There is much to be admired of women poets of the Victorian era. A time, in which, female poets and male poets were viewed separately. Standing out amongst the female poets and playing a lead role in a revolutionary movement was Christina Rossetti. Christina Rossetti’s rich childhood, personal and familial strives, and the Pre-Raphaelite movement aided her to use her poems as a tool of personal expression of the inner turmoil of religious and family obligations and a personal longing in her soul.
Christina Rossetti’s childhood was abundant with rich influences. She grew up surrounded by the finest minds of her time (Holmes 2-3). As a child Rossetti grew up in London, England. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti, was a liberal reformer, poet, and professor at King’s College in London. Her mother was an educated woman but of less fame. Rossetti was the youngest of four siblings, all of which achieved some fame. Especially, her older brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti to whom she is constantly compared and contrasted with.
Furthermore, Rossetti and her family spent holidays at her Grandfather Polidori’s home, Holmer Green, in Buckinghamshire (Touché 2). This was a green, fantasy, and happy place for the children. Holmer Green was a place for the children where their imagination could run free and boast few limitations. They were free to roam, run, play, and explore as much as they pleased. The scenery and imagery from this rich paradise found its way into Christina Rossetti’s poems like “Goblin Market”.
However, “Victorian children were taught rules for their behavior. Most of the time children were expected to be obedient to what they were told without the slightest criticism (Touché 2)”. The Victorian Era was a time of little self exp...
... middle of paper ...
....
Print.
Holmes, John R. “Christina Rossetti.” Magill’s Survey Of world Literature, Revised Edition
(2009): 1-5. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
Landow, George P. “Pre-Raphaelites: An Introduction.” Editorial. The Victorian Web. N.p.,7
June 2007. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
Marocchino, Kathryn Dorothy. “Goblin Market.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 27 Jan. 2012.
Wiseman, Sharon. “Christina Rossetti and her Contemporaries: Women and Discourse.”
Editorial. The Victorian Web. N.p., 11 Apr. 2007. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
Touché, Julia. “The Memory of Her Own Childhood.” Editorial. The Victorian Web. N.p., 15
Mar. 2007. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
Armstrong, Isobel. 'A Music of Thine Own': Women's Poetry. in: Joseph Bristow, Victorian Women Poets. Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1995, 32-63.
Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”, though punctuated with an air of innocence, is imbued with provocative imageries and rhymes. It encapsulates Laura’s desperate yearnings for the goblins’ fruits, the goblins’ lascivious desire to entrap chaste mortals, and Laura and Lizzie’s feverish love that is neither vulgar nor ephemeral.
There are no significant women heroes in British literary works up to plenty of duration of Rossetti. Female protagonists are available, of course, like Age in Austen's Pleasure and Tendency, but they have no store for brave activity. They are restricted by the gender-roles into which a male-dominated community has placed them. Age must invest a great cope of her power awaiting Darcy to take action; she herself is hobbled by the cables of decorum
It is worth mentioning that American confessional female poets have dwelled on this issue. From the first American poet, Anna Bradstreet to Anne Sexton, the quest for female identity has occupied an integral part in the poetic scene. In this respect, Laura Major states that Anne Bradstreet “unwittingly became the first American poet to publish poetry” (111). Belonging to the Puritan era of the seventeenth century, she has paved the way for generations of female poets, for the forthcoming centuries, to forge their own identities through poetry. The female confessional poets break the norms in poetry in terms of the thematic anchorage.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1652), daughter of a well-known Roman artist, was one of the first women to become recognized in her time for her work.. She was noted for being a genius in the world of art. But because she was displaying a talent thought to be exclusively for men, she was frowned upon. However by the time she turned seventeen she had created one of her best works. One of her more famous paintings was her stunning interpretation of Susanna and the Elders. This was all because of her father. He was an artist himself and he had trained her and introduced her to working artists of Rome, including Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 1. In an era when women artists were limited to painting portraits, she was the first to paint major historical and religious scenes. After her death, people seemed to forget about her. Her works of art were often mistaken for those of her fathers. An art historian on Artemisia, Mary D. Garrard notes that Artemisia “has suffered a scholarly neglect that is unthinkable for an artist of her caliber.” Renewed and long overdue interest in Artemisia recently has helped to recognize her as a talented renaissance painter and one of the world’s greatest female artists. She played a very important role in the renaissance.
