I really enjoyed reading the 1857 Moxon publication of The Lady of Shalott this week. In short conversation at the beginning of the lecture, a few important details stuck with me and further developed my understanding of the poem as a work in time. To begin, the fact that The Lady of Shallot was a poem that came before the 1857 publication, speaks lengths to the interpretive aspects of the art that was later included. I thought it was interesting that the artists had grown up reading and forming their own opinions on the text, before making their own illustrations. 

Although both artists use the wood engraving method of print, their visual representations of The Lady highlight contrasting character/content interpretations. With William Holman Hunt’s work, The Lady is seemingly tied up and more scantily dressed than typically expected of women during the 1850’s. Hunt’s woman is sporting a deep neckline and her hair is wild and flying, showing off her curves. His interpretation of the woman makes her appear more incriminating than Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s version, who is wrapped in cloth with her hair tucked neatly behind her cape. One thing I noted personally regarding Rossetti's piece, was his later work for The Goblin Market and how he interpreted the women in that poem. Like in The Goblin Market, Rossetti’s interpretation of the dead woman is very feminist. Unlike Hunt’s work, the beauty of Rossetti’s woman is focused on her face, giving way to The Lady’s hair and soft jaw rather than on her body.