Women

Narrative

• Woman sees childhood lover from country, in gutter, turns head in shame
• He seems to forgive- link to bible where prostitutes were forgiven sins, understanding

Symbolism

• Calf- trapped and sold like her, phallic bollard references her occuation
• In sketch: boarded up house- rejecting domestic role, woman on bridge- suicide of fallen women common (Rossetti also wrote about in River's Records)
• Churchyard and grave forshadows death, barrier between upright and fallen

Influences

• Book of Jeremiah: 'I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth'
• Rosabell by Scott - prostitute's harsh outdoor setting juxtaposed by secure home

Fallen Woman

• Woman rejects role, husband hold letter from her lover, lies on floor-hand point to door, apple on floor= fallen status, apple with knife= his heart
• Paintings: women- Adam and Eve, Man- shipwreck, children make house of cards- collapse
• 2nd painting daughters stare at moon in austere room without family
• 3rd painting mother stares at same moon, under bridge, has baby- prostitution and poverty

Comment on Society

• Marriage hard because women outnumbered men, mirror- marriage an illusion
• Bracelets like handcuffs, Balzac's 'Psychology of Marriage' argued marriage was unnatural
• Posters in 3rd painting - 'The Cure of Love', 'Victims' - about unhappy marriage
• Woman looks pious and beautiful - appeals to our emotions

Religion

• Companin to 'Light of World' based on 'as he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, so is he that singeth songs to a heart' - man means of salvation, spoken to conscience
• Frame has star showing spiritual revalation, links to 'Young Woman Attacked by Death' -Durer

Psychology

• PRB theme of 'the woman inside'- single woman in room, links to Tennyson's 'Palace of Art'
• Trapped in gilded mirror, stimulated by 'Oft in the Stilly Night', thinks of childhood
• Hunt's trauma with Annie Miller- books show how he educated her

Morality

• Hogarthian moral subject- bell in frame warning in Harlot's Progress
• Seducer full of vice, furnishings 'vulgar'- spare room for mistress, bird and cat mirror
• Unfinished tapesty and clock- her wasted life, discarded glove- as she might be, plant on piano- invasive week choking the flower