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Why does the Lady of Shalott act as she does at the poem's end?

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The Lady of Shalott acts as she does at the poem's end due to her growing dissatisfaction with her isolated life, symbolized by her being "half sick of shadows." Her decision to look directly at Camelot after seeing Sir Lancelot represents a rebellion against her cursed existence. This act can be interpreted as her choosing to embrace a genuine, albeit fatal, experience over a shadowed life. Her final note suggests a reclaiming of identity and agency, even in death.

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We learn in part II that the Lady of Shalott "lives with little joy or fear" as she goes about her life, weaving in her tower and watching the events in Camelot through a mirror. She accepts the curse that says something terrible will happen if she even turns her head to look at Camelot. But at the end of part II, we learn that the Lady of Shalott is becoming restless and dissatisfied, "half sick of shadows."

At the beginning of part III, the Lady of Shalott sees Sir Lancelot, a handsome, vibrant knight who sings "tirra lirra, tirra lirra." Immediately, and without any initial explanation, the Lady of Shalott rises and defies the curse, looking down directly at Camelot. One is led to believe that she has fallen in love with Sir Lancelot and this compels her action, but it is also clear from the previous stanza that she had grown sick of watching life through a mirror: was she primed to fall in love with the first handsome man she saw?

After she dies, she is found floating down the river with a note she has written resting on her breast. Her words "puzzled" the "well fed wits" in Camelot. Her notes says:

The web was woven curiously,

The charm is broken utterly,

Draw near and fear not,—this is I,

The Lady of Shalott.

While the meaning of these words is ambiguous, one interpretation would be that she has decided that death is preferable to the half life she has been living as she watched the world from afar but never participated in it. When she says "this is I,/The Lady of Shalott," she may well mean that she has fully taken control of her identity and destiny, even if death is the result. She has reentered the community, even if in death, and the rest of the people can "draw near."

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