e overthrown (Kincaid185). Merlin’s fall is more accurately deduced as being caused by triviality. Merlin is taken by Vivien’s beauty first and is later entrapped in her seduction .The theme “beauty surmises corruption” is applied here where Merlin isdescribed as “art with poisonous honey stole from France” (Culler 239). Insuch a world, calamities are natural and, for the most part, the Idylls agreeswith Vivien in that all of nature is on her side (Kincaid 183). Moreover, inMerlin, Tennyson creates the “dream of one man coming into practical life andruined by one sin” (Reed 48).“Merlin and Vivien” can also be paralleled to the sirens of Homer’s TheOdyssey. Vivien, like the sirens, lures Merlin into certain doom. In the myth,the sirens were beautiful temptresses that entrapped sailors’ wills with theirseducing song. Once the sailor heard the song, he would immediately steertoward the island where he would crash to his death. No sailor was said tohave ever passed by the island without being trapped. This is also true withVivien. Every knight that she has ever enticed has fallen to her temptationsand Merlin is no different. Vivien attracted him with her whim and audacity andher beauty and seductiveness. Merlin’s fall, which was by choice, is alsosimilar to the myth of the sirens. The sailors were certain of doom whenapproaching the island yet they pushed onward, wanting to experience theinfamous temptation. Unlike Odysseus, though, Merlin does not survive thepowers of the temptress. Merlin falls to her power and this defeat signals theend of hope for Camelot.Few poets have produced acknowledged masterpieces in so manydifferent poetic genres as Tennyson; he furnished perhaps the most notableexample in English letters of the catholic style. His consummately crafted verseexpresses in readily comprehensible terms the Victorian feeling for order andharmo...
