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How was love portrayed in the victorian literature
The impact of the Victorian era literature
Morals of Victorian novels
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Sexual Dalliance and its Outcomes in Victorian Society: Christina Rossetti’s “An Apple Gathering” and “Cousin Kate”
In her poems Christina Rossetti references the loss of innocence stemming from premarital sexual encounters. In both the poems “An Apple Gathering” and “Cousin Kate”, Rossetti tells stories of women who lost their sexual purity before marriage, and therefore deemed outcasts in society. These acts of dalliance Rossetti speaks of in her poems exhibit how the loss of innocence via sex before marriage can effect a Victorian woman’s life. Rossetti conveys this unfair treatment of women being compared to whores simply for indulging their sexual desires as men do through the storyline of the poems. Each poem begins with the introduction
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She asks him if she was unworthy of having him as a husband, or if she was not mother material. The speaker is disagreeing with modern society’s idea of innocence equalling beauty, as she “counted rosiest apples on the earth / Of far less worth than love” (19-20), meaning that she had met other women that we less equipped to become wives and mothers than she, disagreeing with the fact that simply because she was impure does not mean she could be a bad mother. Again, in “Cousin Kate”, the speaker is ridiculed by society but the man she was once romantically involved with is not. Since she is wooed by him, her master, she indulges in her sexual desires and engages in premarital sex. Due to this, the man deemed the woman a whore as the rest of society did, and cast her aside. Instead of seeking love in this now “unclean thing” (15), he goes to her cousin, who is “good and pure” (25) and “bounds [her] with his ring” (26). The speaker suggests that her “love was true” and cousin Kate’s love “was writ in sand”, implying that her love could be washed away as easily as sand on a beach, therefore it was illegitimate. According to society and the lord, a woman who pretends to love a man is better than a woman who lacks sexual
Judith R. Walkowitz is a Professor Emeritus at John Hopkins University, specializing in modern British history and women’s history. In her book City of Dreadful Delight, she explores nineteenth century England’s development of sexual politics and danger by examining the hype of Jack the Ripper and other tales of sensational nature. By investigating social and cultural history she reveals the complexity of sexuality, and its influence on the public sphere and vice versa. Victorian London had upheld traditional notions of class and gender, that is until they were challenged by forces of different institutions.
Sex is more than just a physical act. It's a beautiful way to express love. When people have sex just to fulfill a physical need, as the poet believes sex outside of love-based relationship only harms and cheapens sex. In the beginning of the poem, Olds brilliantly describe the beauty of sex, and then in the second half of the poem, she continues reference to the cold and aloneness which clearly shows her opinions about causal sex. Through this poem, Sharon Olds, has expressed her complete disrespect for those who would participate in casual sex.
There are no significant women heroes in British literary works up to plenty of duration of Rossetti. Female protagonists are available, of course, like Age in Austen's Pleasure and Tendency, but they have no store for brave activity. They are restricted by the gender-roles into which a male-dominated community has placed them. Age must invest a great cope of her power awaiting Darcy to take action; she herself is hobbled by the cables of decorum
In the Victorian society, love, sex and desire were the unspeakable subjects, especially for a young, unmarried woman in care of two young children. The governess herself can not imagine thinking about or mentioning her sexual needs. Her desire for love is so strong that she immediately falls in love with the man she hardly...
Furneaux, Holly. "Victorian Sexualities." Literature Compass. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Christina Rossetti was a pivotal key in the foundations of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which can be seen, throughout her poetry. Rossetti, as a follower of the Pre-Raphaelite’s, endorsed ideas of unrequited love, acceptance of human mortality and redemption. These ideals both endorsed and challenged the Victorian morals of her era as Victorian morality was focused on repression, class structures, and religion often conflicting with the sexual desire and questioning nature of Rossetti’s poems. The poem Echo is a reflection of Rossetti’s view on the romance and grief in her life through her unwavering faith in religion that will reunite her with her love. Through her desire of a recreation of love in the poem, it is both accepted and challenged through her religious beliefs as the purity of distance in
Premarital sexual relationships during the time period (1917) are extremely taboo. In the past if a young woman from a small town and a man from the city had an affair, it would end with the family of the wealthy young man paying for a place for the young women to raise the child. Wharton does not directly elude to sex between Charity and Harney but their afternoons and nights spent at the shack that they found together, we are supposed to infer that they are having a sexual relationship. Charity is becoming Harney’s love object and has no intention of marrying Charity, Grafton
The third decade of the twentieth century brought on more explicit writers than ever before, but none were as expressive as Anne Sexton. Her style of writing, her works, the image that she created, and the crazy life that she led are all prime examples of this. Known as one of the most “confessional” poets of her time, Anne Sexton was also one of the most criticized. She was known to use images of incest, adultery, and madness to reveal the depths of her deeply troubled life, which often brought on much controversy. Despite this, Anne went on to win many awards and go down as one of the best poets of all time.
