Rossetti Critica

Question 1

Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar artistic interpretation of Goblin Market

Answer 1

• Goblin Market is about the exclusion of women from the male dominated artistic world of the Victorian period

Question 2

What does Alice Kirby 2017 say about the resonance of Rossettis protagonists with her own life

Answer 2

Rossetti lived an often unconventional life, and her female characters act as a reflection of her experiences

Question 3

Alice Kirby 2017 on Rossetti challenging female position in society

Answer 3

Rossetti’s poetry challenges female position in society through unconventional use of form
- e.g sonnets usually used to express male love but Rossetti’s narrators are exclusively a female persona
- Maude Clare a traditional ballad but gives voice to a fallen woman

Question 4

Alice Kirby 2017 about Rossetti’s proto- feminist values

Answer 4

‘Rossetti’s proto-feminist values are most apparent in giving her characters agency to make their own decisions’

Question 5

Rae Cluely on Lizzie as a religious allegory

Answer 5

She is a ‘re-gendered Christ figure in suffering for her sister’

Question 6

Rossetti’s lasting message in Goblin Market according to Ray Cluely (applicable to Maude Clare)

Answer 6

Rossetti’s lasting message seems to be an appeal to support women who have succumbed to such desires (volunteered at Highgate Penitentiary for Fallen Women for several years)

Question 7

Diane D’Amico on how Rossetti challenges inferiority of women in religion

Answer 7

Rossetti indicates that women were capable of a higher level of spiritual existence and action than that of ministering angel at home
• e.g Lizzie sacrifices herself in A Christ-like rather than angelic way