Alfred, Lord Tennyson

In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Mariana" the recurring lines "She only said, 'The night is dreary,/He cometh not,' she said;/She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,/I would that I were dead" (lines 9-12) signify how pained Mariana is that he has not come back yet.  She would rather die than wait for him and risk the possibility that "He will not come" (line 82) at all.  Her realization near the end of the poem comes after Mariana has waited through has waited through a very long storm and as the storm progresses and gets worse, she comes to realize that the unnamed "he" is not coming home.

The character of Mariana is fascinating because she was first developed by Shakespeare in his play Measure for Measure, and from that, Mariana's character inspired Tennyson's poem, and from Tennyson's poem the artist John Everett Millais painted "Mariana".  Mariana's character is one example of how artists of all kinds can inspire one another to create new pieces.  The painting "Mariana" depicts her grief and exhausted state from waiting through her posture.  The way she stands with her hands on her back indicates that she has been sitting and waiting for a long time, especially since her stool is facing an outside window.  I think that what Tennyson and Millais are trying to convey is that waiting only results is hopelessness and disappointment.  If you spend your entire life waiting, there will be no meaning in your life; if there is something you want, you have to fight for it because no one else is going to fight for it for you.