Rossetti Flashcards
(21 cards)
Remember
A story about mourning, told from the perspective of the person who has died. She calls for her loved one to remember her, but after the volta, advises him to move on as her love for him makes her want him to avoid grief.
Echo
A story about mourning, told from the perspective of the person who has lost their love one. Recollection and fantasy (accessed through dreams) is the only way for the speaker to reach their lover.
The World
Highlights the contrast between romantic love and erotic desire. Femininity is presented as a vessel of temptation and sin, and therefore as the root of all evil.
Memory
The first part demonstrates youthful naivety around love, as she grieves the loss of love. In the second part, she gains a mature, experienced perspective in which she sacrifices earthly love for spiritual devotion.
Twice
She denounces earthly love and prioritises devotion to God. God’s love is transformative, endless and transcends all boundaries, whereas earthly romance is transient.
What Would I Give?
Due to her isolation, she yearns for emotionality, humanity and for the cleansing of her sins.
Some Ladies Dress In Muslin Full And White
She criticises materialism, suggesting that people should value their relationship with God over their value of wealth and outward appearance.
A Christmas Carol
Tells the story of Christ’s birth. She expresses her devotion to God through her glorification of Christ. Through this, she also highlights the role of the mother.
Passing and Glassing
Speaker explores the passage of time. Societal expectations placed upon women result in the fleeting value of women, as their value is intrinsically linked to their beauty. She criticises the Victorian tendency to value appearances over intelligence and demeanour.
Piteous My Rhyme Is
The first stanza is nihilistic, viewing love as futile due to its transience and the inevitability of death. The second stanza considers that although love is impermanent, it is important and should be valued within life.
A Helpmeet For Him
She calls for people to conform to gender roles as male and females are complimentary. She suggests that women’s purpose is to pleasure men and support their success. Women should employ facade of weakness and submission in order to fulfil male lust.
As Froth On The Face Of The Deep
Explores the omnipresence of God, demonstrating that he is the ultimate solution to life, calling for everyone to submit to God.
Our Mothers, Lovely Women Pitiful
The first half discusses women in the present tense, demonstrating their struggle. The second half exhibits women in paradise, highlighting that female suffering is God’s will.
An Apple Gathering
The story of a fallen woman. This exposes the hypocrisy of sexual double standards, as she is now barren due to her lack of sexual purity. Men do not face the same standards.
Maude Clare
A Lord chooses to marry Nell, an idealistic submissive bride, over his true love Maude Clare, who is assertive. Maude Clare is now a fallen woman due to her sexual promiscuity. Highlights the hypocrisy of gender roles and double standards around sex and purity.
At Home
A renunciation of earthly joys for devotion to her faith. She believes that she is morally superior due to her religious devotion.
May
Explores the development, flourishing and eventual decline of life. Perhaps she reflects on the beauty and then eventual decline of a relationship.
A Birthday
The speakers one true love is God, to whom she is completely devoted to. She suggests that women can in fact meet their goals through submitting to God.
Babylon The Great
Warning against going against religion through sinful temptation and false idolatry. This sexually promiscuous figure epitomises female sin.
Up hill
Emulates the journey of life, highlighting the ultimate destination, which is death. She acknowledges that life is a continuous journey of struggle.
Goblin Market
Tale of sisterhood, sin, temptation and redemption. Laura is tempted into sin by the goblin men, whilst Lizzie abstains. Lizzie eventually sacrifices herself to save her sister. It is implied that Lizzie is raped by the goblin men through the force feeding of the fruit.