The third decade of the twentieth century brought on more explicit writers than ever before, but none were as expressive as Anne Sexton. Her style of writing, her works, the image that she created, and the crazy life that she led are all prime examples of this. Known as one of the most “confessional” poets of her time, Anne Sexton was also one of the most criticized. She was known to use images of incest, adultery, and madness to reveal the depths of her deeply troubled life, which often brought on much controversy. Despite this, Anne went on to win many awards and go down as one of the best poets of all time.
On the surface, the poems “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti and “The Thorn” by William Wordsworth appear to be very different literary works. “Goblin Market” was written by a young woman in the Victorian period about two sisters who develop a special bond through the rescue of one sister by the other. “The Thorn” was written by the Romantic poet William Wordsworth about a middle-aged man and his experience overlooking a woman’s emotional breakdown. Material to understanding the works “Goblin Market” and “The Thorn” is recognizing the common underlying themes of sex and gender and how these themes affect perspective in both poems.
On the surface, Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market seems to be what she always claimed it was: a poem for children. Indeed, if one was to merely read over the poem and take everything at face value, it would seem nothing more than a cautionary tale meant to warn children of the dangers of giving into temptation; however, it only takes a bit of awareness to pull back the thin veneer of a children's tale to reveal that Goblin Market deals with themes and topics that are best left unheard by the small ears that are supposedly meant to enjoy the poem. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Goblin Market should not be considered a poem for children at all, but rather it should be enjoyed by the discerning eyes of a much older and seasoned audience. This
In Sarah Stickney Ellis’s 1839 book, The Woman of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits, she explains that the ways women act can be directly tied to the unwritten rules that have been set by society: “The long-established customs of their country have placed in their hands the high and holy duty of cherishing and protecting the minor morals of life, from whence springs all that is elevated in purpose, and glorious in action” (Ellis 1611). The author conveys that society controls and clearly defines what type of attitude and activities are to be expected of a
Society has redefined the role of woman by their works thru poetry that has changed their life
Confessional poetry of women poets of the then 1950s and 1960s opens a new vista for them to express their ‘self’ and to foreground their identity. These poets feel the need for self-affirmation because of their experience of marginalization in society. They found all the experiences are gendered in the 1950s and 1960s patriarchal society and so they also develop a gendered image of their ‘self’ in their confessional poetry. At the time when Sexton and Plath were children, the authoritarian figure within the nuclear family was the father and so he was the representative of society’s rule. Hence, the delineation of the Electra complex in their confessional poetry is one of the approaches of scratching their gendered ‘self’ because through the Electra complex the poets inscribe the female sexuality into the text. So, “with their autobiographical works, they write themselves into the canon and represent and deconstruct cultural images and linguistic codes of ‘woman’ and suggest alternative modes of self and identity” (Carmen
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been widely recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman in society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women characters in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a woman during the time of the Restoration Era and give authors and essayists of the modern day, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a platform to become powerful, influential writers of the future.
Rossetti’s use of repetition emphasizes the idea that the artist is able to set expectations for women by controlling who they are, what they do, and what they feel by recreating them through art. Rossetti shows us a woman who is repeatedly being depicted in the artist’s paintings. Repetition of the word “one” (1,2,8) conveys a sense of homogenization: many women
Several people regard women as inferior figures in this global world. Women have challenged the traditional female roles and have gradually climbed up the ladder of equality. They portray a distinct perspective that proves that womanhood can accomplish anything they set their mind to and search for equal gender status. The poems celebrate femininity and highlights the traits necessary for a women to be successful. The ladies in the poems are female-figures that carry themselves with high self-esteem and fearlessness. This essay identifies various literary techniques that describe feminine strength in Angelou and Clifton.