The paintings really portrays a sense of sorrow. The woman's expression, her unkempt hair both demonstrate the notion of a woman not in control of her own destiny, a likely attestation to the political power of women in Britain at the time.
What informs the painting?
Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott is an a revered painting and likely one of his best-known paintings. Like many of his other works, Waterhouse focuses on the ideals of a beautiful and tragic woman.
He employs symbolism and realism to project the story based on the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The artist demonstrates a balance in the painting by projecting the pale figure of the women on one side of the painting with the horizon on the other, gently going back towards the hills.