English Poetry II Christina Rossetti 5 December 1830
English Poetry II - 영국 시
Christina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was born in London to Italian parents. Her father, Gabriele Rossetti was a poet and a political exile. She had two brothers and a sister: one brother Dante Gabriel became an influential artist.
Rossetti was educated at home and she studied the classics, religion, poetry and novels. She was highly educated for a woman at this time. In the 1840 s, the family had money problems so her mother, sister and brother worked leaving Christina alone at home.
At 14, Christina had a nervous breakdown and suffered from depression. Some critics believe Rossetti may have been the victim of sexual abuse. During this period she became deeply interested in religion and religious devotion played a major role in Rossetti's life.
At 18, she published her first two poems. In 1849, she became ill again, suffering from depression and in 1857 had a major religious crisis. Rossetti never married and rejected many suitors.
In 1862, she published her most famous collection Goblin Market and Other Poems. It received high critical praise and established her as a popular female Victorian poet. In 1894, she died from breast cancer.
Christina Rossetti’s brother was Dante Gabriel Rossetti who was a famous painter in Victorian England. He was part of a group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was known to have very close relationships with the models he used in his paintings.
Dante Gabriel used models for his paintings, often the models would dress up as characters from religion or mythology. This poem describes Christina Rossetti’s experience of watching her brother in his studio painting these women.
The poem examines how some men objectify women in art and how women can suffer as a result of this objectification. Objectification means treating someone like an object rather a real person.
Lines 1 -2: Rossetti describes how the same face/woman appears either sitting, walking or leaning on all of her brother's paintings. Lines 3 -4: Rossetti describes how she sees the real woman (the model) hiding somewhere behind this painting. The mirror, or the painting, is complimentary because it makes the woman look extremely beautiful “gave back all her loveliness. ”
Lines 5 -8: Rossetti describes the different types of women in his paintings. For example, he paints them as queens in beautifully-coloured dresses, summer clothes, or as saints and angels. However, even though these women are supposed to be different, they all look the same in the paintings. Thus they have ‘the same one meaning‘ (8).
Lines 9 -11: The poem suggests that the artist “feeds upon” the woman’s face day and night, suggesting that she sustains his artistic achievements like food. However, whilst he is feeding and using her, the face just stares back at him with kind eyes, looking beautiful as the moon and joyful like the light.
Lines 12 -14: Apparently, the face in the picture never looks tired “wan” (12) or looks sad “sorrow dim” (12). The speaker notes that this image in the painting is not really as she is or who she is, but an idealized version of woman or “when hope shone bright. ” Finally she reminds us that the woman in the painting is not really who she really is but, just a fantasy of the artist’s or “his dream” (14).
The poem tell us about a male artist who has beautiful muses/models who are the subjects of all of his paintings. But the poem says “Every canvass means/The same one meaning. . . ” (7 -8). Even though he paints many different women, they all have only one meaning in the paintings.
“One meaning” (8) suggests that by presenting these women in ‘one’ way, his art limits and objectifies these women. Objectifying means that these women are being treated more like objects and not as complex human beings.
Even though the painter makes the women beautiful and very happy in his paintings, there is a problematic side to this. The poem mentions that "He feeds upon her face by day and night. "(9) Like a vampire he is consuming his victim, the woman’s body, to support his art.
The end of the poem suggests that the artist is not painting the real woman, but his own idealized fantasy of women. The women do not feel sad nor tired, they exist purely for the artist to accomplish his objective – to paint his paintings. “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 his dream. ” (12 -4)
In the Victorian age, women were expected to be virgins until they got married. In fact, any form of sexual contact before marriage was regarded as sinful and wicked. Therefore, the concept of sexual restraint was very important in the Victorian period. Victorian society greatly disapproved of over-indulging in any physical pleasures like sex and food.
Women in particular were expected to show emotional and sexual restraint. Women who transgressed these boundaries were punished socially. For example, a women who had sex outside of marriage and became pregnant would be rejected by mainstream society. These women were called ‘fallen’ women.
Rossetti was actually a volunteer worker in the 1850 -70 s at the St. Mary Magdalene "house of charity" in Highgate, London. This was a refuge former prostitutes and it is suggested Goblin Market may have been inspired by the "fallen women" she came to know.
‘Goblin Market’ is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti published in 1862. In her first volume of poetry it was illustrated by her brother, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Rossetti creates a strange world inhabited by horrid goblins who tempt the naive to buy their magical fruit. A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous creature. They are usually small, sometimes the size of a dwarf. They also often are said to possess magical abilities.
Rossetti illustrates the seductive nature of evil through the goblin men and their magical fruit. She shows this through the effects of the fruits on Laura and her sister Lizzie. Rossetti suggests that evil, like drugs or other pleasurable things, cannot satisfy forever. Those who embrace selfish pleasure will suffer and so will those who love them. This is a typical Victorian attitude.
