Rossetti context

Question 1

christina rossetti and religion

Answer 1

• rossetti came from a high anglican family and her HIgh anglican faith features predominantly in her work
• when she was 14, she suffered a breakdown of physical and mental health that aligned with an intensification of her faith
• one doctor diagnosed her with “religious mania”
• religious devotion played a major role in her life and work
• however, whilst her poems can sometimes read as straightforwardly christian, a closer inspection can often reveal ambiguity and even doubt within her faith

Question 2

christina rossetti and love

Answer 2

• rosetti never married, although she was engaged to several men
• James collinson, the first, was a close friend of her brother’s and they got engaged in 1848 when she was in her late teens. However, she didn’t marry him as he had converted to catholicism and she wouldn’t compromise on her religion
• she refused her next suitor, charles cayley, when she was 36, because he was not a christian, despite marriage being a significant source of security for women in the victorian era
• rosetti’s work often expresses the tension between romantic love and spiritual duty, and the balance between autonomy and identity when single, versus the compromise of being in a relationship

Question 3

Rossetti, gender and feminism

Answer 3

• in rossetti’s lifetime, the first wave of feminism was emerging
• many women were advocating for increased political power through suffrage and parliamentary representation
• rosetti’s attitudes to women were complex; on one hand she believed that the Bible positioned women as inferior to men and in 1889 she signed a petition against giving women the right to vote
• however, she also worked tirelessly to help “fallen women”, protect women against sexual exploitation and and argued in favour of women being elected in parliament
• from 181859-1870, she volunteered at St Magdelene House of Charity in Highgate, a refugee for fallen women, where she was known as “sister christina”
• many of her poems concern gender and womanhood; although it would be a mistake to call her a feminist, there are some strong feminist themes in her work