The Lady of Shalott Isolation Quotes

We think this line really rides on that big vocab word: "imbowers." This means to close up in a bower, which is an old term that refers to a lady's private room. In another kind of poem, this could be associated with protection, keeping someone safe from the outside world. But in this poem, we think it's a lot darker than that. This bower is really a prison, even though we don't know who put it there. Even that bit about the "silent isle" emphasizes how lonely and isolated and cut off from the world the Lady is.

She's not just isolated physically, but emotionally too. She wants what anyone wants, companionship, comfort, and love. She can see these things in her mirror, she can watch lovers stroll by, but she is cursed to be alone. That's what this line is all about. A knight, in this world, would protect and serve a lady, like the red-cross knight on Lancelot's shield (lines 78-9). In a sense the poem suggests that knights and ladies belong together, and a lady on her own is incomplete. You might have some problems with that idea, but that seems to be the message the Lady is getting.

Here's the clearest expression of frustration from the Lady. In this moment we learn not just that she feels isolated in her shadow world, but also that the isolation really hurts. She wants not only to watch other people but also to join them.

Sadly, even once she gets out of her prison/bower, the Lady is still isolated. We really feel it in this moment, as she looks down the river and sees her doom. She can feel the weight of the curse, and she knows she won't make it to Camelot, at least not alive. One of the things this poem might make us wonder is whether it's the physical isolation that's the problem or some kind of deeper loneliness inside. In general, the inside vs. the outside is a big and complicated theme in this poem.

Ultimately, she dies alone. She might have achieved a kind of freedom at the end, but the Lady remains isolated through the whole poem. We get a lot of little hints about this. For example, she dies in a boat, which separates her from the river and the world – it's like a little coffin. Also, check out the way this line says she died "in" her song. That's a funny way of saying it, and gives us the feeling that she was somehow a prisoner in her lonely song too. Sorry, that sounds pretty grim doesn't it? This is not the happiest poem.