Rossetti: AO3 (condensed biographical)

Petrarchan Sonnet

The Petrarchan Sonnet was made by Italian poet Petrarch in the 16th century. Her father was an Italian scholar and teacher, who Rossetti had a close relationship to (being his main caregiver when he fell ill). Rossetti's ethnicity was primarily Italian, reflected in her surname.

DGR

Rossetti's brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a key member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English poets who indulged in hedonistic behaviours such as drinking and sex. Rossetti disagreed with their way of life and felt isolated as a result of her devotion to religious purity.

desire for religious purity

Rossetti strived after religious purity throughout her life, suffering many religious breakdowns as early as fourteen years old, a doctor even suggesting she might be afflicted with a kind of religious mania. Ultimately, her dedication to remain pure, leading to a lack of socialisation with peers, led to her isolation from Victorian society as a result creating a sense of alienation presenting her intense desire to renounce corruption and degeneration.

bouts of illness

• Rossetti had bouts of serious illness throughout her life; William insists in his memoir that one cannot understand his sister unless one recognizes that she “was an almost constant and often a sadly-smitten invalid.”

  • The morbidity that readers have so often noted in her poetry, William suggests, was attributable to Christina’s ill health and the ever-present prospect of early death rather than any innate disposition. 

Graves disease

From 1870-2 Rossetti was dangerously ill, at times apparently near death. She was then diagnosed with Graves' disease. Although she recovered, the threat of a relapse always remained. Moreover, the crisis let her appearance permanently altered and her heart weakened. She lost her beauty and was confronted with the idea of ageing fast.

work with fallen women

The rehabilitation of a fallen woman could link to her volunteering at a charitable institution for fallen women in Highgate where she was known as 'sister Christina'. From 1859-1870

Richard Frederick Littledale

Rossetti's devotion to religion: she had close ties to Richard Frederick Littledale, a High Church theologian who became her spiritual adviser.

rejections of marriage proposals

• In 1848 PRB James Collinson proposed marriage but was turned down due to his recent conversion to Roman Catholicism. He returned to the Church of England, proposed a second time and was accepted. The engagement ended in the Spring of 1850 when Collinson reverted to Catholicism.

• In the autumn of 1866 she declined an offer of marriage from Charles Bagot Cayley. She turned him down on "grounds of religious faith", however they remained close until his death, becoming life long friends.