Poetry and Opinions of Tennyson Alfred Lord Tennyson and his works have been an important part of canonical literature for over a century. He is as important as he is because his work is exceptional in many ways. One of these outstanding differences, in my opinion, is the contrasting vision of women that Tennyson portrays in his poetry, particularly in his poem “Locksley Hall.” Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" is, in my opinion, a poem that would benefit greatly from an ideological discussion regarding Tennyson's views on women. This poem asks the questions: Do Tennyson's words describe a set of beliefs felt only by the poem's narrator, or does Tennyson himself share these beliefs? Is the condescending but powerful view of women only that of the speaking character, or does Tennyson at least partially share that same condescending view? After all, Tennyson was a member of Victorian society. At the time Tennyson wrote "Locksley Hall in 1800", women's rights were just beginning to be questioned. Before this period of interrogation, it was thought that women were totally inferior to men: ...it was argued that since a woman's brain has a smaller volume it was therefore inevitable that she would not be able to reason or generalize or follow a connected line of thought better than a man could. It was an accepted belief that she was mentally and physically inferior to man; that she was, in fact, a relative creature… (Crow, 146) But at the same time, Victorian men were putting women on pedestals. However, this privilege of being put on a pedestal was actually more of a condescension than a privilege. Duncan Crow, author of The Victorian Woman, writes: "They were not privileges at all, but a code of prison rules; and the women were not queens,... the center of the card... all" how did he do it? Perhaps Tennyson never actually made his views on women and the place of women known, but he seemed to think that this abandoned young man's outburst was typical of his time. Tennyson was writing for a Victorian audience who could sympathize with this abandoned young man. I think someone like Tennyson, even for composing such a work, was at least very familiar with the contrasting Victorian view of women. This, to me, makes “Locksley Hall” in some way an extension of his ideas and beliefs, regarding women, which had been so shaped and influenced by his own culture. Works Cited Buckler, William E., ed. The major Victorian poets: Tennyson, Browning, Arnold. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1973.Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "Locksley Hall." The poetic and dramatic works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Ed. WJ Rolfe. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1898.