Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott and Mariana.

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                                    Alfred Lord Tennyson’s

                                             The Lady of Shalott                                                                                           and                                                                                                Mariana

However strange it may sound, I believe that Tennyson’s  ‘The Lady of Shalott’ and ‘Mariana’ are both very similar but also completely different. Both of Tennyson’s characters are isolated, but for different reasons. One, is presumed to be under a curse and cannot look down to Camelot, whilst the other is waiting for her lover who is never going to come. Both are tragic and melancholy.

In ‘The Lady of Shalott’ you get the image of water all around as she is on an island and on the other side of the water is grass and fields swaying in the sun. You imagine that if you look a little way off you will see a town or the village of Camelot. Empathising with the Lady you can feel that would be longing to go outside and enjoy the day. She knows she cannot so she sits at her loom looking in the mirror longingly seeing and outside world that she cannot be apart of.

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In Mariana the setting is completely different and you get the impression of a ramshackle old house that has gone to ruins because no one has taken care of it.

                     

                               ‘The rusted nails fell from the knots
                      That held the pear to the garden-wall.
                      The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
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