A05 Rossetti vs Ibsen

Question 1

Nora confronts

Answer 1

every convention and male prejudice that cages her - Kate Millett, 1971

Question 2

Ibsen and marriage

Answer 2

he revealed it to be far from a divine institution - August Strindberg, 1880s

Question 3

Ibsen review

Answer 3

Social Demokraten, 1879, said that Torvald fails to understand Nora’s value as a human being

-1000s of such doll-like house

Question 4

resistance

Answer 4

Simon Avery - Rossetti’s speakers demonstrate a resistance to social expectations, which define the acceptable roles of women

Question 5

sin

Answer 5

Lynda Palazzo - Rossetti hints that male gender oppression is a sin

Question 6

word choice

Answer 6

Simon Avery says that the word choice is often “austere”

Question 7

angels

Answer 7

Victorian women were seen as passionless angels in the home but Karen Armstrong argues that GM defies this

Question 8

Simone de Beauvoir

Answer 8

stated that women are “objects” in patriarchal society

Question 9

fallen women

Answer 9

Richard Gill - Rossetti is “thoughtfully aware” of the plight of fallen women

Question 10

attitude to fallen women

Answer 10

unlike her contemporaries, like William Acton who published a report called “Prostitution”, Rossetti does not dismiss ‘fallen women’ with hasty judgement

Question 11

Winter: My Secret

Answer 11

Simon Avery - she manipulates power so she is in control

Question 12

“no”

Answer 12

No Thank you, John - asserts a woman’s right to say “no”

Question 13

voice

Answer 13

Simon Mold - Rossetti gives a vibrant voice to the female experience, despite Victorian women being denied social, economic and political freedom

Question 14

Hattie Morahan, 2013

Answer 14

the play is just as “relatable” now

Question 15

it is women’s

Answer 15

confinement in the domestic sphere that correlates with the subordination of women’s rights - L Code, 2000

Question 16

address

Answer 16

the restrictions placed on women and pulls down the ideological boundaries of femininity - Lesa Scholl

Question 17

women

Answer 17

are the creatures of the organised tyranny of men - Eleanor Marx, 1884

Question 18

‘woman’s qu’

Answer 18

in an era where the status of women was increasingly debated - ‘the woman’s question’ - Rossetti presents a “dark assessment” in the woman’s lot - Richard Gill

Question 19

feminist

Answer 19

Lisa Scholl - her writing seems to suggest and promote the belief that women are equal to men

however, Rossetti had said that she saw an “unalterable distinction” between men and women

Question 20

emancipation

Answer 20

Robert Brustein

Ibsen was “completely indifferent to (female emancipation) except as a metaphor for individual freedom”

Question 21

brotherhood

Answer 21

Alice Kirby sees the feminine world of GM as a response to her sibling’s exclusive ‘brotherhood’

Question 22

rigid

Answer 22

Rossetti could be suggesting in GM that society is so rigid that only a domestic sisterhood could exist - not an artistic one - Alice Kirby

Question 23

criticism of society

Answer 23

Laura described as a “restless brook” suggesting she is bored with the constraints of domestic life - Alice Kirby

Question 24

fruit

Answer 24

Laura’s interest in the Goblin’s “fruit globes” has been seen by critics as an allegory for her exploring her sexuality

Question 25

allegory of GM

Answer 25

poem can be read as an allegory for a woman trying to transcend the boundaries placed upon her by society - Alice Kirby

Question 26

GM and MC

Answer 26

linked as their punishments are indicative of Victorian society’s attitude towards fallen women - Alice Kirby

Laura is “writhing as one possessed”

Question 27

Rossetti’s women

Answer 27

challenge male authority, like MC and Sir Thomas

Rossetti lived an unconventional life within the confines of Victorian mores and her female characters act as a reflection of her experiences - Alice Kirby

Question 28

Nora is purely a

Answer 28

source of “enjoyment and pleasure” for Torvald - Baser, 2013

Question 29

interpretations of the tarantella

Answer 29

1) suggested that it expresses her sexual self
2) manifestation of her suicidal impulses
3) feminist critic, Toril Moi, has suggested that it displays the torment of her soul

Question 30

Mary Wollstonecraft

Answer 30

18th-century revolutionary writer, argues in her essay ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ that women are taught “outward obedience” from infancy

Question 31

Wollstonecraft argues

Answer 31

that men try to secure the good conduct of women by reducing them to a state of innocence and childhood, seen with Nora and Torvald

Question 32

Ibsen has been seen as

Answer 32

“an apostle of the cause of women” - Louie Bennett

Question 33

a vindication of the rights of women

Answer 33

Mary Wollstonecraft - strengthen the female mind by enlarging it and there will be an end to blind obedience

Nora seems to reflect this attitude at the end - “I must educate myself”