CHRISTINA ROSSETTI CONTEXT Flashcards
She was a devout and pious angelican who wrote over ____ religious poems…
500.
William Michael Rossetti described her to be ‘she consented to seem…’
‘The most mediocre as the most unobtrusive of all’.
She published her first poem when she was…
17.
- First of the writers associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement to achieve critical attention.
Katherine McGowran described Rossetti’s poems as ‘rarely as straight…’
‘forward as their simple surfaces might suggest and her use of traditional literary forms is frequently challenging and innovative’.
Rossetti’s Father :
Gabriele Rossetti, patriotic poet and Professor of Italian.
- Escaped Naples in 1821 following the failure of a political uprising.
Rosetti’s Mother :
Frances Rossetti, a governess and the sister of Byron’s physician-companion.
Rossetti’s Sibilings :
- Youngest of four.
- William Michael Rossetti & Dante Gabriel Rossetti were a famous poet and painter.
- Maria, entered the All Saints Sisterhood in 1873.
Rossetti as a child :
Warm-hearted & outgoing, somewhat temperamental.
- Once had a argument with her mother which resulted in her ripping up her arm with scissors out of anger.
During her teens she…
Suffered an emotional or spiritual trauma that resulted in a permanent change in her character.
- Decided to give up her favourite pastimes (e.g. chess) because she got too competitive and delighted in them too much.
After her trauma, her personality went from… to…
From vivacious, volatile and headstrong to passive, demure and restrained.
William Michael Rossetti described her change as…
‘Her temperament and character, naturally warm and free, became a fountain sealed’.
Rossetti belonged to the ‘__________ club’…
Portfolio Club, a group of women writers, included suffragist Barbara Bodichon, also an unofficial member of Pre-Raphaelites.
Christina worked as a volunteer at… for ____ years…
Highgate Penitentiary for 11 years, aimed to rescue fallen women, trained them for ‘fitter’ employment in the outside world.
18___, Christina accepted a proposal from James Collinson…
1848, a painter with connections to PR.
- However, when he converted to Roman Catholicism she broke off the engagement, saying religious differences were the cause.
During 18___’s, she turned down another engagement…
1860’s, Charles Cayley, an ex-student of her father.
- However, they remained close friends.
- Motives remained obscure as WMR was convinced she had a permanent affection for him.
Goblin Market, her first volume, was published when?
1862, brought her to the attention of a number of writers and reviewers e.g. Literary Gazzette.
- Considered only possible successor to EBB.
What did Christina say about the lack of politics in her work?
’ It is not in me, and therefore it will never come out of me, to turn to politics… I leave to greater than I’.
She campaigned vigorously for…
The Protection of Minors Bill, sought to end exploitation of child prostitutes by raising the age of consent from 13-16.
- Also, Anti-Vivisection Movement (cruelty of animals).
When Augusta Webster, solicited support for the 18___ Suffrage Bill…
1878 Suffrage Bill, Rossetti was reluctant to offer it, replying with terms which revealed a conflict between her religious beliefs and her recognition of the restrictive ‘barrier of sex’.
In 18___, Christina Rossetti was diagnosed with…
1872, Graves Disease, a thyroid disorder, suffered from this for the rest of her life.
While Christina Rossetti was suffering from Graves disease…
DGR health began to deteriorate, died 10 years later.
- Charles Cayley also died, and then Frances Rossetti, who she’d spent her whole life with.
Combination of deaths + her own ill health made her even more reluctant to seek society.
Rossetti’s looks were considerable altered by Grave’s disease :
- Discoloured skin.
- Prominent eyes.
While suffering from Graves she spent an increasing amount of time…
- Publishing them through…
Writing devotional works, poetry and prose.
- Published through the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
(Katherine McGowran) ‘Rossetti seemed to have been an iconic as well as…’
‘An inspiring figure for the generation of women poets who came after’.
- e.g. Charlotte Mew & Alice Meynell & Michael Field drew inspo.
In 18___, she was found to be suffering from…
1893, Breast cancer, had an operation but it resurfaced.
- She was prescribed opiates which caused hallucinations.
- On her deathbed she expressed fears of going to hell.
Where was Rossetti buried?
Highgate Cemetery, alongside her father, mother and sister-in-law Lizzie Siddal.
Christiania’s earliest efforts were often the product of…
Bouts Rimés (poems written to give rhymes), a game which she played with her brother.
~ Frances encouraged her children to write and there was a family magazine to which they contributed to.
Christiania’s verses and other poems were collected and published as…
~ ‘Verses by Christina G. Rossetti’.
~ Her grandfather Gaetano Polidori printed the book on his private press and distributed it to family and friends.
