테니슨의 『메리 여왕』에 나타난 반이상주의

Abstract

Here is the question that this paper tries to solve: what motivated Tennyson to start a new career as playwright and write Queen Mary risking his literary fame when the poet laureate established himself as an iconic celebrity poet. The answer to this question is that Tennyson’s skepticism on Victorian idealism led him to become interested in Queen Mary and to reevaluate her life in a new perspective. He found the historical judgement to Mary unfair and became sympathetic to the infamous Bloody Mary after he had read the history books about her life. He seemed to fully understand that she had a miserable childhood and was desperately in love with Phillip but deserted by him. This drama describes her not as an evil but as a victim, who was emotionally abused by her father and her husband, and manipulated by Catholic priests into killing innocent people. Her problem was that, unlike Queen Elizabeth, she was far from an ideal queen. She is just like any other woman who suffers from emotional disorders. Like Guinevere in Idylls of the King, who was not able to live up to Arthur’s ideals, Mary was not capable of leading the country in an ideal way. Queen Mary reflects Tennyson’s skepticism on Victorian idealism which does not allow for the existential situation humans find themselves in. His anti-idealism also can be found in another play of his, Harold.