Rossetti context

Question 1

Rossetti was a

Answer 1

Anglican Catholic

Question 2

Rossetti became increasingly

Answer 2

increasingly involved in the Anglo-Catholic Church after her family’s economic situation deteriorated. Although engaged twice, she ultimately turned down the men whose religious views differed from hers.

Question 3

Rossetti volunteered at

Answer 3

St Mary Magdalene’s House of Charity

for fallen women

Question 4

acceptance

Answer 4

need to face and accept death is a common theme in Pre-Raphaelite philosophy

Question 5

paradise

Answer 5

Compared to this, Rossetti’s descriptions of Paradise highlight its life, vitality and warmth. Unlike the greenery that exists on earth, she suggests that the trees and flowers that grow in Paradise are not subject to decay. In ‘Shut Out’, there is no hint of the foliage fading and the word ‘all’ suggests that the flowers were not subject to seasonal change.

Question 6

purgatory

Answer 6

It is also worth noting that Rossetti did not believe in Purgatory herself but believed in a form of sleep after death that souls would pass through before being judged and directed to heaven or hell as appropriate