Idylls Of The King Part V Geraint And Enid - Analysis

Introduction and tone

Idylls of the King — Geraint and Enid presents a tense, moral narrative in which suspicion, loyalty, and trial shape the emotional landscape. The tone moves between brooding mistrust (Geraint’s jealous commands) and tender fidelity (Enid’s devotion), with moments of violent release and finally reconciliation. Mood shifts occur as the couple pass from uneasy intimacy to danger, humiliation, and restoration.

Relevant background

Tennyson retells Arthurian legend with Victorian moral concerns: honor, chastity, and social order. Composed in mid-19th-century England, the poem reflects anxieties about personal virtue, social duty, and the redemptive power of Christian-style penitence that informed Tennyson’s retellings.

Main themes: trust and suspicion

Ceaseless mistrust drives the plot: Geraint’s command that Enid speak no word becomes the instrument of his torment. His internal jealousies—“O I that wasted time to tend upon her”—turn routine kindness into a source of doubt. The poem traces how suspicion distorts perception (he interprets warnings as disobedience) and how that mistrust nearly destroys their bond.

Main themes: fidelity and sacrifice

Enid embodies unwavering fidelity: she repeatedly risks disobeying Geraint to warn him yet accepts punishment and danger rather than abandon him. Her actions—returning to tell of ambushes, nursing his wound, rejecting Doorm’s bribes—render fidelity a form of active sacrifice rather than passive constancy.

Main themes: trial, violence, and redemption

Violence tests characters physically and morally: combats with bandits, Doorm’s assault, and Geraint’s staged death all function as crucibles. Redemption follows confession and proof: Geraint’s repentance—“I will henceforward rather die than doubt”—and the couple’s reunion suggest moral repair achieved through suffering and restored trust.

Imagery and recurring symbols

The shielded hall, armour, and horses recur as symbols of social rank, martial identity, and the burdens of chivalry. Enid’s poor gown contrasts with sumptuous silks to symbolize loyalty to remembered origins and to Geraint’s love; her refusal to change it until he bids her emphasizes inner fidelity over external temptation. Silence itself becomes symbolic—Geraint’s command functions as both test and weapon, showing how speech or its absence shapes fate. Wounds and healing operate metaphorically: Geraint’s physical hurt mirrors their moral wound, and Enid’s tending effects reconciliation.

Ambiguity and interpretive question

Enid’s choices oscillate between obedience and necessary disobedience; the poem invites the question whether absolute submission or courageous intervention better serves marital fidelity. Tennyson leaves room to read Enid as both gentle victim and active moral agent.

Conclusion

Geraint and Enid dramatizes how jealousy, duty, and devotion interact in heroic romance: through trials of speech, violence, and compassion Tennyson shows that trust broken by fear can be healed by penitence and faithful action. The episode affirms Victorian ideals of moral constancy while complicating them by honoring Enid’s courage as essential to restoration.