The term "Naturalism" has been utilized in many ways by numerous writers and poets since its introduction in the mid to late 19th century, especially in England and France. Basically, naturalism can be defined as a literary movement which placed human beings in situations similar to that experienced by other living things in the natural world, controlled primarily by the environment and internal emotional conditions, both of which are beyond the control or comprehension of the individual. In contrast, Romanticism relied heavily on aspects of the natural world which could be controlled and manipulated by man while also demonstrating elements of the supernatural world. .

             In his beautiful poem "The Lady of Shalott," first published in 1833, Tennyson has skillfully combined elements of naturalism and romanticism, mainly through its construction, beginning with a description of the natural world in Part One, the portrayal of the Lady isolated in her ghostly and enchanted room in Part Two and the suffering reality of the true world in Part Three as she searches for Lancelot and beyond to the towers of Camelot. All of these poetical images create powerful emotional states in the reader, yet it is clear that Tennyson was relying mostly on Naturalism in order to express the tension between creativity and social allegiance and the conflict between privacy and social involvement.

             To begin with, in Part One of "The Lady of Shalott," Tennyson describes the local environment which surrounds the Lady confined on her "silent isle"-"Long fields of barley and of rye," Willows whiten, aspens quiver," and "Four grey walls, and four grey towers/Overlook a space of flowers," all of which conjure up images of isolation and confinement. As for the Lady herself, the people who live on this "silent isle" ("And up and down the people go/Gazing where .