Godiva

Tennyson

GodivaLook at the two images that follow.

What happens when you let your hair down?

Form, Structure

• What kind of verse is used?

• Whose viewpoint frames the whole narrative?

• From whose viewpoint is the story told?

• How is the poem structured?

Language

• How is Leofric initially presented?• How is Lady Godiva initially presented?• What stereotypes does Lady Godiva then

violate?• How does Tennyson validate her course of

action? Consider– images around light– focus on hair– personification of Coventry’s buildings

• What of the conclusion of the poem and the treatment of ‘Peeping Tom’?

Hair

• ‘But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for acovering’ 1.Cor.11.15

• Private made public: hair normally worn up/in chignon, so long hair normally only seen in private, in boudoir, bedchamber

• Hence eroticised when depicted, long, in visual art.

• Thus supine knight in previous slide…

– ‘showered the rippled ringlets’– ‘unclad’, ‘half-dipt’

Homework – due Tuesday 6th November

• Complete at least one of the following:

• How does Tennyson tell the story in Ulysses?

Or

• How does Tennyson tell the story in Godiva?




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Documents

Godiva