CHRISTINA ROSSETTI &
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
Quest Stalled and Feminized
OUTLINE
1. Introduction: Victorian Society, The PreRaphaelite Brotherhood and its Women
2. Christina Rossetti vs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti
 Song,” “In an Artist Studio” vs. “The Blessed
Damozel”
 Group time
3. The Goblin Market
VICTORIAN SOCIETY AND WOMEN
• Can Jane Eyre stay single? Would Rochester stay
monogamous was his vision not injured?
• Review: The Victorians (2009) 02 Home Sweet Home
(44:26, fallen women – desperate women – disloyal
wives--constraints)
• The Victorians (2009) 04 Dreams and Nightmares
• 12:05 the Age of Doubt
• 14.51 The Lady of Shallot
• Skip Burn Jones
• 22.68 William Morris red house as an escape
• 25.23 Rossetti
VICTORIAN QUESTS
IN POETRY & PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTINGS
 Failed: Robert Browning
 Feminized: Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites*
Escapist: back to the medieval times
Romantic: love and female beauty (women as
objects of quest)
Stalled: larger-than-life women “waiting” on the
threshold, immobile or withdrawing
 How about female writers like Christina Rossetti?
DEFINITION OF PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTING
 "The Pre-Raphaelites sought ...to restore to painting the naturalness
and simplicity they insisted it has lost after Raphael by demonstrating
in their own art the superiority of realism--freshly observed nature
transferred to canvas--to timid emulation.
 anti-establishment
 the persistent romantic-Victorian attachment to the Middle Ages.
 mixture of mysticism and "fleshliness" (i.e. sensuousness) especially
in connection with female subjects.  “The Fleshly School of Art
 Pre-Raphaelitism revived in art the literary romanticism of half a
century earlier. The movement was much indebted to Keats. . ." (Altick
288-90)
 Illustration and Decorative Art … (The Pre-Raphaelites(8/9) 3:02
Beloved- -DGR’s women  Illustration)
FREQUENT THEMES – WOMEN AS SUBJECTS
• Medieval Legends of Arthur & Romantic love
• Women Waiting (2/9) The Pre-Raphaelites –
•
•
•
3:02 DGR – Lizzie Siddal
4:04 Annunciation [model: CR]
8:11 – Mariana
• Death
• The Pre-Raphaelites (4/9)– Ophelia [model: LS]
• (2/4) A Passion for the Pre-Raphaelites (Andrew Lloyd Webber)–
6:20 [model: Jane Morris] – solitude, individuality
• (4/4) A Passion for the Pre-Raphaelites Lady of Shalott, 1:35 -Ophelia, etc. death, and their paintings’ ir-relevance
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI VS. DANTE GABRIEL
ROSSETTI
Christina Rossetti
• 1830-1894
• 3 suitors, turned down –two
for religious reasons
• Poems, children’s rhymes and
stories
• Seen as “intuitive”
and simple
• a candidate to
succeed Tennyson as
Poet Laureate
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• 1828-1882 – new realism
• influential leader in PRB -medievalism
• 1862-1872 most productive
years (turn to draw women in
flat background & with dense
colors)
• mental breakdown in June
1872
•
Left: CR by DGR
•
Right: Self-portrait,1847
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
• 1848 the formation of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.*
• 1849 met Elizabeth Siddal and used her as the main model (not to be
used by the others)
• 1856 met Fanny Cornforth and used her as the main model
• 1857 met Jane Morris
• 1860 married Siddal
• 1862 Siddal died
• 1863 Fanny Cornforth became somebody else's housekeeper.
• 1865 used J. Morris as the main model
• 1871 Dante Gabriel Rossetti criticized as "the Fleshly School of Poetry"
• 1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti died
LIZZIE SIDDAL
• Self Portrait, 1853-4
Elizabeth Siddal, .
• Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal,
1854 Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
•
BEATA
BEATRIX
(1864–1870)
FANNY CORNFORTH: LADY LILITH
Photograph of Fanny Cornforth
•
JANE MORRIS: REVERIE
Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti Wikipedia [model: Jane Morris]
GROUP TIME ON SHORT POEMS
4. “Song” –analyze the poem, its main theme and tone
6. How does “Song” differ from its Chinese translation/re-creation?
And the reading, singing shown at YouTube?
3. “The Blessed Damozel” – analyze its depiction of the lady and
the space of heaven.
8. What impact does the painting brings to the poem?
5. “In an Artist’s Studio” – two Q’s about form and content
2. “In an Artist’s Studio” – two Q’s about one face and its stories
7. “In an Artist’s Studio” – as related to paintings and drawings
of/about Siddal
1. Compare different views of death and women expressed in “The
Blessed Damozel” on the one hand, and “Song” and “In an Artist’s
Studio” on the other.
“SONG”
& DEATH
SONG
Christina Rossetti
When I am dead, my dearest,
sing no sad songs for me.
Plant thou no roses at my head,
nor shady cypress-tree.
Be the green grass above me
with showers and dewdrops wet.
And if thou wilt remember,
and if thou wilt forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain.
I shall not hear the nightingale,
Sing on, as if in pain.
And dreaming through the twilight
that doth not rise or set.
Haply I may remember and haply may forget.
徐志摩
當我死去的時候
親愛的~你別為我唱悲傷的歌
我墳前不必安插薔薇~也無需濃蔭的柏樹
讓蓋著我的青青的草~淋著雨也沾著露珠
假如你願意請記著我~要是你甘心忘了我
我再見不到地面的青蔭~覺不到雨露的甜蜜
我再聽不到夜鶯的歌喉~在黑夜裡傾吐悲啼
在悠久的昏暮中迷惘~陽光不升起也不消翳
我也許~也許我還記得你
我也許~把你忘記
SONG: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Christina Rossetti
When I am dead, my dearest,
sing no sad songs for me.
Plant thou no roses at my head,
nor shady cypress-tree.
Be the green grass above me
with showers and dewdrops wet.
And if thou wilt remember,
and if thou wilt forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain.
I shall not hear the nightingale,
Sing on, as if in pain.
And dreaming through the twilight
that doth not rise or set.
Haply I may remember and haply may
forget.
1. How is the tradition of
mourning changed?
2. What tone is conveyed thro
repetitions?
3. If not mourning for the dead
speaker, what does s/he
expects him/her to do?
4. How is this poem compared
with “A Slumber Did My Spir
Seal” or “The Blessed Damo
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not
feel
The touch of earthly years.
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth's diurnal
course,

With rocks, and stones, and trees.
A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL (A SONG)
REMEMBER
REMEMBER me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
DGR – Eternal Love or Eternal Waiting
“THE BLESSED DAMOZEL”
“THE BLESSED DAMOZEL” (1847, PUBLISHEDIN1850)
• 24 stanzas, in Three Parts, each ends with the lover’s
words.
• 1. The damozel’s appearance in heaven and her sense
of time different from those on earth.  surely she
leans over me.
• 2. More description of her existence in heaven (far
away, alone among lovers) and her voice  will she
catch up with me?
• 3. The damozel expresses her wish to be joined by the
lover.  I see her smile and hear her tears
(source:
http://andrewhardman.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/in-an-artists-studio-by-christina-rossetti
/)
Obsession with or Self-Projection onto ONE FACE
“IN AN ARTIST’S STUDIO”
“IN AN ARTIST’S STUDIO”
•
One face looks out from all his canvasses,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans;
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
•
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel;—every canvass means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
•
He feeds upon her face by day and night
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
•
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills h is dream.
“IN AN ARTIST’S STUDIO”: DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
• 1) Who are the speakers (“we) of this poem? And their
tone? Circles the clues (in repetitions or sound or word
choice) you find.
