Female suffering

Rossetti

• ‘From the Antique’

  ‘It’s a weary life’

  • Rossetti suffers from not being able to fulfill her craft because her brother (Dante) still his opinion on her work
    • And yet she’s a privileged position and is volunteering at the St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary, Highgate London

• ‘Twice’

  “Yet a woman’s words are weak”

  • Commentary on how women outside of the church are lost and lack purpose
  • A woman’s position in society is weak
    • And yet all women are prone to this weak position even if being in the church
      • Relates to Rossetti’s view on the inferiority of women in society

  “My hope was written in the sand”

  • Hope that a man will will see them (a woman) as equal standing in society
    • Relates to Nora’s miracle in A Doll’s House
    • Though it will not happen
      • A miracle that will never come to pass

Ibsen

• Mrs. Linde

  • Mrs. Linde represents the variety of ways that women can live fulfilling lives, independent of their husbands.
  • Has suffered due to the death of her husband and has had to work for herself
  • "It's a mistake to see Mrs Linde as a fully formed 'new woman,' free of ties and content with a room of her own. She has experienced a great deal of pain and upset” (Stephen Unwin)

• Nora

  “Oh, Torvald! Then the miracle of miracles would have to happen.”

  • She also hopes that Torvald will see her as equal standing in a patriarchal society

  • Domestic Entrapment
  • Torvald’s belittling / ownership shown in language: “little squirrel”, “little songbird”
  • ‘The Angel in the House’ by Coventry Patmore
  • AO5: Rossetti's poems are 'uncompromising in their analysis of women's place in society’ (Simon Avery)

Comparison point

• Both women suffer from men influencing their lives in terms of their work (From the Antique and Mrs. Linde)
  • Contextually this clashes with the New Woman ideal of freedom in the sphere of work for women

Death / suicide

Rossetti

• ‘Remember’

  • Addresses a couple’s future and the speaker’s desire to be remembered, but not if it causes her lover sadness.

    • “Happiness should be prioritised over mourning” - Brinsley Morrison (4:32pm on the 26th May 2022)
    • Rossetti presents life after death as a reason for not mourning and remembering.

  • Acceptance of death was common in Pre-Raphaelite philosophy

  • Suggestion that we as a society try to take too much control of death when we should just let it be-because it’s inevitable!

    “You tell me of our future that you planned”

Ibsen

• Dr Rank

  • Dr. Rank tells her that he will soon die and that he doesn’t want his best friend, Torvald, to see him in his sickbed. When the end is near, he tells Nora, he will leave a calling card with a black cross across it to indicate that his death is imminent.
  • Untruth - hides his death from Torvald. — Prioritising Torvald’s peace of mind/happiness over mourning
  • Victorian mourning rituals

• Nora

  “Do you think they’d forget their mother if she was gone for good?”

  • Links to the fact that Nora wishes to both escape and gain control of her situation

Comparison point

• The narrator of ‘Remember’ will allow to their lover to forget them, as “happiness should be prioritised over mourning” (Brinsley Morrison). Similarly, Dr. Rank is not going to tell Torvald that he is dying of spinal tuberculosis because it may cause Torvald to mourn and see Rank in an ‘unclean’ state.
• Carrie Cracknell’s production of A Doll’s House - Dr Rank is portrayed as strong and yet vulnerable by the actor. This makes the pathos of his death even greater.
• Death is constant in the “3 Noras”, more than the other productions
  • An exploration on the theme of death/suicide is reflection of the struggle of womanhood throughout the ages
    • Slicing of the finger with the ballot paper
    • The river (suicide)
• Rossetti: difficulty of death and Ibsen: struggle of womanhood in contemporary and Victorian society

Female impulses to seek freedom/escape (female emancipation)

Rossetti

• ‘Goblin Market’

  • the sisters (Laura and Lizzie) escape through Lizzie’s self-sacrifice/morality/good sense

  • a sense of Laura and Lizzie having their fun (mingling with the Goblin men) and then immediately becoming domesticised in the ending.

    • could be interpreted as female emancipation is futile within a patriarchal society

    “sat up in passionate yearning”

  • Biographers and critics have argued that the themes of temptation, sexual exchange and sisterly redemption in this poem are influenced by its poet’s (Rossetti) experience volunteering as an ‘Associate Sister’ at Highgate.

• ‘Maude Clare’
  • Nell confronted about disloyal husband that she is about to get married, and chooses to continue the marriage
    • (Not impulsively seeking an escape)
    • Rossetti’s portrayal of a strong female is ironic - because of the inevitability of Thomas’s promiscuity
    • Arguably an outcry at the injustices of harsh treatment & rejection from society of promiscuous Victorian women vs promiscuous men driven by fears of the “fallen woman” (which Maude Clare represents)
  • Both women regardless of their standing in society, does not matter because they are still in the same position
    • Same position: Maude and Nell are still entrapped by society “because they’re women” (Saul Rothwell: 10:47am 1st June 2022)

      • Trapped in different ways:

      • Nell: trapped by marriage

        “I’ll love him till he loves me best”

      • Maude: trapped by her confessions

Comparison point

• Women will always try to seek their own emancipation, Nora has only been passive her entire life until the very end. Both writers could be challenging society’s preconceptions on female entrapment.
• New Woman: proto-feminist movement that supported freedom for women in their personal and working lives.

Male control over the lives of women