most people that know me well enough know that I have a very immature mind, I would love to blame it on my two sons; however, my mind was that way since I do not remember when.  From the very beginning of Lady of Shalott it mentions Camelot.  I instantly think, “Cool, there has got to be some sword fighting or something because it has to deal with chivalry and the Arthurian legends.”  But oh yeah, I need to refocus because I am reading for a class.  Okay, the young lady is in a tower surrounded by beautiful, natural scenery in an area of agricultural workers.  Then I find out that she is not allowed to look upon anything but a mirror and her weaving.  She has been told that there is a curse that will fall upon her if she looks upon anything else with her naked eye. 

So literally I try to think to myself maybe that is her curse, a curse to never look upon anything for its brilliance.  She will never see the true blue of the sky, the deepest red of a rose or the deep greens of Kentucky Blue grass.  She only gets to see the faded colors through a mirror, an image that will never show the true brilliance because of the constant glare.  She will probably never get to enjoy the smells either; if is not to look upon anything with her own eyes that means that she will never get the chance to lie on her back in the grass and next to the roses as she looks up to the sky.  She is cursed to stay in the tower for the rest of her days watching everyone else live their lives without her in it. 

So at that point I go back to being immature, I notice a similarity to the movie Tangled.  It is only through her evil, fake mother that she is told the world is a cruel place.  That she is never to step foot outside of her tower; it is only through her mother that says she is to look at the world from her window and never to experience the “dangers” of the world.   So within the mixture of logic and imaginative explanations we have the actual person that tells Lady of Shallot about the curse. 

Then after coming back from the silly detour I want to bring in Sir Lancelot.  It seems as though Lady of Shallot can tolerate her life without much, if any, human interaction.  However, when someone as “fiery” as Lancelot trots by with his horse things change.  Lady of Shalott seems to instantaneously be discontented with her life so much as to look at the young knight.  She figures that the curse will either be broken or turn out to be non-existent.  However, after the gleam of Lancelot’s horse, armor, and hair have gone away Lady of Shalott realizes the curse is upon her.  She no longer sees the brightness of any colors and everything seems to wither away to look like a dim, shadowy silhouette of their original form. 

I look at this as her virginity.  Most young girls set intercourse onto a pedestal of expectations.  They want to stay pure and a virgin, but constantly fantasize of how they will lose it and how perfect the entire experience will be.  They build up their own anticipation for this glorious moment and when it arrives they are sadly disappointed.  There is no instantaneous, deep connection and just left with a feeling of sadness because they could have either saved that moment for someone else or it was not what they made it up to be.  So many of the hopeful feelings are gone and all of the energy they spent thinking of that moment was all-in-all wasted. 

So I look at Lady of Shalott as horribly disappointed that the moment was not able to last forever and the connection was not established since Sir Lancelot was unable to return her love.  She was left feeling empty and regretful that she was not able to share the moment with her love.  Since that feeling of love or lust was so fleeting it left her unfulfilled and wanting more; however, she was unable to make to wonderful Camelot before she pours out all of her emotions.  So it leaves her dead as she floats down the river. 

Many others say that the moral of the story is keeping the women in the household and out of the streets, but I think that it would be closer to say it is about how women should be content with their lives and not so hopeful for something more than what they have been given in life.