Defending the Indefensible: Morris, Tennyson and Arthur’s Adulterous Queen

This article looks at William Morris’s early poem ‘The Defence of Guenevere’, highlighting Morris’s sympathetic approach to Guenevere’s illicit love, and comparing it with Tennyson’s more conventional treatment of the queen’s adultery, written in the same year, 1857. At a time when British society was sharply focused on female immorality, Tennyson upheld social norms and expectations, while Morris radically undermined the tropes on which the idea of the immoral woman depended. Rather than arguing for her innocence or guilt, Morris asks us to make a paradigm shift in thinking about morality. He disregards the relevance of fidelity or duty to Arthur, focusing instead on Guenevere’s ‘faithfulness’ to her true self and to love.