Rossetti - critics A05

Clues

• "a woman such as Laura may fall and yet rise again, as long as a 'sister' like Lizzie is there to save her." (6, 7)
• "emphasises the way in which women might be trapped by convention." (5, 5)
• "Focus is not on the possibility of fulfilling earthly love, or upon the betray in love, but rather renunciation." (7, 8)
• "her women are often- and increasingly so - strong rather than weak, and that Rossetti herself was a conscious observer and critic of the 'option' open to Victorian women." (8, 7)
• "in a patriarchal culture, a woman inevitably experiences herself as object and other." (5, 2, 8)
• "Rossetti had radically rewritten the fall of Eve in terms of the social and spiritual abuse of women which she sees around her and includes more than a hint that the male gender oppression to be interpreted as original sin." (5, 7)
• "Rossetti makes her an active and sensual woman who seeks satisfaction." (9, 6)
• "Rossetti predominantly expresses an emotional love and not a sexualised love." (6, 6)
• "Rossetti was a suffering romantic, while her poems might express love, it is the pain of love." (4, 7)
• "The majority of women are not troubled with sexual feeling of any kind." "The existence of [female] sexual excitement is a form of insanity." "women either throw their morals to the wind or are good, honest mothers..." (7, 5)