The medieval revival in the Victorian era was not a glorification of Britain’s mythical past, but rather a veneration of its present. Victorian society contemporized the chivalrous ideals of "knights" and "damsels," projecting self-reverence through popular medieval characters and settings.@Debra N. Mancoff, The Return of King Artur: The Legend through Victorian Eyes (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995): 8.
The depiction of Victorian society within an appropriation of Arthurian values is particularly prominent in regards to the construction of gender. Alfred Tennyson’s 1832 (revised in 1842) poem "The Lady of Shalott" first appeared in Poems, which was the second volume of the writer’s poetry to be published under his full name.@Anna Jane Barton, "'What profits me my name?' The Aesthetic Potential of the Commodified Name in Lancelot and Elaine." Victorian Poetry 44.2 (2006): 140. Tennyson’s poem epitomizes the projection of the specific gender roles assigned to men and women of the Victorian era through the medieval lens. As with many poetic works, there have been numerous visual materials associated with Tennyson’s poem. One of the most iconic paintings connected to Tennyson’s text is John William Waterhouse’s 1888 oil on canvas painting titled The Lady of Shalott. This exhibit demonstrates how distinct gender roles illustrated in both Tennyson and Waterhouse's works, respectively, mimic the socially constructed characteristics of the sexes throughout the Victorian era. Although Tennyson and Waterhouse's works were created more than half a century apart, both poet and painter construct similar representations of the masculine and the feminine, illustrating the stagnation of gender roles throughout a century credited with great change and progress. This exhibit explores how, and to what extent, both the poem and painting reflect specific traits that were derived from a Victorian projection of gender identities.

In Tennyson's poem the ideal of the protagonist remains unfulfilled. There is no plot-turn toward emotional relief; she is never saved or empowered by the man she longs for. Instead, her only act of pseudo-empowerment is the arguably unconscious provocation of the curse she is under, which ultimately leads to her death. The poem, then, ends with the irony of Lancelot watching her lifeless body float past him down a stream as he muses over her beauty. What makes this event even more ironic and tragic is how her death immediately follows a life of negation. At no point does she experience relief or fulfillment, "the Lady simply exchanges one kind of imprisonment for another; her presumed freedom is her death."@Shuli Barzilai, "Say That I Had a Lovely Face": The Grimms' "Rapunzel," Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott," and Atwood's Lady Oracle." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 19.2 (2000): 232. As a Tragedy of Errors, the poem alludes to a fundamental misunderstanding causing conflict and irresolution. The idea of female subservience stems from a patriarchal interpretation of femininity and both Tennyson and Waterhouse construct their "Ladies" to be pleasing to them as men and as masters/creators.