However, many critics also regard this poem as an example of Victorian society’s restrictive moral codes around sexuality, especially women’s sexuality. Rossetti’s poem explores Victorian women’s fears of, and the dangers around, sexuality through the Goblins’ attempt to tempt Laura.
‘Goblin Market’ is about two close sisters, Laura and Lizzie. The sisters live by themselves in a house, and take water every evening from a stream. The sisters live in the country, but the specific time and place are not mentioned in the story. Each morning and evening a group of goblin men passes through the glen (valley) calling, "Come buy, come buy. " They are trying to sell incredibly desirable fruit that is apparently from a pleasant, magical place far away.
The poem begins as the sun sets and the sisters hear the calls from the goblin merchants. On this evening, Laura lingers at the stream after her sister has left for home, intrigued by the goblins' strange manner and appearance. Wanting fruit but having no money, the impulsive Laura offers a lock of her hair and "a tear more rare than pearl. "
Laura devours the delicious fruit in a sort of frenzy and then she returns home in an ecstatic trance. At home, Lizzie reminds Laura about the tale of Jeanie, another girl who ate the goblin’s fruits and died after a long and horrible illness and strangely no grass grows over her grave.
Laura dismisses her sister's worries and says she shall visit the goblins and return with more fruits for herself and Lizzie. The next day, Laura craves for the next meeting with the goblins. But that evening at the stream, Laura discovers that although Lizzie still hears the goblins' voices, Laura cannot hear them.
Unable to buy more of the forbidden fruit and becoming sick because of it, Laura falls into a slow physical deterioration and depression. As winter approaches, she withers away, ageing at an unnatural rate and no longer does her household work.
Months pass and Lizzie realizes that Laura is going to die. Lizzie visits the goblins to buy some of their fruit, hoping to reduce Laura's pain. Carrying silver, Lizzie goes to the stream and sits and eats with the friendly goblins. But their attitudes turn evil when they realize Lizzie wants to pay with money and that she intends to carry the fruits home and not eat them. Enraged, the goblins attack Lizzie and try to force-feed her the fruits. In the process, they drench the brave girl in fruit juice and pulp.
Finally, the goblins give up and Lizzie runs home, hoping that Laura will eat and drink the juice from her body. The dying sister tastes the fruit but it repulses her rather than satisfies her hunger. Then Laura suddenly undergoes a violent transformation that is so strong her life seems to almost be over.
However, the next morning, Laura has returned to her former self, both physically and mentally. In the last stanza, both Laura and Lizzie live to tell their children of the evils of the goblins' fruits and the incredible powers of sisterly love.
Sometimes the poem is interpreted as a Christian allegory. Lizzie is compared to Jesus, who resists temptation and selflessly gives herself to others. Conversely Laura is comparable to Adam and Eve, as the “fruit” she eats suggests the Garden of Eden, with its forbidden fruit. ‘Maids’ also hints at virginity, or of an innocence before the fall, perhaps a sexual innocence.
Some critics have suggested the poem is about feminine sexuality and its relation to Victorian social values. Lizzie and Laura have a typical of Victorian attitude about pleasure. When they first encounter the goblin men, they bow their heads and blush in case they are tempted by their offer of fruits. Lizzie says “We must not look at the Goblin Men/We must not buy their fruits” (42 -3). This defines the Victorian’s attitude about self-restraint and control.
There also lot of sexual images in the poem. The goblin men offering the sensual fruits to the maids could be a metaphor for the loss of virginity inside or outside of marriage. The Goblins chant has a sexual tone “one parrottvoiced and jolly/ Cried “Pretty Goblin” still for “Pretty Polly. ” (112 -3)
When Laura decides to take the goblin men’s fruit, Rossetti describes her “Like a vessel at the launch/When its last restraint is gone. ” (86). Taking the fruit represents a loss of control and lack of physical and emotional restraint. The description of Laura eating the fruit also has sexual connotations. In Freudian psychology, a focus on the mouth and oral imagery is often associated with sexuality, often repressed sexuality.
For example - the repeated use of the word ‘suck’ in lines 128, 134 and 136. “She dropped a tear more rare than pearl/Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red. ” Line 139 also suggests the importance of this experience as she is left disorientated and confused. But Rossetti appears to be suggesting the dangers in this type of behaviour because when Laura returns from her feast Lizzie scolds her with a story.
Lizzie reminds her about their dead friend Jeanie, who also took the goblin’s fruits but soon “pined away” (154) and died. In line 160 she mentions that flowers will not grow on her grave. Rossetti suggests that these pleasures will lead to destruction and death. “Pining away” is commonly used to describe someone who feels sadness and their health begins to deteriorate. It is usually associated with grief from love and relationships.
The sisters could also represent the different sides of a single personality. Laura seeks to escape from the mundane world through self-indulgence. She is the child-like side of the brain with impulses and desires for only pleasure. However Lizzie performs the opposite role, confronting the dangers of such an approach to life. She represents the rational side of the mind, promoting insight and recovery.
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