Merlin's Giving In to Vivien

James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California

Note 30 to Chapter 8 of the author's Tennyson's Major Poems, which Yale University Press published in 1975. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.

Jacob Korg ("The Pattern of Fatality," p. 10) also argues that Merlin gives in to Vivien for no "logical" reason. He further suggests that this supports a "fatalistic" pattern in the poem.

Last modified: 28 March 2001