Rossetti: AO3 (social)

gender roles

In the Victorian era, the roles of men and women became more defined than ever in the 'separate spheres' of the domestic and the public, women inhabiting the domestic and men the public.

women and education + view on sexuality

• Women weren't allowed to continue higher education (their education largely focusing on the domestic) and with no opportunities in the economic market, they had no option but to follow the expected path of marriage to raise children (not for sexual satisfaction) while they were subjected to strict and biased Victorian morality wherein they were supposed to stay chaste and virgins before marriage.

• Female sexuality was forbidden and unaccepted; women who transgressed these moral boundaries were punished and ostracised to die alone.

contagious diseases act

The Contagious Diseases Act 1864 was passed in an attempt to curb rising venereal diseases (like syphilis) which meant women suspected of being prostitutes had to undergo intrusive medical examinations and were locked in 'Lock Hospital' until they were cured or had completed their sentence; exposing society's double standards.

view on women’s sexual behaviour

Strict societal expectations about women's behaviour - particularly rigid when it came to expressions of sexuality. There was a distinct double standard, and women suffered much more serious consequences for their sexual actions than did men. In part, this was due to the Victorian belief that women were morally superior to men, so a sexual 'transgression' marked them out as bad and irredeemable.

expectations of chastity / fallen women

• Women were expected to remain virgins until they married, be faithful throughout marriage, and avoid the appearance of being interested in sex. If a woman violated these norms, she might be regarded as 'fallen' and lose her reputation (and perhaps home). Men's sexual behaviour wasn't limited or policed in this way.

  • 'fallen' - sex outside of marriage, becoming a mistress, prostitution

• Husbands could divorce their wives for being unfaithful, and many works of art/literature in the 19th century represented the fallen woman as abandoned by her family, husband and lover, contemplating suicide or even as a corpse.

connotations of the word sister

• The word sister also had connotations of caregiver and nurturer, particularly in the 19th century where there were organised sisterhoods in which single women trained in teaching, nursing and other domestic and practical work helping the unfortunate. These sisterhoods had their roots in the Oxford movement, developing into Anglican and secular sisterhoods, eventually volunteering to reform 'fallen women' and developing professional nursing jobs.

  • However these sisterhoods received criticism for recruiting higher-class, marriageable women, or the concern of women gaining higher education, or the sisters' possible contamination. Overall they were still revered for their life of sacrifice and noble deeds.

laudanum/drug addiction

The dangers of drug addiction - Laudanum, an opium based medicine, was widely taken as an addictive recreational drug in Victorian society (her sister in law Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Siddal died of a laudanum overdose

view on spinsters

Spinsters referred to unmarried women who were seen as shameful and problematic. They deviated from the ideal womanly role of a wife and mother, and were associated with loneliness, uselessness or moral threat. Rossetti herself never married and lived a devoutly religious life and experienced a societal marginalisation as a single woman.

Anglo-Catholic views on the afterlife during the Victorian era

Emphasised the reality of the soul's continued existence and journey after death, the importance of prayers for the dead and the role of good works and obedience in preparing for the afterlife.

view on beauty

Beauty was seen as a symbol of virtue and morality, a clear, healthy complexion considered a sign of inner purity and a virtuous life. Beauty was seen as a commodity, particularly for women seeking marriage and social advancement.

original sin

Original sin - the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall.

the fall of man

The fall of man/the Fall - the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience. In Genesis, at first Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden, but the serpent tempted them into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden.

as froth on the face of the deep and genesis

Allusion to Genesis: the Earth is described to have this line, "on the face of the deep", before God began his work of creation; the line referring to primordial waters (the vast, chaotic waters that existed before the creation of the world)