WOMEN ESSAY PLAN Flashcards
introduction
Christina rossetti’s poetry offers a poignant window into the restricted position of women in victorian england. Born in 1830 to an immagrant italian family, rossetti witnessed first hand the rigid constraints that goverened a womans role during the Victorian era.
1 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
DICHOTOMY
Rossetti’s verses expose the stark dichotomy between the subjucated, domestic reality for women, and their personal dreams for autonomy. This hunger for autonomy rings forth in her poem “no thankyou John.”
2 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
COURTSHIP
What initially appears to be a firm rejection of courtship believs a subversive undercurrent - a daring repudation of societal expectations, which sought to relegate women to the ‘angel of the house,’ position
3 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
AOTH
Angel of the house is a notion concieved by Coventry Patmore in 1854
4 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
EMBRACE
“I have no heart? - perhaps i have not,” deliberate embrace of an apparent lack of the nurturing compassion patmore declared vital.
5 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
MANIFESTO
Repeated ‘i’ pronoun suggests autonomy and self possession. This emphatic establishment of the speaker’s autonomous ‘i’ amountd to a poetic manifesto, casting off the shackles of suppressed female identity
6 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
TRAJECTORY
her own life trajectory boldly diverged from the confining boundaries to which victorian women were subjected.
7 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
VANGUARD
opted for a life of spinsterhood, rejected 3 marriage proposals, lends credence to the notion thar she deserves a play amoungst the vanguard of celebrated female poets of her epoch eg EBB
8 - NO THANK YOU JOHN
ENNUI
“wax a weariness,” implies she believed marriage would constrict her liberty and freedom. The incantory rhythm of these words seem to give poetic form to the suffering ennui she associated with domestic obligations
