The Semiotic Reading of “Liberty” in Alfred Tennyson’s “Of Old Sat Freedom on the Heights” and Eugene Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”

Abstract

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix’s well-known painting “Liberty Leading the People” (1830) and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s verse “Of Old Sat Freedom on the Heights” (1834) have been read in various ways. In this paper, we try to ignore the historical context, instead, we focus on disclosing the analogy between these selected works by decoding the signs and elements, and presenting the hidden meanings. Through a close analysis, we shed light on the concept of “liberty” within the female figure which seems to be the focal point in both the image and the text. This notion is related to manufactured power relations (Michel Foucault) and the concept of ideology (Louis Althusser).

Keywords

• power relations
• eugene delacroix
• lord tennyson
• liberty ideology
• feminism