"Man for the field and woman for the hearth, man for the sword and for the needle she, man with the head and woman with the heart, man to command and women to obey" to what extent does Tennyson's poetry conform to these gender stereotypes?

  Another of Tennysons poems that picks up on the stereotypes of men and women is St Agnes’ Eve. This poem is about a nun who dreams about God on the Eve of Saint Agnes (a night where, if instructions are followed, you will dream of the man you are to marry). This poem is based around a nun, a woman that has chosen to serve God over everything else. One of the major things differing this poem from the male poem Ulysses is the imagery, the scenery is described beautifully by Tennyson, for example “My breath to heaven like vapour goes;” this is a complete contrast to the narrative by Ulysses. There is also a lot of ‘pure’ and ‘holy’ imagery in this poem which is unsurprising as the main character is a nun however lines like “In raiment white and clean” could easily represent the purity and goodwill of women in Tennyson’s poetry.  A point to highlight is that the nun is thinking about God on this special night and not of a man, she is being almost completely selfless and devoting her life to something that she believes strongly in with all her heart. The main point that can be made about this poem is that it represents the woman as the complete opposite to the man, she is obeying God, she is poor, chaste and has a strong heart, men on the other hand command, are rich, enjoy women and think with their heads, according to Tennysons poems.

  One last poem by Tennyson that represents men and women is Godiva, the tale of a young woman that rode naked through a town in order to make her husband lower the taxes on the people, cunningly she tells everyone to not look beforehand.  Similar to St. Agnes’ Eve this poem has a female main character, Lady Godiva. Godiva is represented as a hero in this poem which could be seen as a contradiction to the gender stereotype, however Godiva is “wife to that grim Earl” and subsequently is obeying his ‘dare’ in order to save the people. It can therefore be said that the Earl is thinking with his head (for money and personal gain) while Godiva is acting on her heart (the will to help others), hence remaining loyal to Tennyson’s other poems. However there is one male villager that looks at Godiva as she is riding naked through the town, he is struck blind, this indicates that men are not better than women in anyway there are just social and physical differences that separate them. AT the end of the poem Godiva prevails and “built herself an everlasting name” again showing how women are different from men but never the less can still prevail over them.

  In conclusion Tennyson’s poetry definitely supports the ideas put forward in the quote “Man for the field and woman for the hearth, man for the sword and for the needle she, man with the head and woman with the heart, man to command and women to obey” from Tennyson’s The Princess. However there is more to it than simply saying that men are superior, Tennyson acknowledges their individual differences but favours neither; for example he recognises that in general men make better leaders, especially in times of war, he portrays women as being more considerate and caring which are things that would only hinder a malicious rule. IT could quite easily be said that men were favoured over women at the time Tennyson was writing which would account for some of these specualtions but in my own opinion there is only a minute element of sexism.