Tennyson's Mariana:Emotional and Environmental Similarities

Tennyson's poem Mariana is the story of a woman who lives an isolated existence surrounded by a moat, and who spends her days and nights anticipating the arrival of her lover. In the poem, there is a prevailing feeling of loneliness and despair that dominates throughout. Not only is Mariana isolated in her residence, but the dismal conditions that she finds herself living in are representational of the emotional turmoil that she is experiencing in her life. Mariana's surroundings in the poem are aesthetically overcast - barren and bleak - and are perfectly compatible with her unhappy mental state.

Tennyson creates a bleak atmosphere from the beginning of the poem with his description of this place where Mariana lives: "With blackest moss the flower pots/ Were thickly crusted one and all;" (1-2). This description of the setting in the first stanza immediately gives the reader the impression that the tone of the poem is downcast and that the main character is not a happy person. Mariana's emotional state can certainly be felt in those first lines. Because she has been waiting in vain for her love, Mariana's heart is not filled with lightness and joy, bur instead, it is covered with a blackness similar to the moss growing in the flower pots. The moss also represents darkness as flower pots are supposed to be filled with beautiful flowers that are fragrant and colorful.

The link between Mariana's unhappiness and her setting is further revealed in line 3: "The rusted nails fell from the knots" (3). Mariana is as neglected as this place that she calls home is. Similar to her surroundings, she has not been tended to in a very long time, and she is rusting away emotionally. This uncared for feeling is also evident in line 5: "The broken sheds looked sad and strange" (5). With this use of personification, Tennyson creates an atmosphere of melancholy that encompasses not only the woman, but everything around her. Tennyson also portrays the grange where Mariana lives as "Weeded and worn" (7), yet another reference to the disarray of her emotional state. The garden of her home is overgrown with weeds and unkempt, alluding to the fact that Mariana has allowed the things around her to go awry just as she has allowed herself to become so overgrown with hopelessness and despair. She is also "worn" (7) emotionally which is brought on from her lengthy period of watching and waiting for her lover to return.

Mariana's physical and mental isolation is also highlighted by the fact that she is "Upon the lonely moated grange" (8). She is separated from the world by a boundary that keeps everyone out-including the one she loves, but the moat is also a boundary that keeps her confined within. The reader can sense her remoteness in line 8 because there is such a pervading feeling of seclusion in those words, and the image that one conjures up from those words is stark and oppressive. Marian is in a prison-both physically and emotionally-and she cannot break free from it.

Tennyson, Alfred. "Mariana." The Norton Anthology of English Literature Seventh Edition Volume 2. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000.