Rossetti Critics Flashcards
Aline Downey
“for Rossetti, the love of God eclipsed
any mortal, romantic love”
Alice Kirby
“Rossetti’s women challenge male
authority”
“Rossetti lived an often
unconventional life within the
confines of Victorian mores, and her
female characters act as a reflection
of her experiences”
“by giving the fallen woman herself a
voice in ‘Maude Clare’, Rossetti is
challenging Victorian society’s
outlook on women who step outside
their predetermined roles”
Simon Avery
“Rossetti’s speakers demonstrate
both an awareness of, and resistance
to, those social and political
expectations which define
acceptable roles for women and
which potentially leave them
powerless”
“Maude Clare is a clear critique of
dominant masculinity”
Anna Barton
“it is possible to view her powerful
religious faith as a constraining
influence on both her life and art”
Katherine Burlinson
Rossetti’s conveys in her poetry “a profound resistance to patriarchal values and sexual double standards”
Richard Gill
“Rossetti presents a dark assessment
of the female lot”
Rossetti is “thoughtfully aware of the plight of fallen women”
Liam McNamara
“Rossetti’s poetry can be seen to
conform to traditional stereotypical
views on female sexuality”
Touché
“longings and cravings are ever
present in Christina Rossetti’s poetry,
especially in poems such as ‘Goblin
Market’, whose deeper root was
sexual frustration”
Rossetti
“what I do is expressive of mere
individualism”
Betty Flowers
many of her poems “explore what she saw as the great danger that the Victorian cult of love and marriage posed to the souls of women”
Scholl
“the forbidden fruit undoubtedly
refers to female sexuality… yet it can
also relate to female education and
knowledge”
