How do the words of Tennyson's poem express Marianas frustration and depression?

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How do the words of the poem express Mariana’s frustration and depression?

Although “Mariana” is comparable to “The Lady of Shalott”, in that both poems focus on a lonesome and isolated woman, “Mariana” has much more emphasis and focus on her frustration and depression. Tennyson successfully portrays her emotions through a variety of creative uses of words: the personification of the landscape subtly shows how she has no other human contact, thus it seems that “her mind” is subconsciously making the surroundings into animate objects to show this. The other effective, and sometimes more evocative, technique is the regular use of onomatopoeic vocabulary, which, aurally, vividly annunciates Mariana’s frustration, such as with long vowels. These, and other features, create a lucidly presented mood that supports the underlying meaning that the poem is written upon.

        

Tennyson uses pathetic fallacy regularly to enhance the mood that is being put forward to the reader. A point that is being made is that fact that Mariana has being living in this house for quite some time, which has partially led to her frustration. This image of frustration, stagnation and despair is reflected in her environment: “blackest moss”, “rusted nails”, “broken sheds” and “ancient”. These images effectively lead the reader to associate these characteristics with Mariana, and then to presume that she, too, is lacking vitality, and is therefore frustrated with where she is.

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A more subtle effect that can be found in the surroundings, is the use of more human-like personification, which makes the scenery appear to be alive. As Mariana is the only character mentioned in the poem, the reader automatically links this perception to be her thoughts. A different perspective on a previous quotation, “broken sheds look’d sad” raises the notion that these objects are gaining strong, direct human characteristics, which in turn enforces the idea that, having developed human qualities, Mariana has no other human contact. This therefore shows how she inevitably has become depressed. “blacken’d waters slept” also ...

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