Some ladies dress in muslin full and white

Question 1

structure

Answer 1

-petrachan sonnet with a volta (octave and sestet

Question 2

metre

Answer 2

iambic pentametre

Question 3

rhyme scheme

Answer 3

first 8 lines follow petrachan sonnet rhyme scheme and the next 6 divert. (doesn’t conform just as the society she observes)

Question 4

what is the significance of the ‘painted clarence’

Answer 4

painted 4 wheeled 6 person carriage

judgement of highly indulgent and stylised way of living

Question 5

‘towering above her sex’

Answer 5

shows rossettis conflicting feminist views

Question 6

‘a man with tassles on his back; or a woman in a great coat like sack’

Answer 6

suggests this is to prposefully attract attention (indulgence in temporal things and stylisation)- theme of vanity of society

connotes women who do this as unfeminine/unruly (seems to offend the speaker due to societal sterotypes of femininity that perfeates speakers views)

CONTEXT- traditionalist, conflicting femenist views: doesnt support sufferage for women

Question 7

anaphora

Answer 7

• Anaphora of some resembling the critique of this group who deviate from norms, Rossetti offers a venomous attack

Question 8

what do layers of clothing represent

Answer 8

• Layers of clothing resemble the superficiality of society and the opulence is just an illusion

Question 9

overall critic on womens priorities

Answer 9

omen being focused on appearance and not the teachings of God

Question 10

‘If all the world were water fit to drown’

Answer 10

• Biblical allusion to Noah’s Arc and the drowning of sinners by God which restored society
• Condemning the way of life
• Alliteration on ‘w’ flows through the line similar to the movements of water