‘I Shall Stand Henceforward in thy Shadow’: Pairing Women with Shadows in Victorian Poetry

(Hadeel Jamal Azhar)

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Abstract

This study traces the symbol of the shadow and its association with women’s inferior position in selected Victorian poems. It shows how, in their use of the symbol, both male and female poets represent women as abandoned in the shadow of their male contemporaries. Before addressing the poems selected, the study commences by reviewing recent scholarship which refers to the term shadow in connotation with negative attributes during the Victorian period. It also provides an overview of Victorian novels which similarly represent female characters as being held captive in the shadows. Although the poems included in this study belong to the same historical period, they have not been linked before, to the best of our knowledge, by contemporary scholars. Furthermore, the symbol of the shadow, with its association with gloominess, darkness, grief, and isolation, has not been thoroughly explored to date. Thus, the argument presented herein is a comprehensive addition to the existing literature. It offers new insights into a symbol which a number of major Victorian poets drew upon to demonstrate women’s seclusion, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Brontë, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

KEYWORDS
Barrett Browning, Brontë, femininity, Rossetti, Tennyson

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