She tells the girl to “walk like a lady” (320), “hem a dress when you see the hem coming down”, and “behave in front of boys you don’t know very well” (321), so as not to “become the slut you are so bent on becoming” (320). The repetition of the word “slut” and the multitude of rules that must be obeyed so as not to be perceived as such, indicates that the suppression of sexual desire is a particularly important aspect of being a proper woman in a patriarchal society. The young girl in this poem must deny her sexual desires, a quality intrinsic to human nature, or she will be reprimanded for being a loose woman. These restrictions do not allow her to experience the freedom that her male counterparts
She even insults him by telling him that the only way he’ll be able to prove his manhood to her is to commit murder, since he hasn’t already proved it to her by “giving her a son.” That was a very, very harsh insult because in those times, males were everything. (p.9, The Follies of Power)
Despite the fact that Lady Mary disputes Swift’s view of women, she inadvertently supports the societal expectation that women be physically striking. In response to Swift’s accusation about women’s filth, Lady Mary presents the woman as bold and beautiful by proclaiming, “The nymph grown Furious roared by God / ‘The blame lies all in Sixty odd’” (74-75). Both of these lines emphasize the expectation for women to be beautiful in different ways. Lady Mary’s use of the word “nymph” raises an image of women as inherently and divinely beautiful. In addition, by placing the blame totally on the man for the disappointing intercourse, she denies what he had previously claimed about her disgusting state. Lady Mary shows the woman as a perfectly beautiful
says Anthony Rotundo, attempting to define the boundaries between romantic friendship and erotic love, in relation to same gender friendships, in the late nineteenth century (Miller 4). Same gender relationships could exist on a physical level, expressing affection, without bringing up questions of sexual preference. Further, F.S. Ryman, a gentleman in his twenties, wrote of the very few documents ever discovered from the Victorian age regarding intimate encounters and the emotions attached to them. He has helped give us an idea of what some male relationships were like back then. In his diary, August of 1886, he describes spending the night in his best friends arms with out sexual intentions.
Throughout his life, Stephen is consumed by conflicting desires, the strongest of which being his sexual desire towards women versus religious morality. Confused and ashamed by these “sinful” thoughts, Stephen comes to view women in one of two extremes: they are either pure, virginal, and decent, like Emma, or impure, sexual, and corrupt, such as the prostitutes he visits in Belvedere. However, it is Stephen’s individual experiences with women from both ends of this spectrum that become the motivating factor behind both his art and personal growth as an artist.
Within the context of this historical epoch, characterized by its reverence for "earnestness, moral responsibility" and "domestic propriety," the function of art as a device to both commemorate and conserve societal ideals makes it an effective instrument for the delineation of the Victorian individual. Those operating within the domain of literature, therefore, attempted to recreate their experience of the issues challenging Victorian society. The efforts of poets in this period to identify and explore these issues, including the position of women in society, are reflected in their works. Nineteenth century poets Tennyson and Rossetti endeavored to confront the prevalent social issues within England at the time. Amy Roxana in her writing explains that their texts, The Lady of Shallot and Goblin Market respectively, engage in “literary discourse with one another on the Victorian Era's perception of women in society, presenting dissimilar views on the idea of women's need for male protection, but mutually concluding that the place of women is indeed within the domestic sphere”.
Christina Rossetti's poem, “In An Artist’s Studio”, explores how men foster a need for control by creating unrealistic expectations for women through their fantasies. Through the use of repetition, contrast of imagery, and symbolism, Rossetti guides us through the gallery inside of an artist’s mind, portraying the fantasies that give him a sense of control over the women he creates.