This week we read “The Lady of Shallot” by Lord Alfred Tennyson and during class found it similar to other stories, such as “Rapunzel” and “Shrek”. I found the connection between “The Lady of Shallot” and the Grimm Brothers’ “Rapunzel” to be interesting, In this blog post I want to go in depth to that connection and find similarities from both stories.
The first connection between both stories is that the main character, a beautiful woman is entrapped in an isolated tower. Rapunzel and the Lady of Shallot are both captives in their individual prisons and are not allowed to leave. They both share the longing to leave their confinement and go out to the outside world.
The second link I found was the use of singing. Both Rapunzel and the Lady of Shallot share a love of singing and their songs travel down to an audience. The Lady of Shallot’s singing is heard only by reapers, while Rapunzel’s singing attract a prince.
The third parallel between these stories is that their attraction to a man leads to their downfall. The Lady of Shallot sees Sir Lancelot and sets off her curse by looking at Camelot. Rapunzel hides her love for the prince from the enchantress, but once the enchantress learns of this, she casts Rapunzel out to live in the desert.
The ending of these stories are different. The Lady of Shallot dies when her curse is enacted. Rapunzel is cast out, but is eventually reunited with her prince, and lives happily ever after.
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Hi Isabelle! I love how you were able to connect the Lady of Shallot to characters from other stories. When I read this piece by Tennyson, Juliet from “Romeo and Juliet” came to my mind. One connection you made to Rapunzel and the Lady of Shallot was that they were attracted to a man and it ended up hurting them. I feel that this is the same for Juliet, since her love affair ultimately led to her death. You also mentioned that Rapunzel and the Lady of Shallot were both confined. Juliet was, in a way, confined as well since her family did not approve of her being with Romeo. I’m sure there are other connections that could be made to different characters in addition to these!
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I love the connection between the story ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Lady of the Shallot’. I totally agree with you that the connections are undeniable. When we first talked about this four-part poem I knew that it gave me almost a Disney fairytale that had gone wrong. Although the endings are different I will say I prefer the ‘lady of the shallot’ ending more. I think it’s more of the realistic ending versus the happily ever after that ‘Rapunzel’ gives. The only question I have left after reading this is just the details about the curse. Who casted it? And why cast it on her? Other than that this poem was very entertaining to me.
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Hi Isabelle! I loved your post and how you found connections between Rapunzel and The Lady Of Shallot. It’s interesting how both of them were in similar situations such as being locked in a tower isolated from society. However, Rapunzel just had very long hair whereas The Lady Of Shallot couldn’t look out of the window. I also agree with your second point how both women shared a love for music. The last point is also correct that the love they had was their downfall. I also think they share a common theme which is “people will do anything for love” but it also shows that sometimes following your heart will cause destruction.
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