Ibsen and Rossetti
Rossetti
Rossetti’s life
Rossetti’s life spans the most turbulent social and political periods of history
Campaign for the married women’s property act
The society for the Employment of women
She did have anti-feminist views – had views on female education
She assisted teaching school children and involved in child protection programs
Associate sister in a home for fallen women
Took interest in debates concerning women’s education and suffrage
Was acquainted with women’s movement with Mary Howitt
Some poems show her frustration towards Dante’s views of women
Born 1830
Shifted from evangelical to Tractarian movement in her teens perhaps before her
mental breakdown
Her father’s health collapsed and as the youngest became his career
So she was often isolated and confined at home
She suffered a mental breakdown, religious mania – mental health broke down
1847 released her first set of poetry privately
Dante formed the PRB 1848 and assumed that she would join the group as she was
creative but she was tentative
James Collinson proposed to her (member PRB) she refused
Helped run a school to bring in money
Volunteered at St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate
Published first public collection in 1862 including Goblin market
Another proposal from Charles Cayley but declined
Got Grave’s disease
Marriage and relationships
She had several relationships which progressed to engagement.
She broke off an engagement with James Collinson, a painter in the Pre-Raphaelite
movement, because he became a Catholic in 1850.
She rejected Charles Cayley because he couldn’t share her Anglican faith which was
essential to her.
She had a sadness at her own childlessness but several of her collections are dedicated
to the children of her brother.
She also refused John Brett.
Her poems explore the difficulty of choosing between earthly romantic love and
heavenly love.
Victorian Era
, The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason or simply the
Enlightenment) was an intellectual and philosophical movement in Europe during
the 17th and 18th centuries.
Enlightenment - new way of thinking about the world, using reason and the scientific
method to understand it. It challenged ideas based on faith and authority, and
promoted the value of knowledge gained through rationalism and empiricism.
Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe in
the late 18th century and lasted until the mid-19th century.
Romanticism was a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution
romanticism - imagination, emotion, nature, innovation and breaking with the
Enlightenment values of reason and order.
Industrial Revolution
Disease in London problem
Outbreaks of cholera, typhus, small pox
Londoners dying
Most died at home not at hospital – a lot would have seen a dead body
Rossetti herself had respiratory problems, grave’s disease and mental health issues
Urbanisation – slums
Widening class divides – aristocracy and working class
Stable and wealthy England due to Victoria in for so long – BE
Rossetti’s dad was an Italian who had moved to become a Prof at KCL
He was quite ill as well
Her uncle was Polidori
Gender and the Victorians
Doctrine of separate spheres – men and women were different and meant for different
things
Men belonged to public sphere whole women to the private sphere
Women thought to be more naturally religious and morally finer than men
John Ruskin lectures
Sexual double standard: men wanted and needed sex and women free from sexual
desire and submitted to sex only to please their husbands
This did not meet the reality where there was prostitution
Victorian Christianity
Urbanisation meant that more focus on jobs than Christianity as it become a
secondary focus
Darwin Origin of the Species -> challenged biblical literalism
BE -> seeing parts of the world that was not Christian
Growing divide between traditional Anglicanism and evangelicalism movements
Traditional Anglicanism upheld the authority of the Church focusing on established
liturgy and sacraments while evangelicals
These were denominations of Protestantism
Anglicans are closer to Catholicism
Rossetti was a high Anglican
Debate in Victorian era between Anglican and evangelicals
Rossetti
Rossetti’s life
Rossetti’s life spans the most turbulent social and political periods of history
Campaign for the married women’s property act
The society for the Employment of women
She did have anti-feminist views – had views on female education
She assisted teaching school children and involved in child protection programs
Associate sister in a home for fallen women
Took interest in debates concerning women’s education and suffrage
Was acquainted with women’s movement with Mary Howitt
Some poems show her frustration towards Dante’s views of women
Born 1830
Shifted from evangelical to Tractarian movement in her teens perhaps before her
mental breakdown
Her father’s health collapsed and as the youngest became his career
So she was often isolated and confined at home
She suffered a mental breakdown, religious mania – mental health broke down
1847 released her first set of poetry privately
Dante formed the PRB 1848 and assumed that she would join the group as she was
creative but she was tentative
James Collinson proposed to her (member PRB) she refused
Helped run a school to bring in money
Volunteered at St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary in Highgate
Published first public collection in 1862 including Goblin market
Another proposal from Charles Cayley but declined
Got Grave’s disease
Marriage and relationships
She had several relationships which progressed to engagement.
She broke off an engagement with James Collinson, a painter in the Pre-Raphaelite
movement, because he became a Catholic in 1850.
She rejected Charles Cayley because he couldn’t share her Anglican faith which was
essential to her.
She had a sadness at her own childlessness but several of her collections are dedicated
to the children of her brother.
She also refused John Brett.
Her poems explore the difficulty of choosing between earthly romantic love and
heavenly love.
Victorian Era
, The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason or simply the
Enlightenment) was an intellectual and philosophical movement in Europe during
the 17th and 18th centuries.
Enlightenment - new way of thinking about the world, using reason and the scientific
method to understand it. It challenged ideas based on faith and authority, and
promoted the value of knowledge gained through rationalism and empiricism.
Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe in
the late 18th century and lasted until the mid-19th century.
Romanticism was a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution
romanticism - imagination, emotion, nature, innovation and breaking with the
Enlightenment values of reason and order.
Industrial Revolution
Disease in London problem
Outbreaks of cholera, typhus, small pox
Londoners dying
Most died at home not at hospital – a lot would have seen a dead body
Rossetti herself had respiratory problems, grave’s disease and mental health issues
Urbanisation – slums
Widening class divides – aristocracy and working class
Stable and wealthy England due to Victoria in for so long – BE
Rossetti’s dad was an Italian who had moved to become a Prof at KCL
He was quite ill as well
Her uncle was Polidori
Gender and the Victorians
Doctrine of separate spheres – men and women were different and meant for different
things
Men belonged to public sphere whole women to the private sphere
Women thought to be more naturally religious and morally finer than men
John Ruskin lectures
Sexual double standard: men wanted and needed sex and women free from sexual
desire and submitted to sex only to please their husbands
This did not meet the reality where there was prostitution
Victorian Christianity
Urbanisation meant that more focus on jobs than Christianity as it become a
secondary focus
Darwin Origin of the Species -> challenged biblical literalism
BE -> seeing parts of the world that was not Christian
Growing divide between traditional Anglicanism and evangelicalism movements
Traditional Anglicanism upheld the authority of the Church focusing on established
liturgy and sacraments while evangelicals
These were denominations of Protestantism
Anglicans are closer to Catholicism
Rossetti was a high Anglican
Debate in Victorian era between Anglican and evangelicals
