Tennysons Merlin and Vivien Essay -- Lord Alfred Tennyson Papers

Tennysons Merlin and VivienKnown as single of Victorian Englands finest poets, Lord Alfred Tennysonepitomized the agony and despondency of the degradation of ones character. His masterpiece, The Idylls of the King, explicates the grand system ofcorruption of the Authurian age while simultaneously paralleling Tennysons owninternal struggles. A most intriguing chapter of The Idylls, Merlin and Vivienportrays the manipulative Vivien, identified as refined evil and hatred, as hercorruptive beauty leads to Merlins self-destruction.The Victorian era, from the coronation of mogul Victoria in 1837 untilher death in 1901, was an era of several unsettling tender developments thatforced writers more than ever before to take positions on the fast issuesanimating the rest of society. Thus, although romantic forms of expression inpoetry and prose keep to dominate English literature throughout much ofthe century, the attention of many writers was directed, sometimespassionately, to such iss ues as the growth of English democracy, theeducation of the masses, the advancement of industrial enterprise and theconsequent rise of a materialistic philosophy, and the toast of the unexampledlyindustrialized worker. In addition, the unsettling of religious belief by newadvances in science, particularly the theory of evolution and the historicalstudy of the Bible, move other writers away from the immemorial subjects ofliterature into considerations of problems of faith and truth. Tennysons writingdisplays state of doubt and concern towards Englands government, bothpresent and past. His distinctive style give the axe be differentiated from manyVictorian poets by diction and phrase structure alone. Also, Tennyson can b... ...harmony. His poem Merlin and Vivien of The Idylls of the King displaysMerlins self-chosen downfall in qualify for the temptations of Vivien, themanipulative evil. For Merlin, overtalked and overworn,/ Had yielded, told herall the charm, and slept. ( ll.963-964)BibliographyWorks CitedCuller, Dwight. The Poerty of Tennyson. London Yale UP, 1997. 238-239.Hain, Donald. Tennysons Language. Toronto Toronto UP, 1991. 144-148. Hellstrom, Ward. On the Poems of Tennyson. Gainsville University of FloridaPress, 1972. 117-118.Kincaid, James. The Major Poems of Tennyson The queer and Ironic Patterns.London Yale UP, 1975. 177-182.Marshall, George. A Tennyson Handbook. New York Twayne Publishers, 1963.140-141.Reed, John. Perception and Design in Tennysons Idylls of the King. AthensOhio UP, 1969. 48-58.