Tennyson’s “Merlin and Vivien” Known as one of Victorian England’s finest poets, Lord Alfred Tennyson epitomized the agony and despondency of the degradation of one’s character. His masterpiece, The Idylls of the King, explicates the grand scheme ofcorruption of the Authurian age while simultaneously paralleling Tennyson’s owninternal struggles. A most intriguing chapter of The Idylls, “Merlin and Vivien”portrays the manipulative Vivien, identified as pure evil and hatred, as hercorruptive beauty leads to Merlin’s self-destruction.The Victorian era, from the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 untilher death in 1901, was an era of several unsettling social developments thatforced writers more than ever before to take positions on the immediate issuesanimating the rest of society. Thus, although romantic forms of expression inpoetry and prose continued to dominate English literature throughout much ofthe century, the attention of many writers was directed, sometimespassionately, to such issues as the growth of English democracy, theeducation of the masses, the progress of industrial enterprise and theconsequent rise of a materialistic philosophy, and the plight of the newlyindustrialized worker. In addition, the unsettling of religious belief by newadvances in science, particularly the theory of evolution and the historicalstudy of the Bible, drew other writers away from the immemorial subjects ofliterature into considerations of problems of faith and truth. Tennyson’s writingdisplays evidence of doubt and concern towards England’s government, bothpresent and past. His distinctive style can be differentiated from manyVictorian poets by diction and syntax alone. Also, Tennyson can be identifiedby his free-verse prose (Ricks, 89) Tennyson’s writing encompasses many poetic styles and includes someof the finest idyllic poetry in the language. Growing up in Linco...
