Christina Rosetti - Biographical and Contextual ideas

Christina Rosetti

Biographical & Contextual ideas

• Christina and her sister, Maria, were both educated at home whilst her brothers went to school
• Seemed to suffer a nervous breakdown in her mid-teens which was diagnosed as religious mania
• Never Married, never had sex nor kissed anyone passionately
• From 1859, Rosetti worked at the St Mary Nagdalene Penitentiary in Highgate, supervising young prostitutes who wished to relinquish a life of shame
• Key influence on Rosetti's life is religion - "isolated devoteeism", "an awful sense of unworthiness", "For all her constant talk…