Christina Rossetti- Some ladies dress full and white analysis

Themes: Gender, materialism and envy.

Content:

• Didactic tone
• Rossetti firstly criticises women for dressing in ‘muslin full and white’. She dismisses those who dress for vanity and materialism rather than practicality, this could link to the seven deadly sins (pride).
• She then criticises materialism through transport ‘Some patronise a dog-cart, some a hack,/some think a painted clarence only right’
• She criticises the younger generation, ‘youth is not always a pleasing sight’
• Criticises progressive feminists ‘towering above her sex with horrid height’
• Lastly, she criticises ‘certain old ladies’ for dressing in ‘girlish pink’

Language:

• Simile ‘Woman in a great-coat like a sack’
• Metaphor/ Alliteration ‘towering above her sex with horrid height’ reflects Rossetti’s feelings towards the suffragette movement. Reinforces the idea that the female sex have specific roles.
• Colour imagery/ marriage imagery ‘full and white’ ‘succinct and black’ ‘girlish pink’ Rossetti distinguishes the difference between men and women, could reflect her underlying beliefs about how different genders have specific roles.

Structure:

• Anaphora/Repetition ‘Some’ Rossetti clearly distinguishes how she isn’t like the group of people that she is criticising as well as emphasising her contempt towards progressive, young and materialistic women.
• Iambic pentameter- controlled structure could reflect how society is consistently materialistic and unoriginal.
• 10 Syllables per a line

Context:

• In the late 1870s, the poet Augusta Webster wrote to Rossetti asking for her support in a campaign she was involved with, aiming to give women the right to vote. However, Rossetti refused.

• In her letter of response Rossetti wrote ‘Does it not appear as if the Bible was based upon an understood unalterable distinction between men and women, their position, duties, privileges?’

• Rossetti was part of the Anglo-catholic movement, the religious teachings she believed in influenced her view on gender roles.

Some ladies dress in Muslin full and white  

Blue font-connection to Goblins.

·         The poem is 14 lines and this immediately tells me it is a sonnet. Poem about love? What kind of love?

·         Possible main themes-Society or gender.

·         Lack of title could symbolise the lack of power and identity females had during the Victorian era. Lack of title could also symbolise the continuous uncertainty that occurs in society.  The poem appears to be mainly about society and gender, with women being presented as the passive gender as they could have just easily “poke them o’er the rim.” This passiveness is displayed in Goblin Market with Laura at one stage saying “we must not buy their fruits” and at the next stage she “suck’d and suck’d” the goblins “fruit globes.” Contrast to this passive identity however, we see Lizzie was not passive and even though ruthlessly attacked by the goblin men did not eat the goblin fruit having to squeeze their fruits “against her mouth to make her eat.”

·         Repetition of some in the poem may be Rossetti conveying this simple message that no one in society is the same. Everyone is unique and this simple message may have been shown through the regular AABB rhyme scheme in the poem. Repetition of some may a be a result of Christina implying that not all women are weak and fragile and during this period of time women started to explore their sexuality and were not just going to lay down for men. We see this in Goblin Market, where Lizzie is not passive and refuses to ”suck” the fruit.

·         The imagery in the poem is significant as may highlight the difference between the characteristics of males and females. Females dressed in “white” with men dressing in “black” could show the complete contrast between the two, with white representing purity and kindness and men being these self-centred, power hungry wicked individuals enjoying to seeing women “sink.” We see this power hungry attitude in Goblin Market where the goblin men tried to force Lizzie to eat the fruit with active verbs “puffing,” “blowing,” “mopping” and “lashing” highlighting their forceful nature.  Difference in colours however may also be Rossetti emphasising this idea that society is different and everyone is individualistic to an extent. Outside of gender, everyone has an element of themselves.

·         Poem has quite a dark tone “enjoying them if you saw them sink” “youth is not really a pleasing sight” which may emphasise the lack of true of love in what is meant be a love poem. Contrastingly we see true love in Goblin Market between two sisters as when Laura was “knocking at deaths door”, for the first time “Lizzie began to listen and look” and was about to purchase the fruit to alleviate her sisters suffering.

·         This could link to the irregular form and varying sentence lengths in the poem, as Christina may be confusing the reader because there is nothing in the poem connoting love. “Youth is not always such a pleasing sight” may a significant line in the poem because this line appears to represent the main theme of this poem. Youth is associated with being this great stage of your life, but even has negative connotations attached to it in this poem, and we see this with love.

·         A final point could be that Rossetti is suggesting we should love society which is why the poem is constructed in sonnet form. Society has its faults but nothing is going to change so we should embrace society.