Alex Brooks Professor Marchbanks English 21 16 April 2004 The Wailing of Women and the Muscle of Men Alfred Lord Tennyson composed a number of poems dealing with the subject of love lost. In doing so, he often created stirring images which provoked intense feelings from readers. People in real life who are abandoned by a lover will usually experience a natural period in which they feel nothing but loneliness and despair, and sometimes even a desire to die. However, an abandoned lover in real life will usually find a way to cleanse himself or herself of negative sentiments and move on to other things, placing the loss of his or her lover in the past and viewing it as a learning experience. Humans possess a natural instinct of optimism and a tendency to strive for emotional independence. Tennyson wrote three poems which deal with the specific subject of love lost. One poem is narrated by a man, and the other two detail the experiences of distraught women. In comparing these poems one can see marked differences between the outlook of the man and his method of dealing with his situation and the outlooks and actions of the two women. In “Locksley Hall” (1842), the male narrator deals with his feelings in a sophisticated and mature manner and moves back toward happiness, while in “Mariana” (1830) and “Oenone” (1833) the female narrators wallow in self-pity, wish for death, and repeat their despairing cries over and over. The male analyses his own psyche and moves on, flowing forward like a great, wide river, while the females sit like stagnant puddles collecting dead worms. Whether it is a reflection of sexist views or simply an inability to empathize with females, Tennyson’s male characters are much more confident and capable than his females. Brooks 2 Tennyson is much respected as a poet and is well-known for his moving emotional works, the foremost of which is “In Memoriam” (1850). However, critics have pointed out that his most touching work was often autobiographical, and that he lacked the ability to create such heartfelt emotion in fictional characters. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature ( ) decrees that “It was no deepening insight into his subjects that guided Tennyson’s efforts, for they were to him subjects and no more” (114). This lack of insight could account for the portrayal of women as clueless and helpless, as Tennyson wrote about them not with the intention of getting inside their heads but only with the intention of describing what he saw. And some scholars agree that that what he saw may not have been at all indicative of true human feeling. In fact, Robert Bernard Martin argued in his detailed biography of Tennyson that a physical defect prevented the poet from accurately perceiving emotions in people: “Tennyson’s acute myopia seemed emblematic of his usual perception of persons and emotions in unity rather than duality” (394). This point of view (or lack of one) is helpful in explaining the one- dimensional nature of Tennyson’s female characters. His women often seem as if they were created by someone with limited perception of emotion. Other critics have taken a more active stance in stating that Tennyson actually tried to create an image of weakness in association with females. One woman has decreed that his female narratives “represent the most devastating attempt to subsume the female voice in English literary history” (Peterson 14). In any case, Tennyson’s female subjects’ lack of real feeling and power exposes itself frequently in his work. The most telling distinction between male and female characters is that the males often make significant emotional and psychological progress, while the females simply collapse. Self- awareness and self-analyses are integral to any sort of progress in life. The real people or fictional characters who achieve happiness are usually the ones who ask themselves how they Brooks 3 feel, why, and what they can do to improve the situation. The male narrator in “Locksley Hall” takes this very approach to himself, questioning whether he should let go of his feelings for his cousin Amy, who continually hurts him. He wonders, “Am I mad that I should cherish that which bears but bitter fruit?” (ll. 65-66). This is a significant emotional step, as he questions the value of his relationship with his cousin. He realizes that he needs to stop allowing himself to be hurt. In stark contrast to the man’s self-analysis, the female subjects of “Mariana” and “Oenone” do not even begin to ask themselves questions or to hash out their feelings. Instead, they take the resigned approach of wishing for death. While this may be an appropriate feeling that needs to be expressed, the fact that it is unaccompanied by any sort of deeper thought gives these women an image of pathetic helplessness rather than self-motivation. The difference between the mature psychological approach of the man and the childish approach of the two women is reflected in the progress made by the one versus the stagnancy of the others. At the beginning of “Locksley Hall,” the narrator says to his friends that he is sad and needs some time alone, but to rouse him with the bugle horn when he tells them to. Near the end of the poems, he alerts his comrades that he has come to terms with his grief and is ready to rejoin them. Neither Oenone nor Mariana makes any progress of this sort. In fact, it is particularly striking that each woman concludes her narrative with almost exactly the same statement with which she began it. Oenone begins and ends, talking to the valley around her as opposed to friends, by saying “Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die…” (ll. 24). The only progress made by Mariana is from the slight ambiguity of “My life is dreary, / He cometh not” (ll. 9-10) to the dark certainty of “I am very dreary, / He will not come” (ll. 81-82). There is a noticeable difference here, as the man moves from incredible grief back to a sociable mood while Oenone Brooks 4 makes no progress and Mariana moves only from stating that her man is not present to stating that he definitely will not come. Another important issue concerning psychological and emotional progress is anger. If a character is betrayed by a lover and simply mourns the lover’s departure, that character will not be able to move forward and will simply dwell on the past. A character that experiences anger at a lover who betrayed him and her realizes that he or she has been wronged and is ready to follow the path of self-righteousness on to new experiences in life. The narrator of “Locksley Hall” exhibits his anger at his cousin Amy when he harshly criticizes her: “Puppet to a father’s threat, and servile to a shrewish tongue!” (ll. 41). This passage is significant in that it shows, once again, progress from sadness to rage. The fact that he can speak of Amy in this way indicates that he realizes she is not the ideal person for him, and that he is getting ready to move on. Oenone and Mariana show no anger at their departed partners, and pine for them instead. Mariana even goes as far as to ask herself if it was her fault that she lost Paris, on account of not being attractive enough. She then boosts her self esteem by saying that she saw a leopard that looked as if it was attracted to her (ll. 194-197). The contrast here, as in other aspects of the poems, is fairly sharp: the man looks ahead, confident and self-righteous, and blames his past troubles on the weakness and servility of his ex. The woman vainly questions her sex appeal, worrying that she is not pleasing to the opposite sex, and reproaches herself instead of reproaching her lover. Women are hereby portrayed not only as being not only weak but also shallow. Many scholars have noted a trend in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s work of ideals consistent with those of the “Romantic male quest,” a progression of events in which men triumph over obstacles and clear emotional turmoil while women weep and mourn. As Angela Leighton Brooks 5 points out, Tennyson’s poems concerning Mariana seem to have a set plot structure: “the man aspires, but the woman mourns; he scales the heights, but she longs for home” (14). This structure certainly seems to have been demonstrated in the comparison of “Locksley Hall” to “Mariana” and “Oenone.” The man is looking ahead to a bright future while the women dwell on the sadness of the past. The man’s attitude brings him success and friendship, while the women are depicted “in isolation from any human or natural community. Such isolation is the feminine consequence of the Romantic male quest” (Lipking 10). The idea of the male’s quest as a continuous process that leaves the female bereft in a desolate corner of society seems to be quite applicable to Tennyson’s work. In this instance, “Locksley Hall,” “Mariana,” and “Oenone” all have companion poems involving the same characters at later points in time. The events, descriptions, and dialogue from these later poems continue the trends originally established, and fulfill the timeline of the Romantic male quest as it is described by Lipking. The poem “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After” (1886) serves as a companion to “Locksley Hall,” and provides the reader with a glimpse into the future of the man whose emotional journey was described in the earlier poem.