Christina Rossetti Feminist Criticism

In the opening, she shares her childhood encounters with women in prose with the children’s rhyme “a little girl who had a curl”. This personal anecdote introduces the topic of the portrayal of women in literature, as well as establishes a connection with her audience.

The poem ‘Maude Clare’ highlights the good and bad, humble and hubris through the characters Maude Clare and Nell. Rossetti uses similes to show the qualities of the two women, Maude being the tempter of sin and pride, ‘like a queen’, and Nell being that which is of purity and humility, ‘like a village maid’. The religious references are very apparent with the washing of hands, ‘I wash my hands thereof’, referring to the purifying of Christ

Christina Rossetti is known as one of the primary female figures of the Victorian Period. The majority of her poetry falls into one of two categories: religion and relationships. Many of her poems on relationships included a theme of death, yet often centered

The pre 20th century poems ‘Cousin Kate’ and ‘A woman to her lover’ written by Christina Rossetti and Christina Walsh, both explore the presentation of women. Similarly, both poems are unique due to it being written in the 1800’s, as women were controlled and dominated by men in that society.

Nineteenth century poet, Christina Rossetti reflects this notion of female self-ownership in her poem, “Winter:My Secret.” She states, “I tell my secret? No indeed, not I/...Only, my secret's mine, and I won't tell” (1,5). Rossetti maintains the ambiguity of her secret throughout the poem, representing the mystery of the female self. Instead of allowing herself to be defined by and dependent on the male, and as Wollstonecraft states,“blindly [submitting] to authority,” (241) she is impenetrable and therefore, free from the male's grasp.

Overcoming the Angel-Monster Duality: The Woman Writer as the Third Cultural Role The way Gilbert and Gubar come to terms with the traditional question “why were women writers so rare” is remarkably innovative. Rather than delving into the usual, yet not unimportant, socio-economic explanations, the two authors forward the thesis that the literary and cultural roles designed by men for women— angel and monster— were so constricting, that it was impossible for a woman to write as a woman without stepping out of them. Virginia Woolf effectively refers to this action as killing “the angel in the house” (812), which is the first, indispensable, step needed to stop writing women from a men’s perspective. However, killing the angel implies a refusal

Throughout history, it has generally been accepted that women are of a lesser standard than that of their male counterparts. There has always been an opposition to this theory that believes that the reverse is true, or at the very least, that the sexes are equal. While some authors place women within their works solely as a filler character, or as support of their male lead, there are some that have written with the intent of the females offering a distinctive viewpoint than that of what the readers might be used to. The roles of women in literature have never been forced to be monotonous, yet that’s how they’ve been perceived. However, there are examples of female characters who have been written with the express purpose of breaking that

As long as sexism exists within our society, it will exist within our literature. Depicting women as the submissive and therefore passive gender has been an age old occurrence within cultures. This is reflected in many aspects of societies from pop culture to history. A key contributor to the continuation of this is the unreliable, biased and sometimes outright manipulative narrative of these texts. This narrative, subjective in it’s art, not only affects how female roles play out in a plot but also heavily influence how the audience views the power dynamic between genders. Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, James K. Baxter’s He Waiata Mo Te Kare, and Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer all female characters have been passive victims or objects to their circumstance.

The female sexuality in the imperatives promotes the reader to the detect Rossetti’s subversion from the heterosexual relationship within the Victorian Era by hinting at the power of lesbian and potentially incestuous relationships. It is that power of those relationships which allows Laura back into

In addition, the feminist view of sexuality is evident throughout Rossetti’s poem. Laura and Lizzie’s magical experience portrays the pursuit for sensual awareness while struggling between physical identity and spiritual salvation. Furthermore, “She clipped a precious golden lock, she dropped a tear more rare than pearl, then sucked their fruit globes fair or red, sweeter than honey from the rock” (ll. 126-29) and “sucked until her lips were sore” (l. 136). With blatant sexual undertones, this pivotal moment signifies the character’s transition from maiden to woman or innocence to experience. Additionally, this exchange could be a metaphor for Laura’s relinquishment of her sacred virginity. As Laura falls sicker and slowly begins to deteriorate, Rossetti illustrates the consequences of succumbing to the temptation of men’s deceit and the importance of remaining pure. With use of vivid imagery, Rossetti further emphasizes the animalistic and uncanny

4) What kind of tone is used in both of these poems? Do you feel liberated as the reader or confined? (ex:look at the portrayal of the female characters). The tone is tranquil and quiet at the beginning but transforms into pessimism at the end of the both poems, "Girl Powdering Her Neck" and "In an Artist's Studio".

In this essay I am going to perform a close critical analysis of Christina Rossetti’s poem Winter: My Secret (1494-1495) by examining how formal elements interact in order to create meaning.

In sixteenth-century Venice, where prostitution and female education were both considered unwholesome, honorary courtesan Veronica Franco established herself as a literary leader for women. Although known among men for her beauty and wit, she became successful for her erotic love poems. With great liberty, she was able to define herself not as a courtesan, nor as a beauty goddess, but as a poet. She acknowledged that men failed to understand women’s innate role in society. Men had become beneficiaries of women’s intellect, and bodies.

To be feminine is to be pretty, sexualized, and passive. “Marked Women” by Deborah Tannen, “Sexism in English: Embodiment and Language” by Alleen Nilsen, and “A Woman’s Beauty: Put Down or Power Source?” by Susan Sontag are three essays that show these negative connotations of femininity. Together, they exemplify that females are “marked” as pretty, sexualized, and passive.

To a forward-thinking woman of the Victorian era, the concept that a novel written by a man could illustrate so vividly the thoughts and natures of women would have been foreign. Yet such a novel exists, one that spins a web of morality and human frailty so intensely that the reader emerges with a thousand questions in their mind. Henry James, often referred to as ‘the master’, took upon himself the task of creating such a novel, one that could skillfully capture the female spirit as well as reveal the Victorian society’s flawed idea of wifehood. He succeeded, producing the serial The Portrait of a Lady in 1881. Though The Portrait of a Lady is renowned for its psychological realism and rebellion against conventionalism, more expertly depicted is James’ accurate portrayal of Victorian society and womanhood. His approach is profoundly feminist and reveals the toxicity and inequity of its era to a high degree. James’ employment of his subtle wit is on full display with his interpretation of the dysfunctionality concerning the concept of an ideal woman. In fact, he creates several female characters, all of whom are manifestations of the different lives women could inhabit during the Victorian era. In addition, the aforementioned characters are refreshingly three-dimensional. Their flaws do not diminish the story – in fact, those defaults enhance the plot. James’ depiction of a woman’s life and choices is then embodied in the frequently-discussed ending of the novel. The