(Katherine McGowran) ‘Primarily as a poet of personal experience whose…’
‘melancholy lyrics are expressions of private grief’.
(Dr Simon Avery) ‘Time and again in Rossetti’s poems…’
‘The female figure is depicted as entrapped or confined - physically, psychologically or both’.
In 18__ Rossetti signed the woman’s…
1889 signed the woman’s anti-suffrage petition
Rossetti was acquainted with leading members of the women’s movements, such as…
Mary Howitt, Barbara Bodichon and Emily Davies.
(Maurice Bowra, when CR wrote to Collinson) ‘At the heigh of her love for him she wrote…’
‘Some of her most poignant lines on the imminence and pathos of death’.
(Maurice Bowra) ‘In Christina, love released…’
‘A melancholy desire for death, and for a kind of death are not closely connected with her usual ideas of an afterword’.
(Religion) For Rossetti, her love of God…
surpassed any mortal, romantic love.
(Religion) Rossetti was early indoctrinated with teachings and practices of the Church of England by…
Her mother Frances.
- Who taught them from the Bible, St. Augustine and Pilgrim’s Progress.
(Religion) Francis reinforced this religious training by involving her daughters with the religious movement…
To which she transferred her loyalty from the evangelical branch of Church : The Tractarian Oxford Movement.
- Influence is evident in her poetry.
(Religion) Themes in doctorines embraced by members of Tractarian movement evident in Rossetti’s work/own personality :
- Necessity for thorough examination.
- Need to be humble and mistrust oneself.
- Acceptance of illness and suffering as purifying communications from God.
(Religion) Although she repeatedly doubted…
Herself and her spiritual worthiness, her concept of faith closely paralleled that of Tractarianism and her faith in God never wavered.
- Religion often a comfort to her.
(Religion) Rossetti believed in the doctrine known as…
- ‘Soul sleep’ (a silence after death), a teaching that when a person dies their soul sleeps until the final resurrection.
REFERENCES : - ‘A silent land’ : Remember.
- Echo.
- The inn represents a place her soul can sleep : Up-Hill.
(Religion) In her last hours, witnesses reported Christina… Kathleen __________
Kathleen Jones
Screaming out of fear she was going to hell.
- (shows religious doubt, even in her final hours).
(Religion) Anna Barton describes Rossetti’s poetry as…
‘as a kind of religious practice’.
(Religion) Critic, she ‘gave God the kind of attention…’
‘other poets might lavish on a human muse’.
(Religion) Dr Simon Avery ‘Rossetti’s religion is never…’
‘simple or unwavering’.
Financial Difficulties :
- Family were middleclass and educated but struggling to support themselves.
- Her mother was forced to teach, as was Rossetti herself for a short time.
Outsider Status :
- Immigrant family, her father had been exiled from Naples for writing poetry in support of the Neapolitan Constitution of 1819.
John _______ rumored to of have…
John Brett, rumored to of have proposed but was turned down.
- Brett abandoned the portrait he was painting of Rossetti.
Rossetti turned down her final relationship with… due to…
Charles Cayley due to his agnosticism.
- They remained close friends until his death.
- Her letters evidence her heartbreak.
More than ______ of her poetic output is…
More than half her poetic output is devotional, and the works of her later years in both poetry and prose are almost exclusively so.
(RELIGION) Rossetti wrote at a time where religious beliefs were being challenged by new developments to science.
- E.g. Charles Darwin’s “…” (18___) and The _____________ of…
~ E.g. Charles Darwin ‘Origin of Species’ (1859) and ‘The Descent of Man’.
(Religion) Dr Simon Avery, Rossetti’s poetry had a “resonating religious…”
“Resonating religious or spiritual drive”.
(Dr Simon Avery, Religion) “Rossetti’s religion is never…”
“Rossetti’s religion is never simple or unquestioning. Her writings show her constantly interrogating religious ideas and beliefs, often with a degree of tension and anxiety”.
(Dr Simon Avery) ‘Rossetti’s speakers demonstrate both an awareness of, and resistance to, those…”
“Rossetti’s speakers demonstrate both an awareness of, and resistance to, those social and political expectations which define acceptable roles for women which potentially leave them powerless”.
(Jan Marsh) “Obedience, penitence and…”
“Obedience, penitence and perseverance remained the keynotes of Christina’s childhood training”.
Dr Simon Avery “Her views may not always be ‘radical’ as such, but…”
“they are usually far from conservative and often questioning, challenging and potentially subversive”
Dr Simon Avery ‘At times she used the Biblical idea…”
“of women’s subordination to man as reason for maintaining the status quo’.
