Discuss Tennyson as a representative poet of his age

Or, Show how Tennyson’s poetry deals with the social and religious problems of his age.

Answer: Tennyson lived in an age in which a change was taking place in every sphere of life. As a result of the Industrial Revolution economic condition of the people improved. This improvement brought about a change in ‘man’s outlook. All traditional values and ideals were considered from a new point of view. One group of people looked upon wealth as an end in itself. Another group adhered to traditional values like wisdom, justice, truth patriotism, public welfare etc. One group demanded equal rights and status for women in social and economic life. Another group claimed for maintaining the traditional social order where women were considered inferior to – men. With the growth of industries slum areas developed. In those areas, workers lived miserable life. They were ill-treated by the owners of mills and factories. Demand was also raised for their education and improved medical facilities.

At that time new discoveries were made. They were against the truths of religion. Religion taught that God is the world’s creator and life. But scientific discoveries proved that the world and life were created in course of time, not in a particular time. Everything in the world operates according to mechanical law. There is nothing after death. So doubt and conflict appeared in men’s thinking. Tennyson’s mind was afflicted with these doubts and conflicts. In his poetry, he has tried to express his views on the controversial issues of his time. There is hardly any poem by him in which a reference is not made to the problems of his age.

The relationship between man and woman and woman’s status was a burning issue in his time. A group of people demanded women’s equality with men. They wanted equal rights for women in education and in other spheres of life. Another group was in favour of the traditional outlook that the sphere of activities of men was different from the sphere of activities of women. So there was no equality. Tennyson was a conservative in outlook. He was not in favour of any revolutionary change. He examined the matter in his long poem “The Princess” In it, he tried to show that the existing system should continue. He declared,

“Man for the field and woman for the hearth,

Man for the sword and for the needle she.

Man with the head and woman with the heart,

Man to command and woman to obey.”

In his poem “Locksley Hall” the hero denounces the materialistic outlook of the people of his time. He was in love with a girl named Amy. The girl had also a great passion for him. But ultimately she surrendered to the threat of his parents and married a wealthy man. That is why the hero denounces his society for preferring wealth, power, and prestige, but overlooking the real spirit of man. He feels an urge to go to a country in the east. There he will live a life which is primitive, peaceful and more in keeping with the laws of nature. But he could not make up his mind to quit his country because he loves his country above everything else. Here we notice the young man has no revolutionary zeal. He will take things as they are. He concludes “better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay”. A Victorian girl like Amy could not defy the authority of her parents. If she could do it would have been a challenge to authority, to order, to discipline. The larger section of the Victorian people did not like it. Tennyson was also of that group. Here he acts as their mouthpiece.

In the poem Mort ‘D’ Arthur the poet narrates the last moments before the death of King Arthur. His trusted knight Bedivere asks how he will be able to live “among new men, strange faces, other minds”. Arthur advises him to accept the change to express God’s will. He says,

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new

And God fulfils Himself in many ways”.

Arthur tells him to pray to God. God will show him the right way. In the same poem, Arthur’s knight faces a conflict in his mind between his desire for wealth and his loyalty to the king. It takes time to overcome his mental conflict. Everyone in Tennyson’s England had to face this conflict. The conflict was whether to defy noble ideals of life or indulge in a life of physical pleasure and comforts.

“Oenone” is one of the remarkable poems by Tennyson. In it, a nymph called Oenone laments her betrayal by her lover Paris. Paris was lured by physical pleasures only. He underrated the purity of her love. His disregard for the noble ideal caused suffering to her. Paris rejected the offer of power that knowledge gives. Oenone echoes the poet’s view when she speaks of the words of Pallas

“Self-reverence, self knowledge, self control.

These three alone lead life to sovereign power.”

In Tennyson’s time side by side with knowledge, a spirit of adventure attracted people’s minds. In his famous, poem “Uysses”, Tennyson shows this attitude of a section of the people of his society. In it, we notice that Ulysses has spent twenty years of his life in battles and adventure. He has seen many things and learned many things, yet he is not satisfied. His thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. His Victorian spirit is reflected when he says that even in old age his ambition is

In Tennyson’s age, various discoveries in geography, biology, and other fields of knowledge posed a threat to the age-old idea of man. So far people have learnt that soul is immortal. After death man suffers in hell for misdeeds or enjoys eternal happiness for his good deeds. It is God who has created the world. God has created man as the supreme living being in the universe. He has created man in his own image. But scientific discoveries tried to explain the facts of the universe in a logical way. These discoveries tried to show that the world is run by a complex process which can be explained without any reference to God. New discoveries revealed that man is similar to other forms of animals. If these facts are regarded as true the idea of God can not sustain, God no longer remains all-powerful. Apart from this, many other things were discovered but many things were yet to be explained scientifically. Besides, some questions perplexed people’s minds. They wanted to know whether physical death is the real end of life. They also wanted to know whether life has any meaning at all. They tried to assure them whether religion could answer all the questions of life,

Tennyson was baffled by these questions. Doubts, anxieties and uncertainties affected his mind. His mind could neither reject the truths of science nor assert the teachings of religion. In his poem “In Memoriam,” he examined this problem. Even after a long period of mental exercise, he could not arrive at a decision. He thought it wise to take a synthetic view. He expressed the view that scientific discoveries and religious explanations are not in conflict. They are complementary. Scientific discoveries strengthen man’s faith in God. Such discoveries reveal the law of God and do not disprove his power and existence. His famous utterance is

“There remains more faith in honest doubt

Believe me, than in half the creeds.”

It is doubt that impels a man to explore. The more one explores, the nearer to the truth he will go. Science results from doubt and aims at truth. So scientific discoveries are welcome. They have a positive value. Their discovery of the laws of nature strengthens the poet’s faith in God. He declares –

“God is law, say the wise, o soul, and let us rejoice,

For If He thunder by law, the thunder is yet his voice.”

this attitude of compromise was the desired solution to the existing mental uneasiness of the people of Tennyson’s time. By expressing these views Tennyson offered the solution.

Tennyson was temperamentally an aristocrat. In his poetry, there is little about the problems faced by the lower class people like the farmers and workers. Their right to vote, their right to a healthy life, their right to education – he neglected all such things. He wrote some poems in which the main characters are common men and what the characters say doesn’t appear spontaneous. They speak little or nothing about the unemployment, poverty and unhygienic condition of their lives. Thus we see that Tennyson was aware of the social and religious problems of his time. He tried to give voice to them. But his approach was partial. In spite of these facts, he was a true representative of his age in expressing the intellectual, social and religious problems of his time that were most striking and new. The views he expressed were insular, not universal. As a result, his fame survives mainly as a poetic artist, not as a great thinker.