• 2) What effects do the poetic form produce (Petrarchan
sonnet and rhyme scheme)?
• 3) Why do you think that there is only one face and one
meaning in one artist’s work? What does that suggest
about the relations among the artist, the model/muse
and his work? (ref. da Vinci)
• 4) Do you know any stories like this?
BACKGROUND
• The poem is said to explore the relations between DGR and
Lizzie Siddal.
• “As Siddal came from a working-class family, Rossetti
feared introducing her to his parents. Lizzie Siddal was the
victim of harsh criticism from his sisters. Knowledge that his
family would not approve the marriage contributed to
Rossetti putting it off. Siddal appears to have believed, with
some justification, that Rossetti was always seeking to
replace her with a younger muse, which contributed to her
later depressive periods and illness.” (source)
Religious Poem or Feminist/Lesbian poem?
“THE GOBLIN MARKET”
“THE GOBLIN MARKET” – CRITICAL VIEWS
• “Her brother reports that he had ‘more than once heard Christina
say that she did not mean anything profound by this fairy tale – it is
not a moral apologue consistently carried out in detail’ (Bell 1898:
207)” (Brandt 11).
• Various Interpretations: “a fairy tale (Watson 1984), a nursery
fantasy of oral desire (May 1992), and a feminist manifesto (Gilbert
and Gubar 1979; Shurbutt 1992). The cravings described have been
related to phenomena as varied as erotic starvation (Greer 1975),
lesbian eroticism (Homans 1985), anorexia nervosa (Cohen 1985),
vampirism (Morrill 1990), and Victorian capitalism (Menke 1994).
Other critics have considered the poem in relation to issues such as
• sisterhood (Mermin 1983; Watson 1986; Casey 1991) and
motherhood (Marshall 1994a). (Brandt 12)
“THE GOBLIN MARKET” – SUMMARY
28 Stanzas– in 4 parts:
29
30 a. Goblins call out to maids to buy their fruits, and Laura gets
curious about it. (stanzas 1-3)
31 b. Laura trades the fruits with a strand of her golden lock and starts
to waste away, for she cannot hear the goblins anymore. (stanzas
4-16)
32 c. Lizzie goes to buy the fruits for Laura; she squeezes her mouth
shut. The goblins then kicks her and puts juice all over her. Lizzie
runs back to let Laura kiss her and suck her juice, which cures
Laura. (stanzas 17-)
33 d. Years later, they still tell this story to their children.
“THE GOBLIN MARKET” – DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
28 1. How would you interpret the goblins and their fruits?
29 -- Why are the fruits of so many kinds? And the goblins, too?
30 -- Why do they sell it in the evening, not for money, but for Laura’s
hair? What can the silver coin and the strand of hair mean
symbolically?
31 2. How are the two sisters characterized? And their relationship?
32 3. How does Lizzie resist the goblin’s temptation? And Laura?
33 4. What do you think are the meanings of this poem and the goblin
market?
34
YOUTUBE COLLECTION
•Goblin Market:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBSLDxPWWYE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrAZGXVTPrE
MUSIC; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMaOk_BnAE
Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5LHQNEoO9g
• Chinese – song with lyrics
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/markim/22868198
• Song, image with lyrics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CJ754acMN8
• Brigget Bordeau http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PAABJ0hH84
The Blessed Damozel
Claude Debussy - La Damoiselle Elue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcVMmOZ3Q6Q
REFERENCE
 The Pre-Raphaelites; A Passion for the Pre-Raphaelites (Andrew
Lloyd Webber)
 Richard Altick. Victorian People and Ideas. NY: Norton, 1973.
 “In an Artist’s Studio”; Goblin Market: summary and analysis
 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Museum.
Exhibition.
 Christina Rossetti’s Life and Work
 Brandt, Katja. Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”:
 Milton Revised or Revived? Finland: Åbo Akademi UP,
2006.