Victorian Doubt In God

Victorian Doubt in God: Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam When I first got this assignment I racked my brain for a topic that would interest me as well as something I could learn from. When I came across Alfred Lord Tennyson it sparked my interest and as I read on I decided that I would write about him. My next decision was to pick one of his poems to research. I finally chose In Memoriam …

…and the animals sacrificed in the Temple at Jerusalem, both of which atoned for man’s sins, and Aaron, God’s priests, are types. Tennyson closes his elegy with the now calm assurance that Hallam “was a noble type”. In Memoriam resolves the crisis of faith precipitated by Hallam’s death by presenting him doubly as a type, because he foreshadowed both the second appearance of Christ and the coming higher race of human beings.