Distorting Reality through the Crystal Mirror: Dialogue Between Literature and Painting in Waterhouse’s Representations of the Lady of Shalott

Abstract

“The Lady of Shalott” is a lyrical ballad written by the English Victorian poet Alfred Tennyson. There have been a wide variety of interpretations of this poem. It has also been a source of inspiration for various artistic expressions, such as art, literature, and music. The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of reverse ekphrasis in two paintings produced by the painter John William Waterhouse: The Lady of Shalott and I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott. On the other hand, Nicole (Nick) Loven’s film adaptation of the poem incorporates a circular intertextuality process that revolves around the interaction between images and words. Thus, the narrated text becomes a visual image. The conversion stage of the process of reverse ekphrasis, in which Tennyson’s source text is transformed into Waterhouse’s target text, depends on a specific moment depicted in the poem “The Lady of Shalott,” as conveyed through the lady’s words. Waterhouse’s intertextual dialogue with Tennyson’s poem involves a process of reverse ekphrasis. This interaction between image and word is later transformed into another visual representation. The word transformed into an image is then converted back into an image using a film version.