OCR A-Level English Literature Comparative Notes: She Stoops to
Conquer and Christian Rossetti Selected Poems
Relevant Information:
- Includes She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith and Christina Rossetti’s
poems Goblin Market, Shut Out, and Maude Clare
- Covers key themes such as love, courtship, spirituality, female sexuality, social
class, social norms, gender, identity performance, the patriarchy, and power
- Covers AO1, AO3, AO4, and AO5
- Covers Georgian and Victorian eras
- Uses theories on gender performativity, feminism, and Marxism
- Strong analytical points may be repeated to show adaptability
1) Both Goldsmith and Rossetti strongly imply that gender is sustained through
repeated performance of socially prescribed stereotypes and expectations that
dictate identities founded on conformity, rather than genuine self-expression.
They reveal how femininity and masculinity are judged by how convincingly they
are enacted, rather than ethical integrity, echoing Judith Butler’s theory on
gender performativity, as she argues that gender is not innate but a “stylised
repetition of acts” which creates the illusion of stability. In She Stoops to
Conquer, Kate’s strategic performance of femininity demonstrates that
womanhood is not an innate moral code but a flexible social role; by performing
lower-class femininity, she gains conversational authority and emotional insight
that polite ladyhood denies her, revealing gender as contingent on context and
class rather than virtue. This reinforces Goldsmith’s central critique of rigid class
divisions and social hierarchies reinforced by politeness and appearance by
showing how they dictate the expression of identity, including gender. Marlow’s
duplicitous identity solidifies this idea further, as his confidence with women he
perceives as socially inferior exposes masculinity as similarly performative,
implying that his behaviour is not guided by moral consistency but by rigid
politeness codes and suggesting that 18th century masculinity depends on
outward regulation rather than inner truth, as his swaggering confidence falters
under the gentlemanly facade of the upper-class Georgian male. Similarly,
Rossetti also critiques gender performance and social expectations through
the titular character of Maude Clare, as her refusal to perform the feminine
passivity of the Victorian era disrupts the moral facade of respectability, which is
actively emphasised by the break in rhyme scheme, and is left momentarily
empowered yet socially marginalised, asserting that obedience, not virtue, is
what society rewards in women. Across both texts, gender emerges as a socially
enforced script: Goldsmith treats this performativity as comic and negotiable,
Conquer and Christian Rossetti Selected Poems
Relevant Information:
- Includes She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith and Christina Rossetti’s
poems Goblin Market, Shut Out, and Maude Clare
- Covers key themes such as love, courtship, spirituality, female sexuality, social
class, social norms, gender, identity performance, the patriarchy, and power
- Covers AO1, AO3, AO4, and AO5
- Covers Georgian and Victorian eras
- Uses theories on gender performativity, feminism, and Marxism
- Strong analytical points may be repeated to show adaptability
1) Both Goldsmith and Rossetti strongly imply that gender is sustained through
repeated performance of socially prescribed stereotypes and expectations that
dictate identities founded on conformity, rather than genuine self-expression.
They reveal how femininity and masculinity are judged by how convincingly they
are enacted, rather than ethical integrity, echoing Judith Butler’s theory on
gender performativity, as she argues that gender is not innate but a “stylised
repetition of acts” which creates the illusion of stability. In She Stoops to
Conquer, Kate’s strategic performance of femininity demonstrates that
womanhood is not an innate moral code but a flexible social role; by performing
lower-class femininity, she gains conversational authority and emotional insight
that polite ladyhood denies her, revealing gender as contingent on context and
class rather than virtue. This reinforces Goldsmith’s central critique of rigid class
divisions and social hierarchies reinforced by politeness and appearance by
showing how they dictate the expression of identity, including gender. Marlow’s
duplicitous identity solidifies this idea further, as his confidence with women he
perceives as socially inferior exposes masculinity as similarly performative,
implying that his behaviour is not guided by moral consistency but by rigid
politeness codes and suggesting that 18th century masculinity depends on
outward regulation rather than inner truth, as his swaggering confidence falters
under the gentlemanly facade of the upper-class Georgian male. Similarly,
Rossetti also critiques gender performance and social expectations through
the titular character of Maude Clare, as her refusal to perform the feminine
passivity of the Victorian era disrupts the moral facade of respectability, which is
actively emphasised by the break in rhyme scheme, and is left momentarily
empowered yet socially marginalised, asserting that obedience, not virtue, is
what society rewards in women. Across both texts, gender emerges as a socially
enforced script: Goldsmith treats this performativity as comic and negotiable,
