Rossetti Context

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  • House for Fallen Women
    • Refuges and penitentiaries, which actively sought out women working as prostitutes, offered a safe environment to help women to leave the profession
      • Many of these institutions were exclusively religious, however, underpinned by a belief that repentance before God deserves human forgiveness
    • Rossetti volunteered at St Mary Magdalene house between 1859-1870, where she was known as Sister Christina
  • The Oxford Movement
    • Led by John Keeble
    • Keeble believed that the church was at risk of becoming an arm of the state and it needed to be a rediscovery of the doctrine that it was a Christian body
    • The movement gave way to women being able to nurse and teach
    • The movement recognised a more important role of women in church - especially in sewing and adorning the altar
    • Rossetti was a member of the Oxford Movement
      • 1840s - changed to Anglo-Catholicism (more emphasis on rituals)
    • Christina Rossetti - CONTEXT
      • House for Fallen Women
        • Refuges and penitentiaries, which actively sought out women working as prostitutes, offered a safe environment to help women to leave the profession
          • Many of these institutions were exclusively religious, however, underpinned by a belief that repentance before God deserves human forgiveness
        • Rossetti volunteered at St Mary Magdalene house between 1859-1870, where she was known as Sister Christina
      • Rossetti's personal life
        • twice engaged but called off the engagements for religious reasons
        • Augusta Webster wrote to her in 1870 asking for support in women getting the vote
          • Rossetti refused because of the "unalterable distinction between men and women; their position; their duties and privileges" that the bible teaches
      • Religion
        • Dawinism creates religious doubt
          • Origin of Species - 1859
        • 14 year breakdown due to religious mania (Rossetti)
        • Rossetti believed in soul sleep (period of limbo before judgement day)
        • Anglican Churches were state led i.e., the monarch was the head
        • Rossetti's poems had specific religious allusions
      • Gender
        • Matrimonial Causes Act  (1859) - allows women to divorce on grounds of abuse
        • The Society for the Employment of Women - 1859
        • Married Property Act (1882) - everything a woman owned belonged to husband (even after marriage)
        • Custody of Infants Act (1839) - Mothers have custody of their children until age of 7
        • Queen Victoria
        • The Aggravates Assaults Act (1853)
        • Victorian Era was the 'domesticated age'
      • Death
        • 1861 - Prince Albert dies, Victoria in mourning/depression for the last 40 years of her life
        • Tuberculosis (TB) Pandemic
        • Industrial Revolution meant cities were highly populated (and overcrowded, poor conditions spread diseases quicker)
        • Death rate of children under 5 is 33% (in London)
        • Revolutionised the water systems in London, study about washing hands
        • 1846 - cholera outbreak
        • Germ Theory of 1861
        • Rossetti's dad died when she was 24
        • Gin craze due to undrinkable water
      • Nature
        • Age of Pessimism and Dawinism means that nature is less related to God
        • Royal botanical garden in 1841
        • Garden of Eden ideals
        • Romanticism of 1860s - highly focused on the beauty of nature
        • Floriography - language of flowers in Victorian Era - flowers held different meanings
      • Temptation
        • Gin craze
        • Opium Houses
        • Sexual Contagious Diseases Act (1864)
        • Prostitution
  • Pre-Raphaelites
    • Whilst considered a Pre-Raphaelite poet, Rossetti never joined the brotherhood
      • her brother Dante Rossetti was involved in the movement
    • Hailed by the critic Ruskin who believed the art was going to nature in all the singleness of the heart
    • Ruskin believed that pre-raphaelites went back to a more ancient and pure way of life
    • Christina Rossetti - CONTEXT
      • Rossetti's personal life
        • twice engaged but called off the engagements for religious reasons
        • Augusta Webster wrote to her in 1870 asking for support in women getting the vote
          • Rossetti refused because of the "unalterable distinction between men and women; their position; their duties and privileges" that the bible teaches
      • Religion
        • Dawinism creates religious doubt
          • Origin of Species - 1859
        • 14 year breakdown due to religious mania (Rossetti)
        • Rossetti believed in soul sleep (period of limbo before judgement day)
        • Anglican Churches were state led i.e., the monarch was the head
        • Rossetti's poems had specific religious allusions
      • Gender
        • Matrimonial Causes Act  (1859) - allows women to divorce on grounds of abuse
        • The Society for the Employment of Women - 1859
        • Married Property Act (1882) - everything a woman owned belonged to husband (even after marriage)
        • Custody of Infants Act (1839) - Mothers have custody of their children until age of 7
        • Queen Victoria
        • The Aggravates Assaults Act (1853)
        • Victorian Era was the 'domesticated age'
      • Death
        • 1861 - Prince Albert dies, Victoria in mourning/depression for the last 40 years of her life
        • Tuberculosis (TB) Pandemic
        • Industrial Revolution meant cities were highly populated (and overcrowded, poor conditions spread diseases quicker)
        • Death rate of children under 5 is 33% (in London)
        • Revolutionised the water systems in London, study about washing hands
        • 1846 - cholera outbreak
        • Germ Theory of 1861
        • Rossetti's dad died when she was 24
        • Gin craze due to undrinkable water
      • Nature
        • Age of Pessimism and Dawinism means that nature is less related to God
        • Royal botanical garden in 1841
        • Garden of Eden ideals
        • Romanticism of 1860s - highly focused on the beauty of nature
        • Floriography - language of flowers in Victorian Era - flowers held different meanings
      • Temptation
        • Gin craze
        • Opium Houses
        • Sexual Contagious Diseases Act (1864)
        • Prostitution

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