Amrita Ahluwalia
2/1/2014 07:32:37 pm
Rossetti uses personal pronouns to highlight the separation between her sister and herself. In stanza three the repetitive use of personal pronouns emphasises the speaker’s reproachful attitude towards her Sister Maude and her sister’s act of betrayal. Her spiteful reaction is evident when she claims ‘Though I had not been born at all./ He’d never have looked at you.’ This could imply that Sister Maude may have betrayed her sister out of jealousy, thus Rossetti draws on the idea that it is not always men, but women that can bring one another’s downfall. Perhaps Rossetti herself is shocked by this idea and thus wants us the reader to feel this shock evident through the use of syntax, ‘Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude.’ The use of ‘sister’ in the later part of the sentence accentuates the nature of this betrayal and makes it more deceitful as it is by someone the narrator would trust and consider close to her. Rossetti could be suggesting that women acting against each other brings no good as neither sister benefitted from such betrayal, ‘Have spared my soul, your own soul too.’ This idea is further reinforced in ‘Goblin Market’ as Lizzie saves Laura and prevents her from having a fate similar to ‘Jeanie’. Rossetti makes clear that women should stick together and not condemn each other as ‘there is no friend like a sister...to lift if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.’ Through the ending of ‘Goblin Market’ Rossetti makes clear that through mutual aid women can retain a sense of autonomy and happiness. If women did not contribute to one another’s downfall then perhaps society would begin to weaken in its ability to ostracise women who are seen as going against the conventional image or that even women would begin to feel less ostracised/vulnerable if supported by one another.
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Nasra
2/6/2014 07:01:50 am
Rossetti's view on betrayal is very complex. she portrays those who betray as being in the wrong such as in 'Maude Clare' where she interrupts the wedding between Thomas and Nell. This opinion of Rossetti's was very much influenced by her religious upbringing. Marriage was always done as a religious ceremony at that time and so by disrupting the proceedings Maude Clare is essentially interfering with God. This is also further shown by the opinion of those around the characters (who betray). For example in 'Sister Maude' we see it from the perspective of one of the surrounding characters. In this poem it is the narrator's sister who betrays her and this perspective prevents any empathy on our part. On the other hand, It can also be understood that she herself shows sympathy towards these who betray. In 'Maude Clare' Maude Clare is portrayed as a 'fallen woman' who has been isolated from society (her actions or what happened to her, leaving her with no social standing). Rossetti may have been affected by her voluntary work at Highgate penitentiary, a home for 'fallen women', which has left her with a more aware perspective of their situations. She may be trying to say that although betrayal isn't right, people ( especially women because of the way they were treated) should not be excluded from society and should be given a chance to redeem themselves.
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Sadiya Momaya
2/6/2014 09:09:13 pm
Agenda of betrayal runs throughout Rossetti’s poem, for example in Goblin Market, Laura and Jeanie are seemed to be betrayed by the goblin men. However, betrayal is always linked with ‘men’, Rossetti could have just used ‘goblins’ but she rather preferred to use ‘goblin men’ to show the link between men and betrayal, it seems as if Rossetti believes men have the strongest capability of betraying women in every way, whether by their temporarily love or temptation . Rossetti is probably warning the readers not to fall for the acts of men as they are more likely to betray you. This perception of her must be rooted because of the betrayal she faced in her own love life.
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Jaspreet
2/6/2014 10:14:02 pm
I agree with Sadiya on the basis that there is a possibility that Rossetti warns the readers of the seductive, yet destructive nature of men, who are portrayed in her poems to some extent as vicious backstabbers. Rossetti sense of betrayal in her poems' appeals to the unjust domination men have in Victorian society, they are excused from having sex outside of wedlock as society at that time assumes that they were driven by uncontrollable urges, thus shouldn't be responsible for acts of infidelity.
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Sade
2/13/2014 09:19:42 am
Theme of betrayal is especially prominent within Rossetti's poems. She especially highlights the betrayal of humans in regards to God. Rossetti enforces the theme of temptation into sin, to represent how instead of choosing to follow God, women especially face the consequence of living as a fallen woman. This is prominently and directly more noticeable in 'The Convent Threshold'.
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Hannah
2/13/2014 10:37:45 am
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