An Interpretation Of Tennyson's Evolution Of Thoughts From Narrative Techniques In His Poems

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was one of the most important poets of the Victorian period and was awarded Poet Laureate for the publication of his well-known elegy In Memoriam in 1850. His poetry was much read by his people and he deserved of much attention. Tennyson was a prolific poet and his poetry covered many aspects of the Victorian life. In his poems, what Tennyson concerned most is faith, morality and society. His meditation on these philosophical topics in different periods reveals Tennyson's evolution of thoughts, which coincides with the poet's choices of different narrative techniques. Therefore, the thesis focuses on Tennyson's evolution of thoughts from the perspective of narrative techniques in his three major poems. This thesis is divided into five parts as follows:Chapter One is introduction, briefly introducing Tennyson's life experiences, the literature review, the assumptions, the methodologies and the contributions of this thesis.In Chapter Two, the masterpiece In Memoriam is studied to reveal Tennyson's personal reassured faith. This elegy records the evolution of the poet's feelings and attitudes over chronological time-from despair, through doubt and hope, finally to faith, stimulated by the poet's friend A.H. Hallam's death. In this poem, kinds of communion between the speaker and different hearers (monologue dominated by "I" and conversation with the plural "we") enhance the sense of communion, illustrate the process of the poet's emotional evolvement and religious reassurance, and thus contribute to the revelation of the themes in the poem: the poet is reassured of the meaning of life, faith, and immortality.In Chapter Three, the narrative poem Enoch Arden illuminates Tennyson's concern for morality and others, which turns out to be the further evolvement of the poet's thoughts through the hero's experiences and inner activities. This ethics narrative poem fulfills the poet's moral concern as the evolvement of the spiritual journey through description of natural landscape, monologues and dialogues of the characters, which release intimacy with the reader, show objectivity of narration, in concord with Tennyson's attempt to add a moral indication to the universally known legend, and thus pave the way for the Idylls of the King from the perspective of narrative techniques.In Chapter Four, the poetic work Idylls of the King is studied as Tennyson's further social commitment, which is a thematic extension of In Memoriam and an extension of narrative technique in Enoch Arden. This Arthurian epic series witnesses the poet's social commitment as the extension of the spiritual maturity, through the narrator's intrusion into the characters' psychological world and the narrator's comments on the situations, which also bring the distance change of the narrator, the narrative, the character and the reader, and contribute to the revelation of the theme and modern implication of the Arthurian legends to the contemporaries and those beyond the Victorian era.Chapter Five is conclusion, including summary, limitations and questions to be further researched. As a consequence, these choices of different narrative techniques in Tennyson's poems are in tandem with his meditation on faith, morality and society in different periods and reveal Tennyson's evolution of thoughts: as In Memoriam records the poet's spiritual growth of his personal reassured faith, Enoch Arden fulfills the poet's moral concern, esp. for the grass people's life, as the evolvement of the spiritual journey, and Idylls of the King witnesses the poet's further social commitment as the extension of the spiritual maturity.