Unveiling Mariana’s Inner Mind: Alfred Lord Tennyson and Julia Margaret Cameron

This essay examines the psychological state of Mariana that was displayed in Tennyson’s pictorial poetry ”Mariana” and Cameron’s photographic illustration Mariana in order to reconsider the Victorian women’s position in the conventions of femininity. Owing to the vivid pictorial descriptions, Tennyson’s “Mariana” has been examined in terms of its aesthetic value. However, this essay argues that Tennyson’s interested in mental science boomed in the mid-nineteenth century is reflected in “Mariana.” By analyzing “Mariana,” this essay first examines how Tennyson conveyed the abandoned Mariana’s mental breakdown through the medium of landscape. Playing a role as the true interpreter of his age, a poet laureate Tennyson reflected the Victorian women’s position in the patriarchal society. This essay subsequently explores how Cameron reproduced Tennyson’s psychological portrait of Mariana’s mental disintegration in her unfocused photographic space. Unlike Tennyson’s Mariana, Cameron rather radically visualized her version of Mariana by utilizing her unique out-of-focus technique. Although Tennyson and Cameron used their own artistic methods to unveil the Victorian Mariana’s inner mind, both provide a chance to reconsider the conventions of femininity in arts and literature.