Rossetti Flashcards
What year was Christina Rossetti born?
1830.
What year did Christina Rossetti die?
1894.
What era did Rossetti live in?
The 19th century. She lived most of her life in the Victorian era.
What was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
The PRB was a group of English painters, sculptors, poets and art critics founded in 1848. The name comes from their preference for late Medieval and early Renaissance art (from before Raphael).
How was Christina Rossetti involved with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
The PRB was founded by two of Rossetti’s brothers (Dante Gabriel and William Michael) and their friends. Although never a formal member of the PRB, Rossetti jokingly referred to her ‘double sisterhood’ and was closely involved in the group’s creative work, publishing poems in the PRB’s journal The Germ and modelling for pictures.
Who was James Collinson?
Collinson was a member of the PRB who converted from Catholicism to propose to Rossetti, but later returned to the Catholic Church, leading to the ending of the engagement. This occurred in 1848, with the engagement ending in 1850.
Who was Charles Cayley?
Cayley was a linguist who studied under Rossetti’s father. He proposed to her in 1866, but she refused because he was agnostic
When was A Birthday written?
1857.
When and where was A Birthday published?
1861 - Macmillan’s Magazine.
1862 - Goblin Market and Other Poems.
How does A Birthday mimic Pre-Raphaelite ideals?
A Birthday mimics Pre-Raphaelite ideals through its detailed descriptions of nature, clear images and use of medieval settings and motifs.
What metre is A Birthday in?
Iambic tetrameter (predominantly), with a shift to trochaic metre at the start of lines 1, 2, 3 and 5 in stanza 2.
What is the rhyme scheme of A Birthday?
ABCB - this is an irregular rhyme scheme as only even lines rhyme.
What are the major themes of A Birthday?
- the joy of love
- love as a natural state
- celebration of love
- spiritual rebirth
- the contrast between the physical and the spiritual
- fulfilment and wholeness
How is the joy of love presented in A Birthday?
The imagery within Stanza 1 is wholesome and joyful - and her heart is ‘gladder’ than all of the wondrous things she has mentioned because she has found her love.
How can the theme of the joy of love in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- Krogstad and Mrs Linde - their love arguably restores the joy that has been missing from their lives and is a factor in Krogstad’s redemption and decision to spare Nora and Torvald
- Nora’s desire to pursue her own identity at the end - could be seen as self-love
- Nora’s over-the-top devotion to Torvald - could be more about the money and security he provides her with, contrasting with the love depicted in A Birthday
How can the theme of love as a natural state in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- Marriage represents society’s view of a natural state (particularly for women) but Ibsen argues that the arrangement between the Helmers is unnatural
- This could also apply to Mrs Linde’s marriage - her lack of love and children
- Nora’s rejection of Torvald and her children at the end appear to defy this natural order - a feminist would argue that Nora learning who she is and loving herself first is the most natural form of love
How is love as a natural state presented in A Birthday?
The speaker’s utter contentment at being in love creates a sense of natural harmony, mirroring the sense of contentment, security, growth & renewal created in stanza 1 (‘singing bird,’ ‘nest’ ‘watered shoot’). To the speaker, love, like nature, is a life-giving and life-affirming force.
How is celebration of love presented in A Birthday?
In stanza 2, the focus shifts from what love has done to the speaker’s heart and instead onto her desire to honour and celebrate her love, witnessed through the subtle change in meter and through more elevated ideas of royalty, preciousness, sensuality. (dais, silk, vair, purple, gold, silver).
How can the theme of celebration of love in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- Nora’s ‘performances’ for Torvald - a twisted form of this
- The way the Helmers perform in public and for Dr Rank as a happy couple, with their house being a testament to how perfect they are
- Nora’s speech to Mrs Linde in Act 1 about her and Torvald’s good fortune
- Rossetti presents love as something to be celebrated, but the raising of the love on a ‘dais’ could link to the patriarchal ideals of the Victorian era, when women were expected to venerate and celebrate men. Nora could be seen in A Doll’s House (at the end) as rejecting this expectation.
