Compare and contrast the language used to describe the Lady of Shallot and her castle with Sir Lancelot in "The Lady of Shallot."

Congratulations on identifying one of the central
contrasts in this incredible poem. Of course, Tennyson seems to hae deliberately created
a whole set of contrasting images that deliberately present the Lady of Shallot and Sir
Lancelot in contrast with each other. Notice how, up until the entrance of Sir Lancelot,
we associate the Lady of Shallot with a world of shadows and greyness. The second
stanza, for example, presents us with a rather bleak, austere and colourless
setting:

Four
grey walls, and four grey towers,

Overlook a space of
flowers,

And the silent isle
imbowers

The Lady of
Shallot.

The Lady of Shallot
herself characterises her life as consisting of "shadows" that she is tired
of.

By contrast, note how Sir Lancelot is
introduced:

A
bowshot from her bower eaves,

He rode between the barley
sheaves,

The sun came dazzling through the
leaes,

And flamed upon the brazen
greaves

Of bold Sir
Lancelot.

We associate his
character with action, movement and colour, compared to the passive nature of the Lady
of Shallot. Note how the sun "dazzles" as it reflects of the "brazen greaves" of Sir
Lancelot, and how he is presented immediately as being associated with speed. Tennyson
thus creates a contrast between life and a pale imitation of life, or perhaps between
life and death.