Rossetti Flashcards
Rossetti’s life
Sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti who founded the Pre-Raphaelite movement
Nervous breakdown and depression at age 14.
Worked as volunteer at Highgate Penitentiary for fallen women.
Rejected two marriage proposals on religious grounds.
Ill health/Graves disease.
Rossetti’s views on religion
and society
Was a devout Anglican.
Was against women having the right to vote - conflict between religious beliefs and recognising the ‘barrier of sex’ which prevented women’s advancement.
How was her work received?
Publication of GM & other Poems in 1862 was brought to attention of many writers and reviewers.
Became known as an inspiring figure for the generation of women who came after.
Song: When I am dead, my dearest
Religious beliefs and attitudes.
Rossetti’s belief in soul sleep.
Rossetti’s romantic experiences.
“And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget”
- relationship is built on selflessness, not the possessiveness of Torvald.
“Hear the nightingale sing on, as if in pain”
- reflects pain of Nora as Torvald’s ‘songbird’ as she is trapped in a cage.
Remember
Religious beliefs in the afterlife.
Rossetti’s romantic experiences.
Rossetti obsessed with thoughts of death.
“Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you plann’d”
- shows male dominance, more possessive, similar to Torvald in ADH when he doesn’t let Nora have key to her own house/can’t eat macarons
From the Antique
Attitude towards women’s rights and independence.
“I wish and I wish I were a man”
- links to Nora’ “It was like being a man”.
“It’s a weary life, it is, she said: Doubly blank in a woman’s lot”
- twice as hard for women.
“Not a body and not a soul: not so much as a grain of dust”
- Biblical allusion to Adam/Eve.
- Idea of nonexistence preferable to being.
- Reflects Nora’s suicidal thoughts as she refuses to let Torvald take the blame.
Echo
Rossetti’s religious beliefs, including belief in the afterlife.
Her personal life – love and family
Key themes include death/memory and past.
Shut Out
Rossetti’s religious beliefs/life.
Rossetti’s family/romantic experiences.
Roles of women in Victorian society.
The original sub-title while writing was “What happened to me”.
“The door was shut”
- links to doors in ADH and women shut out from the world like those at Highgate Penitentiary.
“Wherein a lark has made her nest”
- emphasises role of women in society
- links to Nora as ‘skylark’.
In the Round Tower at Jhansi
Roles of masculinity/femininity
Sense of heroism like Torvald who believes it is the man’s role to protect his wife.
“His pale young wife”
- unnamed/belongs to him/relies on him.
- in ADH, “MY skylark”, relationship more like parent and child, he gives Nora allowance, she obeys his commands, is dependent on him.
Bravery: couple takes their own life but when Nora takes own decisions, Ibsens asked to write alternate ending
A Birthday
Rossetti’s religion.
Romantic poetry - Wordsworth using nature to express feelings.
“My heart is like a singing bird”
- images of nature are full of love/happiness similar to Nora/Torvald’s seemingly perfect life at start of play.
Bird imagery “doves”, “peacocks” and “fleurs-de-lys”
- relate to show and freedom, but in ADH relate to constriction and entrapment.
Soeur Louise de la Miséricorde
Rossetti’s ideas about women/ sexual desire.
Victorian views on women’s roles/behaviour.
Rossetti’s religious idealisation.
“I have desired and been desired”
- Rossetti had turned down two marriage proposals on religious grounds so she turned down desire for religion.
- Juxtaposed by Nora who leaves everything she has ever known to follow her desire to discover herself.
Poem explores solitary nature of nuns but has no clear progression.
- ADH contrasts this as it explores the dependence of a woman on a man whose relationship has no real direction until she explores her solitary nature.
Maude Clare
Attitudes towards women and independence.
Rossetti’s experiences of love
Submissive Nell acts as a foil to dominant Maude Clare like Mrs Linde (mature and experienced) and Nora (naive and helpless).
Maude Clare called Thomas “My Lord” mockingly like Torvald patronises Nora by calling her names.
Up-Hill
Explores struggles and challenges in life, inevitability of death.
Rossetti faced ill-health, death and relationships.
Question and answer format looks for guidance and reassurance like Nora relies on Torvald for her every move (e.g has to ask for money).
No, thank you, John
Role of women with regard to marriage
Women’s independence/ authority
Opinions of love.
Cyclical structure as ends with “No, thank you, John” is symbolic of Rossetti choosing to move on with her life, similar to Nora’s tone to Torvald.
“I have no heart?/But then you’re mad to take offence”
- ‘John’ sees this as irrational thoughts of a woman who is incapable of making her own decisions.
“You know I never loved you, John”
- like Torvald never truly loved Nora, he just loved the idea of her
Good Friday
Rossetti’s ideas about religion.
Attitudes towards women.
Questioning tone of the poem links to religious doubt.
- Nora seems disillusioned with religion due to her understanding of social injustices (“I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me”)
