Summary Notes OCR A Level English Literature Drama and Poetry pre-19000- Wilde and Rossetti

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


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