- Similarly, the luxurious imagery in Stanza 2 of A Birthday could be linked to Nora’s role in maintaining and decorating the house for Torvald
How is spiritual rebirth presented in A Birthday?
Figuratively, the ‘birthday’ of the title may refer to a moment of spiritual awakening or the speaker’s own personal realisation of faith.
How can the theme of spiritual rebirth in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- Nora undergoes a personal rebirth at the end, rejecting the life she is in and deciding to leave and find her own identity
- While the speaker in A Birthday could be seen to find her identity through her relationship with faith, Nora (in her words) ‘doesn’t know what religion is’
- While Rossetti presents faith as natural, Ibsen argues that people should understand themselves first before they can follow a religion fully
How is the contrast between the physical and the spiritual presented in A Birthday?
By shifting from natural, earthly images to the almost heavenly, idealised setting of stanza 2, Rossetti may be seen to demonstrate the tension between worldly desires and spiritual devotion. By doing so, she elevates human joy into something transcendent.
How can the theme of contrast between the physical and spiritual in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- Nora’s lack of understanding about religion
- Conflict between the role Nora fulfils physically in society (angel in the house) and her emotional state and personal qualities
- Torvald’s preoccupation with appearance contrasted with Nora’s focus on her inner self
- Conflict between morality and natural desires - Nora’s decision to leave, Dr Rank’s secret love, Krogstad’s desire to regain his social position at all costs
- In A Doll’s House, religion/worship is also presented through Nora’s attitude towards Torvald. He could be seen to represent a Christ-like figure to Nora, shown through her expectation of the ‘miracle’ - when he essentially bears her sins (like Christ) through claiming them as his own. This is a manifestation of Nora’s devotion to her husband. He has presented himself as a person to be worshipped, and she expects him to fulfill similar actions to religious figures. When her belief is shattered, she rejects religion and Torvald entirely.
- While Torvald encourages Nora’s worship of him, he rejects the image of sacrifice, claiming that ‘No one would sacrifice his honor for love.’ In fact, Torvald doesn’t mention religion at all throughout the play except at the end, when he asks Nora ‘Where is your religion?’
- Nora’s response to Torvald’s claim ‘Thousands of women have done it’ verbalises a pattern shown throughout the play. Ibsen consistently portrays sacrifice as a female action. Nora says that if Torvald had taken the blame for her, she would have killed herself to save him. This ironically presents her as more of the Christ-like figure she originally saw Torvald as. Sacrifice is also shown through Nora’s moral sacrifice (lying and forging a signature) to save Torvald’s life, and through Mrs Linde’s loveless marriage to financially provide for her family.
How is fulfilment and wholeness presented in A Birthday?
The final 2 lines perhaps give a sense of the speaker’s excitement / longing for the love that has finally come and fulfilled them / made them complete. (‘The birthday of my life’).
How can the theme of fulfilment and wholeness in A Birthday be seen in A Doll’s House?
- This is what Nora seeks at the end - she appears fulfilled at the beginning, but it becomes clear that this is not the case
- Nora’s work is shown to give her fulfilment (separate from her role as wife and mother), while Torvald is shown to find fulfilment both from his work and by Nora’s presence (acting as entertainment?)
- They are shown to both find fulfilment from their roles both inside and outside the home, but this is more acceptable for Torvald, while Nora’s role in the domestic sphere is supposed to be enough for her
- Unlike the speaker in A Birthday, Nora gains her personal fulfilment by rejecting rather than accepting love
- Mrs Linde lacks a sense of fulfilment without a husband/children to care for
- Dr Rank - could be seen as incomplete, only shown as an attachment to Nora and Torvald’s relationship
- Krogstad arguably finds a sense of fulfilment through his reunion with Mrs Linde, leading to him releasing his grudge against the Helmers
What did the modern critic Kathleen Jones write about A Birthday?
Jones claimed the poem describes ‘the birthday of the soul’ in the sense that Rossetti’s religious faith makes her feel ‘born again’ and described the poem as ‘a love lyric to Christ’.
