Comparing Ulysses And The Lady Of S

The notion of writing quests was not only widespread during the Victorian Era, but it is extensively perceived in today’s modern novels and movies. A quest in literature is a hunt for thriller and adventure. The Victorians viewed quests as a means to tell stories in their own viewpoints using their own words. Two of the most prominent writers of the Victorian Era, Mathew Arnold and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, are also among the best quest seeking story writers of the Victorian Era. Some of their greatest quest tale stories are “The Scholar Gipsy,” “The Lady of Shalott,” and “Ulysses.”
In both “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tennyson speaks about people who are in love, but cannot experience that love for the reason
“The secret of their art, When fully learn'd, will to the world impart” (lines 48-49). Mathew imagines the Scholar Gipsy as a ghostly figure who is waiting for “for the spark from heaven,” just as everyone else on Earth is. He believes that he had once seen the Scholar Gipsy, although it has been nearly two hundred years since the story was first told. Mathew ends his tale by telling the Scholar Gypsy to stay clear of the modern world, since every person in the modern world suffers from what he refers to as a “strange disease of modern life” (line 203). Unlike “Ulysses” and “The Lady of Shalott,” “The Scholar Gipsy” struggles to keep himself in isolation from the world, rather than to escape
If she fails to do so she will be distend to die. The only way that she can view the outside world is to view it through her mirror. “And moving thro’ a mirror clear That hangs before her all the year, Shadows of the world appear” (lines 46-48).

Unlike “The Lady of Shalott,” “Ulysses” is free to move about the world as he likes. He chooses to hold himself back due to the responsibilities that he carries, as a father and a king. Another thing that sets the two poems apart is that Ulysses’ tale is a tale of love for adventure and servitude, whereas the Lady of Shalott’s is a tale of romantic love and tragedy.
In the end, what makes all the tales similar is that the characters end up sacrificing something of great importance so that they may pursue their dreams. In “Ulysses,” Ulysses ends up leaving his kingdom in the hands of his son, Telemachus, while he peruses his dream to sail with his mariners out in the open sea, were he might die or experience the world to its fullest. In “The Lady of Shalott,” the lady sacrifices her life when her mirror breaks, so that she can continue to view the world. In “The Scholar Gipsy,” the Scholar Gipsy sacrifices his education, so that he can join a band of