Rossetti Poetry - themes

Maude Clare - “His bride was like a village maid, Maude Clare was like a queen” - Power, love, gender expectations

Power, admirableness and alluring strength Maude Clare has from Thomas due to his love her (despite her not fitting the gender norms and expectations for the era), Rossetti shows women can be dominant. Nell is portrayed as plain and undesirable but also ordinary, showing show she exists within the expected positions of society.

Maude Clare - “My lord was pale with inward strife, And Nell was pale with pride” - power, societal expectations, gender

Demonstrates Thomas’ sacrifice and sadness at being forced to give up his love in order to meet societal expectations. He succumbs to societal pressures (as even though he is a man and is more powerful and privileged than women, he is powerless against society). Suggests the joy and benefits that accompany conforming to gender expectations and societal norms for Nell - women are praised for positions of chaste, submissive wives.

Maude Clare - “Here’s my half of the golden chain, You wore about your neck” - Love, gender, fallen women, judgement, security

Highlights the lack of security in love matches outside of marriage and societal norms. Romantic love is deep and real but it lacks the security of marriage and can leave women unsupported and alone (even if once genuinely cared for) - penitentiary references

Maude Clare - “For he’s my lord for better and worse” - Gender expectations, Love, marriage

Showcases the strength of marriage bonds over all else + reward for Nell in conformity to gender role. However, also suggests possibility of a loveless marriage - a sacrifice Nell herself has made in order to achieve the stability of marriage.

No, Thank You, John - “You know I never loved you, John” - Gender expectations/roles, power, dominance, lack of understanding

Highlights John’s cruel persistence and his lack of understanding a woman can exist outside society’s expected pattern for them of a submissive wife and mother and that women can have desires outside of that model too. Demonstrates the prevalence and certainty based in ideas of male and female roles in society and relationships. Rossetti portrays a dominant woman unafraid of speaking the truth and being blunt about this, which is shocking and suggests she sees fault with gender expectations.

No, Thank you, John - “Why will you haunt me with a face as wan As shows an hour-old ghost?” - Love, suffering, unrequited love, power

Highlights the suffering of unrequited love as it manifests as sickness. Also shows the lack of power granted to those subject to unrequited love, they are weak and pathetic in their powerlessness (an unusual portrayal for a man in this period) over their lover and their depression. Whereas, the woman denying the man’s feelings is powerful, certain and dominant. (much like Nora at the end of ADH)

No, thank you, John - “I dare say Meg or Moll would take Pity upon you, If you’d ask” - Gender expectations

Highlights how society expects women to submit to and marry men and how most women conform to this (even though they lose heir agency) for the privileges of a marriage and conforming to society. Also suggests the weakness of men and how men also do not conform to their expected model of strength and total power.

No, thank you, John - “Here’s friendship for you if you like, but love - No, thank you, John” - Love, friendship, power, gender expectations

Portrays marriage as not a joyful blessing but a chore that strips women of agency and power in their own lives. it is a restrictive and controlling structure that the speaker chooses to reject and opt for more equal + mutually beneficial partnerships in order to maintain her agency. She also chooses to offer to forgive the man and maintain some form of relationship, unlike Nora, and she maintains her opinion on not wanting a marriage throughout the poem (unlike Nora).

Goblin Market - “Goblin men” - Power, Gender roles, Sin, Evil

Rossetti presents the men as monstrous, evil creatures due to their sinful and inhumane desire and treatment of women. Their perversion and cruelty is overtly criticised by Rossetti, highlighting her awareness of men’s role in creating fallen women and blaming them for encouraging promiscuity and corrupting innocent girls and women with the promise of good things - penitentiary references.

Goblin Market - “their fruits like honey to the throat, But poison in the blood”

Shows how men’s power stems from their ability to entice women with the promise of luxuries, pleasure, wealth and joy that only men could acquire easily (fruit metaphor - could represent money, pleasure, consumerism). Shows how women who were coerced were forever doomed and dead to society for becoming poisoned women as they lost everything and were condemned by all.

Goblin market - “(Jeanie) Fell sick and died in her gay prime” / “one content, one sick in part” / “her hair grew thin and grey”

Rossetti presents the suffering and losses of women who are corrupted as they are cast aside by society - they are doomed and lose all worth and source of their power (beauty and chastity). This fall parallel’s eve’s fall in the garden of evil, suggesting the sinfulness in the acts of Jeanie and Laura in giving up their chastity to men in exchange for goods. Their punishment highlights the wrongness of their acts.

Goblin Market - “she clipped a precious golden lock”

Highlights the value and importance of a young woman’s beauty as well her chastity in this era. Laura is valuable for maintaining these assets and when she gives them up she becomes worthless. Christian ideas about the sanctity of purity and its value.

Goblin Market - “like a royal virgin town, Topped with guilded dome and spire”

Suggests Lizzie’s desirability and purity as she is the religious ideal manifested. Infact, she parallels Jesus as she bring salvation to Laura and resists sin and temptation by refusing to take the men’s fruit or give up her purity. By following gender expectations of purity and goodness of a Christian woman she is rewarded and maintains her assets and life.

Goblin Market - “To fetch one if one goes astray” / “Afterwards, when both were wives with children of their own”

Outlines the power of love and the duty of those in love to help and care for one another. The powers of sisterly love allows Lizzie to guide Laura away from a life of sin, find salvation and restore her purity and goodness. She is able to move away from a life of promiscuity through the powers of love, recognising her sin and showing remorse for her actions - ideas Rossetti believed in at her penitentiary. Salvation is possible through living in a Godly way.