Mariana

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Mariana is a poem written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1830.

"Mariana of the Moated Grange" first appears in William Shakespeare's dark comedy Measure for Measure and is the inspiration for the poem. In Shakespeare's work, Mariana waits in a grange for her lover, who has deserted her. At the end of Shakespeare's work, Mariana is re-united. However, there is no happy ending in Tennyson's work.

Mariana follows a common theme in much of Tennyson's work: that of despondent isolation. The subject of Mariana is a woman who continuously laments her lack of connection with society. The isolation defines her existence, and her longing for a connection leaves her wishing for death at the end of every stanza. In order to properly portray her horrible plight, Tennyson uses strong imagery to express a parallel between the woman's dilapidated environment and her inner mental/social state. Tennyson's greatest strength may possibly be his ability to create scenery and use this scenery to embody a human's emotional state.

Different stanzas in the poem reflect on either day, night, or her life as a whole. The end result is obvious, that in her current state, hours, days, weeks, months all blend into nothing. They merely create a dull smear of despondency that is her life.

[edit] Interpretation 1: Allegory for his life

It is hard to pin down the exact subject that Tennyson had in mind while writing this poem. Tennyson himself lived in what has been described as a "melancholy isolation." In this light, the poem could be seen as an allegory for his life. It wasn't until 1827, when he and his brother Charles published Poems by Two Brothers, which garnered attention of other poets that Tennyson had any interaction with anyone outside his family circle. Thus, it is entirely possible that Tennyson is recounting his youthful isolation. This is bolstered by a letter written later:

"In my youth I knew much greater unhappiness than I have known in later life. When I was about twenty, I used to feel moods of misery unutterable! I remember once in London the realization coming over me, of the whole of its inhabitants lying horizontal a hundred years hence. The smallness and emptiness of life sometimes overwhelmed me–."

There were multiple other letters where Tennyson expressed his feelings of isolation from society as a whole.

[edit] Interpretation 2: His Father's mental illness

The desire expressed in the poem for a person who has been lost and is not coming back is strong. In this light, the poem could be inspired by Tennyson's father's plight. At the time of writing, Tennyson's father had been consistently suffering from insanity for years, a fact which greatly worried Tennyson. This would be Tennyson calling upon his knowledge of mental instability and insanity to express the deep depression and destitution that come from a lack of connection with any other human being.

"It is with great sorrow that I inform you that my poor Father is not any better than before. He had another violent attack of the same nature yesterday. Indeed no one but those who are continually with him can conceive what he suffers, as he is never entirely free from this alarming illness. He is reduced to such a degree of weakness from these repeated attacks, that the slightest shock is sufficient to bring them on again. Perhaps if he could summon resolution enough to get out more, he would be relieved, but the lassitude which the fits leave incapacitates him from undergoing any exertion. He has already had two of these since my Grandfather was here which is not much more than a week ago and some time previous to that had three each night successively."

It is likely that Tennyson is fascinated and intrigued by mental instability, having seen many people fall victim to it. With Mariana, it appears that Tennyson paints mental instability as the inability to connect a person to society.

[edit] Conclusion

In either case, Tennyson beautifully expresses the deep depression and destitution that come from a lack of connection with any other human being. Initially, many lean towards the mental instability interpretation for this poem. This is largely driven by Tennyson's own later bouts with insanity in addition to his brothers and other close relatives' mental instability. Tennyson's life is littered with experiences with insanity. However, most of those occur after the poem is written. His father's first bout with insanity was in 1824 eventually leading to his mother leaving his father in 1829 and his father dying in 1831. Tennyson's greatest works come after he has had a long time to brood over his feelings. It is very likely that Tennyson brooded over his feeling for years, and his mother leaving his father -- an insane man who could no longer connect to society -- struck striking similarities to Shakespeare's Mariana of the Moated Grange.