The Virtual Coffeehouse

While I agree with what has been said about the descriptive nature of the poem contributing to its depiction in art I also believe the emotion and meaning of the poem is what chiefly has drawn readers and artists to it for so long. The Lady of Shallot lives in a world where she must view Camelot through the lens of her chimerical but cursed imprisonment. Much like the people within Plato's cave allegory her view of the world is through a mirror. She is ignorant of what her curse is and is content to weave until Lancelot rides by. He has broken her indifference and because she can never have him and must now die, he has broken her heart. The Lady Shallot's story is breathtakingly ironic and sad when Lancelot remarks on her beauty with little emotion at the end of the poem saying, "she has a lovely face." Lancelot will never know his role in her death and will never know the significance his visage had on her life. This story, this idea of entrapment, love, beauty and death is captivating--to me it only seems natural that artists would be drawn to it. Like the Lady of Shallot we are asked to look on something forbidden and dangerous--the beauty and story of spell broken.