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

The Womans clear Is Mans Alfred Lord Tennyson, the author of The Princess, 1847, was born(p) as the fourth of twelve children on August 6th, 1809, in Somersby, Lincolnshire to George and Elizabeth Tennyson. In 1827 he began his higher education at Trinity College, Cambridge where he win university prizes for his poetry and became involved in an undergraduate club, The Apostles, which greatly influenced his life and after go aways. 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 laid the foundation for his go along success and ultimate acclaim as the Poet and Prophet of the Victorian era. The man of The Princess was a lengthy process beginning in 1839 and culminating in its yield in 1847. Tennysons works, in general and The Princess, in particular are case of the Victorian era and the societal quest fo r self-identification. During this time diaphragm at that place existed a strong desire to understand and in some cases, redo male/ egg-producing(prenominal) relations. Many of Tennysons works deal with this Victorian step up - The Womans Cause is Mans is one example of a literary attempt to particularize a social issue. The Victorian era also highly prized the comfort of self-control, which was considered the defining quality 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 middle 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 story is set in a fairy-tale realm and deals with the effort to establish a womens college. I nterestingly, the very first British institution of higher education for women, Queens College in London, was opened the year next the publication of The Princess. The storys heroine, Princess Ida, has sworn never to marry and has dedicated her life to the design of a womens college. The Prince, on the other hand, is determined to win the Princess and to convince her that her efforts on behalf of feminists are futile.