Rossetti Themes, Context, Quotes, Critics and Essay Plans
Maddie, Ella, Roshy, and Mariya
Themes overview
Theme → critic for intro
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Point 3
- Gender roles and expectations
- The ideal woman
- Male power and female subservience
- Criticism of such expectations
- Reputation
- Gender reputation
- The facade of reputation
- Reputational ruin and redemption
- Societal judgement
- Gender
- Morality
- Rebellion against societal judgements
- Flaws →
- Morality
- Hypocrisy
- Societal flaws
- Desire/Temptation → Rossetti’s poems explore “the spiritual and emotional cost of
desire for women” - Palazzo
- Destructive powers of desire
- Repression and control of desire
- Redemptive powers (personal growth and empowerment)
- Love →
- Redemptive powers of love
- Love as all-powerful
- Love’s limitations
- Marriage
- Unenviable
- Contract
- Love
- Power
- Political and social power
- Gender power
- Powerlessness
- Corruption
- Political and social corruption
1
, - Corruption of innocence
- Spiritual and emotional corruption
- Morality
- Hypocrisy vs genuine morality
- Gender morality and expectations
- Moral redemption
- Class status/wealth
- Economics of love and marriage
- Social performance
- Exclusion (fallen women ect.)
- Truth and deception →
- Characters deceive to fulfil a desire.
- The moral quest for truth
- Subjective quest for morality through deception
Themes In Depth
Gender roles and expectations
Wilde
- Lady Chiltern is the ideal ‘new woman’
- Educated, morally upright, politically engaged
- Also ‘Angel of the House’, does what is expected of her and embodies
Victorian ‘mania for morality’ (Wilde)
- HOWEVER, she takes this very far, commanding and ordering around her
husband, disrupting Victorian gender expectations
- Mabel Chiltern
- Ideal Victorian young lady
- Sweet, innocent, playful but not flirtatious
- Mrs Chevely
- Defies Victorian gender expectations, machiavellian, rude, outwardly powerful
and makes no attempt to hide it
- Orders Robert that he ‘must’ do something in his own home
- The world is repulsed by her due to this (so would be contemporary audience,
however a modern feminist reader may admire her audacity)
- Lord Goring
- A Dandy, defies male stereotypes
- Cares for beauty and looks and spends time being idle, not traditionally
masculine
- Dandyism was on in Victorian society, reflected in his father
Rossetti
- Women that align with gender expectations
- Song: When I am Dead my dearest + Remember
- Soft, caring, feminine
2
, - A Birthday
- Religious woman as expected
- Sour Louise de la Miséricorde
- Fallen woman for defying gender expectations, aligning with
Victorian beliefs
- From The Antique + Shut Out
- A fallen woman in mourning, aligns with Victorian gender
expectations that she should be in grief and shamed
- (However, there is new life at the end, ‘blossoms bloom as I days of
old, cherries ripen and wild bees hum’ (in Antiquee ) and ‘A violet bed
is budding near’ (in Shut Out) suggesting new beginnings are possible,
even if the speaker doesn’t see them)
- Defying gender expectations
- Echo
- Female sexuality
- Defies Victorian gender expectations
- In The Round Tower at Jhansi
- Men and women presented equally - as it is not specified who is
speaking, the woman could be either
- Both are presented as brave, the woman is not cowering as
would be expected
- Their dynamic is equal, the man and w9man hold equal power
in the marriage, defying Victorian gender roles
- Maude Clare
- Defies gender expectations- strong, ‘queen-like’ fallen woman instead
of meek and cowering
- No, thank you, John
- Rejecting a man outwardly
- Taking her power and using her voice —> defying gender expectations
- Good Friday
- Outwardly admitting a struggle with religion
- Defies gender expectations as a woman would never admit this at the
time
- Goblin Market
- Laura defies gender expectations by embracing her sexuality
- However, she falls, aligning with Victorian believes that sex is
dangerously for women
- Lizzie is strong and brave
- Not typically feminine attributes, however she does it out of
sisterly love, which is a feminine attribute
- Happy ending —> defies expectations of fallen women
- Winter: My Secret
- ‘Verbal striptease’, owning her sexuality, drops her guard at the end
3
Maddie, Ella, Roshy, and Mariya
Themes overview
Theme → critic for intro
- Point 1
- Point 2
- Point 3
- Gender roles and expectations
- The ideal woman
- Male power and female subservience
- Criticism of such expectations
- Reputation
- Gender reputation
- The facade of reputation
- Reputational ruin and redemption
- Societal judgement
- Gender
- Morality
- Rebellion against societal judgements
- Flaws →
- Morality
- Hypocrisy
- Societal flaws
- Desire/Temptation → Rossetti’s poems explore “the spiritual and emotional cost of
desire for women” - Palazzo
- Destructive powers of desire
- Repression and control of desire
- Redemptive powers (personal growth and empowerment)
- Love →
- Redemptive powers of love
- Love as all-powerful
- Love’s limitations
- Marriage
- Unenviable
- Contract
- Love
- Power
- Political and social power
- Gender power
- Powerlessness
- Corruption
- Political and social corruption
1
, - Corruption of innocence
- Spiritual and emotional corruption
- Morality
- Hypocrisy vs genuine morality
- Gender morality and expectations
- Moral redemption
- Class status/wealth
- Economics of love and marriage
- Social performance
- Exclusion (fallen women ect.)
