Answer:In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, the Lady of Shallot is under a curse if she stops weaving and looks outside the walls of her tower. Since "she knows not what the curse may be," she is afraid to risk it--it could be death. She has set up a mirror behind her loom to catch reflections of what goes on outside her window. So far in her life she "delights" to see what passes by and weaves those images into her work. She sees young men and young women passing by, going to market, and she sees knights riding by in pairs, and she sees a funeral procession. Through all this she sings as she works and finds consolation in the "shadows of the world" she is able to see. However, one evening "two young lovers lately wed" appear in the mirror. This causes her to say, "I'm half sick of shadows." The vision of the happy newlyweds has stirred in her the deep desire for romantic love. "Half sick" is an understatement; it means she has reached the point where she is ready to risk everything for love. Next Sir Lancelot reflects in her mirror. His beautiful voice and his gallant appearance overpower her, and "she left the web, she left the loom/ She made three paces through the room." We're not told, but one can surmise that the lady believes at this point that she is not really living. She wants what others have, particularly a "loyal knight and true," and Sir Lancelot is the ideal man--she must at least see him in person, no matter what the cost. Perhaps she is hoping the curse will not be death, and she will get a chance to meet and marry Lancelot. But it seems as if she doesn't really pause to think it through. Having made the decision that she is "half-sick of shadows," that she needs something more, when the chance, however slight, for happiness appears in her mirror, she makes an instant emotional choice to take that chance. Unfortunately, it does result in her death, and she never knows that when Lancelot sees her lying in her boat, he reciprocates her interest in him.
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