Tennysons Princess - The Womans Cause Is Mans :: Tennyson Princess Essays

The Womans ca-ca Is Mans Alfred Lord Tennyson, the author of The Princess, 1847, was born as the fourth of twelve children on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire to George and Elizabeth Tennyson. In 1827 he began his higher training at Trinity College, Cambridge where he won university prizes for his poetry and became involved in an undergraduate club, The Apostles, which greatly influenced his life and later works. Tennyson died on October 6, 1892 at the age of 83 years after enjoying a delayed but satisfying and profitable literary career (Everett) The Princess was the work that turned Tennysons struggling career around and determined the foundation for his continued success and ultimate acclaim as the Poet and Prophet of the Victorian era. The composition of The Princess was a lengthy process beginning in 1839 and culminating in its publication in 1847. Tennysons works, in general and The Princess, in particular are representative of the Victorian era and th e societal quest for self-identification. During this time period thither existed a strong desire to understand and in some cases, remake male/female relations. Many of Tennysons works deal with this Victorian issue - The Womans Cause is Mans is one example of a literary attempt to define a social issue. The Victorian era also highly prized the value of self-control, which was considered the defining character of masculinity (Riede). Due to the influences of industrialization during this time period and the residual class distinctions of previous time periods, this work addresses the male/female issue as it relates to inwardness and upper class men and women and does not attempt to include the issues facing men and women of the working class, which were distinctly different. The Womans Cause is Mans is an excerpt from the long narrative poem, The Princess. The invention is set in a fairy-tale realm and deals with the effort to establish a womens college. Interestingly , the very first British institution of higher education for women, Queens College in London, was overt the year following the publication of The Princess. The storys heroine, Princess Ida, has sworn never to marry and has dedicated her life to the founding of a womens college. The Prince, on the other hand, is determined to win the Princess and to change her that her efforts on behalf of feminists are futile.