- Truth and deception →
- Characters deceive to fulfil a desire.
- The moral quest for truth
- Subjective quest for morality through deception
Themes In Depth
Gender roles and expectations
Wilde
- Lady Chiltern is the ideal ‘new woman’
- Educated, morally upright, politically engaged
- Also ‘Angel of the House’, does what is expected of her and embodies
Victorian ‘mania for morality’ (Wilde)
- HOWEVER, she takes this very far, commanding and ordering around her
husband, disrupting Victorian gender expectations
- Mabel Chiltern
- Ideal Victorian young lady
- Sweet, innocent, playful but not flirtatious
- Mrs Chevely
- Defies Victorian gender expectations, machiavellian, rude, outwardly powerful
and makes no attempt to hide it
- Orders Robert that he ‘must’ do something in his own home
- The world is repulsed by her due to this (so would be contemporary audience,
however a modern feminist reader may admire her audacity)
- Lord Goring
- A Dandy, defies male stereotypes
- Cares for beauty and looks and spends time being idle, not traditionally
masculine
- Dandyism was on in Victorian society, reflected in his father
Rossetti
- Women that align with gender expectations
- Song: When I am Dead my dearest + Remember
- Soft, caring, feminine
2
, - A Birthday
- Religious woman as expected
- Sour Louise de la Miséricorde
- Fallen woman for defying gender expectations, aligning with
Victorian beliefs
- From The Antique + Shut Out
- A fallen woman in mourning, aligns with Victorian gender
expectations that she should be in grief and shamed
- (However, there is new life at the end, ‘blossoms bloom as I days of
old, cherries ripen and wild bees hum’ (in Antiquee ) and ‘A violet bed
is budding near’ (in Shut Out) suggesting new beginnings are possible,
even if the speaker doesn’t see them)
- Defying gender expectations
- Echo
- Female sexuality
- Defies Victorian gender expectations
- In The Round Tower at Jhansi
- Men and women presented equally - as it is not specified who is
speaking, the woman could be either
- Both are presented as brave, the woman is not cowering as
would be expected
- Their dynamic is equal, the man and w9man hold equal power
in the marriage, defying Victorian gender roles
- Maude Clare
- Defies gender expectations- strong, ‘queen-like’ fallen woman instead
of meek and cowering
- No, thank you, John
- Rejecting a man outwardly
- Taking her power and using her voice —> defying gender expectations
- Good Friday
- Outwardly admitting a struggle with religion
- Defies gender expectations as a woman would never admit this at the
time
- Goblin Market
- Laura defies gender expectations by embracing her sexuality
- However, she falls, aligning with Victorian believes that sex is
dangerously for women
- Lizzie is strong and brave
- Not typically feminine attributes, however she does it out of
sisterly love, which is a feminine attribute
- Happy ending —> defies expectations of fallen women
- Winter: My Secret
- ‘Verbal striptease’, owning her sexuality, drops her guard at the end
3
