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The legend of "the Lady of Shalott"
supposedly takes place during the time of King Arthur and the Knights of
the Round Table. The lady is imprisoned in a small castle by a fairy who tells
her that if she looks upon Camelot a curse will come upon her, but she does not
know what the curse is. In the castle "the Lady of Shalott" has a mirror in which
she can see shadows of what is happening in Camelot. She enjoys weaving the
images she sees on a magical loom. One day she sees the knight Lancelot through
the mirror and falls madly in love with him. She decides to leave Shalott and
take the chance that she will be able to gaze upon his face and enter Camelot.
As soon as she steps out of the castle the mirror cracks and she knows the curse
has fallen upon her. She runs down to the water, boards a small boat, and heads
off towards Camelot, but sadly she dies just before reaching it. Her dead body
is found in the boat which floats to Camelot’s shore, her name written around
its prow. "The Lady of Shalott" is said to foreshadow the downfall of Camelot.
Just as Sir Lancelot was the Lady of Shalott’s destruction, his affair with
Queen Guinevere leads to the destruction of Camelot.
Waterhouse fully captured the Lady in her crazed, frantic state,
desperately trying to reach Camelot, dying as she goes. On the front of the boat
surrounded by candles lies a cross, with the image of Jesus nailed to it,
symbolizing her willingness to sacrifice her life for love. The tapestry she is
sitting on is one she wove on her loom, depicting scenes of Camelot. The two
images on the tapestry that can be seen are the Lady of Shalott herself riding
toward Camelot in the boat, and sir Lancelot on a horse surrounded by other
knights. Waterhouse depicted other images from the legend one in 1894, also
entitled The Lady of Shalott, and another one in 1915 entitled
“I’m half sick of shadows”, whose title was quoted from Tennyson’s poem
“The Lady of Shalott”.
Item Number:"the
Lady of Shalott" jww26 |
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