Religion and Relationships in Christina Rossetti’s Work Essay

Since the beginning of human existence love has earned a meaning of pure bliss and wild passion between two people that cannot be broken. Through out time the meaning of love has had its slight shifts but for the most part, maintains a positive value. In the poem “Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields,” the author, Susan Griffin expresses that this long lost concept of love is often concealed by the madness of everyday life and reality. In the poem, Griffin uses many literary elements to help convey the importance of true love. The usage of imagery, symbolism, and other literary techniques really help communicate Griffins’ meaning

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 uses flower symbolism and biblical allusions in “A Daughter of Eve” to address lost innocence and hypocritically placed guilt. She indirectly references the controversial subject in her poetic and lyrical style, as it was a topic considered too shameful or “unsavoury” for women.

Ever since the beginning of time, love has played an enormous role among humans. Everyone feels a need to love and to be loved. Some attempt to fill this yearning with activities and possessions that will not satisfy – with activities in which they should not participate and possessions they should not own. In Andrew Marvell’s poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” the speaker encounters an emotion some would call love but fits better under the designation of lust for a woman. In contrast, the speaker of Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” urges virgins to marry, to make a lasting commitment in which love plays a

Contrasting her positive thoughts of living life to the full, Rossetti also releases her inner emotions regarding her own experience of not being successful in love and consequently was unable to enjoy life like others do. Through ‘song’, “Who look upon them hand in hand”, Rossetti realises how nicer the world could be if she was able to share it with someone special. “Two doves upon the self same branch”, using the recurring motif of ‘innocence and purity’, Rossetti attempts to see life as others do who take time to observe the beauty that surrounds them, and wishes that she could be as content, “Oh happy they who look on them”. Aware that she looks at herself and her life in bleak terms Rossetti affirms, “Who look upon them hand in hand/ and never give a thought to night” as she constantly refers to

After reading Stephen King’s essay, it is easy to conclude that his dreams are extremely valuable to his writing. King makes it clear that he has a consistent writing habit, but an unpredictable though process. King also believes that a strong writer can dream while awake. He illustrates many example where he uses dreams to create or finish a novel or film. This approach is random and unpredictable. An example of his approach would be when he was working on the Salems Lot. King explains how he relied on a nightmare

In the novel “ Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, is a fiction book that lets the readers know about two ranch hands who go together everywhere and they end up coming to a ranch to earn money for the dream they have to own some acres but they ended up having to go through some hard times which made it to never happen. Steinbeck wants us to know that dreams aren’t real, because they aren’t achievable, they don’t take actions to make it happen. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing and symbolism to express the theme by creating suspense and emotional connections to the characters and their dreams.

When looking into the meanings of dreams, a variation of things can be found. Most people believe that dreams are a reflection of people’s inner thoughts and feelings. Most of these feelings are too private to be expressed in the real world and that is why they are expressed in a fantasy type way through dreams.

Rossetti depicts the life of a loveless old maid to illustrate the negative effects of a life in sole pursuit of love. Rossetti says, “And one was blue with famine after love, / Who like a harpstring snapped rang harsh and low / The burden of what those were

Hunt’s The Awakening Conscience depicts a moment of salvation, a spiritual message embedded in a composition dense with symbolism. A kept woman, on hearing the song her lover has been singing, realizes her mistaken ways and rises from his lap. The sentimental lyrics reminded her of lost innocence; she looks out from the dark, gaudily furnished apartment that has been set up for their trysts, toward the light of the garden, reflected in the large gilded mirror behind her. The fallen woman was a shocking subject, but it fascinated many painters. Including Rossetti, who addressed the controversial theme in a poem and a number of drawings.

Christina Rossetti's Poetry: Controlled and Passionate Rossetti's poetry has been described as both controlled and passionate. Making clear what you understand by the terms discuss which of these two views you have more sympathy with and why. Refer closely to at least three of the set poems.

To effectively support this argument, it is vital to analyze different aspects of love as discussed by Beauvoir in her account of The Woman in Love. The first basis of this narrative portrays man as a superior being to whom an inferior has to submit. He is a god in his woman’s eyes modeled just a little lower than the angels . While the man occupies his rightful status as a god, the woman is deemed as the worshipper. Both eventually become the other’s prisoner. In this vulnerability, women are ready to submit completely to their husbands whose image they hold in high regard.

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

The Holy Virgin Mary was created by Chris Ofili in 1996. It is a mixed media painting, including paper collage, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins and elephant dung on linen with the size of 243.8 cm X 182.9 cm. The artwork portrays Mary, a black virgin, wearing a blue cape covers from her head down to her body. The cape wraps around her body, leaving an open space that reveals her right breast that was actually a dried lump of elephant dung. The woman was positioned standing in the center on a yellow-orange background with swirly lines that created a little detail in the background.

Although love has a universal definition, the accomplishment of authentic love in numerous societies can be interpreted diversely due to unique general and personal ideologies that can be recognized in the play The Lady’s Not for Burning by Fry and the poem “Love’s Alchemy” by Donne. The Lady’s Not for Burning was written between 1572 to 1631 by Fry and is set in the 1400s when the superstitions of witchcraft were growing in popularity, which led to the immoral prosecution of suspected women. On the other hand, the poem, “Love’s Alchemy,” is by Donne, who gravitated towards writing misogynistic poetry. In these two pieces of literature, the views of love, alchemy, and the mind operate to portray societal and/or personal ideologies; these include