The Queen of Hearts

Question 1

Structure & form

Answer 1

quatrains w rhyming couplets

Question 2

What (generally) is ‘The Queen of Hearts’ about & what themes does it fit into?

Answer 2

• The frustrations of a woman who feels that she cannot emulate Victorian ideals of romantic love & marriage

Themes:
- Love
- Admiration
- Guilt - of inability to conform to social expectations.

Question 3

Key quotes - QOH:
1. ‘s….s…s’
2. ‘Your w a s s’
3. ‘I c a s…’ & ‘T Q b t y’
4. ‘…N a’

Answer 3

1. ‘scanned’, ‘scrutinizing’ , ‘secret’: SF of distrust unveils the destruction of feminine relationships & sisterhood under a patriarchal system as women are instructed or educated to scrutinise other women as a means of undermining them by gauging their faults.

• sibilance and harsh guttural sounds mark the control that this all-consuming jealousy of Flora takes over the speaker. = embittered by the successes of other women.

2. repetition of ‘secret’ esp in ‘your ways are secret still’ crafts the view of the speaker believing that Flora is purposefully withholding information to sabotage her. This bitter distrust is emphasised by the continued use of sibilance which crafts a venomous, spitting quality.
   AO3: Critical of the competition that the Victorian Marriage Market creates between women, essentially sabotaging sisterhood.
3. ‘I cut and shuffle…’ & ‘That Queen still falls to you’: building upon the gambling metaphor which portrays love and marriage as a game hinging on luck and fate (or in Flora’s case: skill). Suggests that there is an inevitability of her defeat & inability to conquer the marriage market because she (the speaker) doesn’t possess the skill necessary to navigate romance & marital relationships. Reflects the unfairness of the marriage market as some people seem predestined to have ‘better luck’ in this ‘gamble’ of orchestrated relationships.
4. ‘Natural affinity’ = catalectic line places greater emphasis on the speaker’s disdain and envy of ‘Flora’, articulating her sheer aggravation that she, unlike Flora, cannot easily grasp the inner workings of the Victorian marriage market.

AO5: Rossetti = contradictory poet bc she seemingly skilfully articulates teh struggles of women under an imposed marriage market & a desire to escape social expectations of marriage yet also portrays a desire & desperation to FIT IN w the feminine ideals.

Question 4

TQOH: Failure to succeed in the marriage market:
1. ‘I d h o…y i s h l t f: T s b o c m…& s t f’

2. I m a p n… D m i t p…i d’

Answer 4

1. ‘I dropped her once…your instinct seemed her loss to feel…There should be one card more…searched the floor.: depiction of a deliberate loss of teh card reflects the speaker’s own self-sabotage as rather than witness and celebrate the success of other women, she would rather destroy others abilities to attain a ‘love’ match even at the risk of dismantling her own prospects. = a commentary on the destructive power of jealousy?
2. ‘I made a private notch…deceived me in the pack…imitative dint’ Continues the sf of secrecy as the hushed attempt to cheat the system (symbolically the marriage market) is sabotaged by teh other female character: ‘imitative dint’ & ‘deceived me’. The sly and cunning decisions to mimic the speaker’s own attempt at cheating to confuse the speaker again reflects teh completely vicious nature of jealousy & competition within teh Victorian marriage market because these women attempt to ‘outdo’ eachother in terms of sabotaging eachothers potential marriage prospects.