Tennyson The Lotos-Eaters as a Victorian Poem

Focuses on Classical Legends- Tennyson’s poems are largely composed of classical legends and their adventurous journey. Somewhere, these adventurous journey of these legends and mythology connects with the present scenario of the Victorian age. Ulysses or Odyssey represents a Victorian person who is in a voyage demanding his mariners to have “courage” after their exhaustive journey since the last nine days. The word “courage” itself opens to a Victorian spirit where the victorians are determined to question and fulfil their dreams. 

Spirit of inquiry – The Victorian age was an era of spirit of inquiry.  The development of science and technology helped them to utilise every sphere of life through reason and logic. The poem clearly depicts the same spirit of interrogation where the mariners started to question the very existence of human life. They were questioning the fate of man who is doomed to toil on earth. Here , the mariners question the fate of man which was cursed upon by God in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. The mariners question why man has to work hard and the rest of the nature can repose and rest. They stated that man is tossed from one sorrow to another and consider tranquility to grant peace to man yet man is fated to work and wonder about life. 

Impact of 1832 Reform Bills- The impact of the Reform Bills of 1832 brought forward the equal representations of every citizen in England. Tennyson represent the lowest strata of society who are the mariners themselves. One can critically observe the difficulties and sacrifices of the mariners in the poem who bear heavy burden of toiling and a burden that they carry away from their homes and families. Tennyson represented them to actually depict the life of the lowest strata society to give them equal representation in the poem. The poet has contemplated about the idea of death and futility which the mariners ponder upon that reflects the everyday struggles of the low class society. They wonder that life is temporal and it leads to nowhere. They expresses their desire for a long reposes so that they can liberate themselves from the slavery of endless labour. 

Inner Conflict – The most important writing of Victorian poem is the inner conflict. One can see the inner conflict in the mariners where the binary opposition between stay/return is instituted. Since, it is the age of science and technology, the poet cunningly used the reason to institute the fact on why the mariners has to stay on the lotos easter island rather than return to their homeland, Ithaca. The mariners struggle whether they should stay or return but they used their reasoning skills to stay in the island because they believed that their sons would have inherited their property and their return to Ithaca would merely cause a problem. Hence, they decides to stay in the island. 

Victorian Compromise- The Victorian compromise is important because the poem projects the situation of the mariners who compromises their own life for the sake of their children’s life. This institute the very Victorian concept of art for life’s sake highly influenced by the life of the Victorians. Many of the Victorians compromise their own life for the sake of their pursuit. The mariners also compromised their own lives staying in the island of Lotos eaters. Their children will be inheriting their properties and their return would disturb their attainment. Hence, they decides to stay in the island compromising their lives only for the fruitful future of their children. The mariners wants to release their tension by staying in the island where they would be free from any natural disasters and diseases. They concludes that dream and sleep is far superior than working hard , they resolve to stay in the island compromising their lives only for the sake of life. 

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