Christina Rossetti

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Christina Rossetti

• Her Life and Poetry

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Background

• Born Dec. 5, 1830
• In 1848 became engaged to James Collinson, but
  broke off engagement after he reverted to Roman
  Catholicism
• Christina and her mother attempted to support the
  family by starting a day school, but the attempt
  failed
• She was in love with Charles Cayaley, but refused
  to marry him because he was not a Christian
• At first drawn to the evangelical branch of the
  Church of England, but later drawn toward the
  Tractarians in the 1840s
• After rejecting Cayley, she lived vicariously in
  the lives of other people
• After 1875 involved with the Society for
  Promoting Christian Knowledge
• Last twelve years of her life were quiet ones
• Died of cancer Dec. 29, 1894.

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Images of Christina Rossetti
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Christina Rossettis Poetry

• Never completely a part of the Pre-Raphaelite
  Brotherhood.
• Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
• The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1866)
• Themes of frustrated love and tension between
  desire and renunciation characterize her poetry
• Gothic strain in her poetry
• Poetry is characterized by hiddenness and reserve
• Art is a refuge
• Art mediates between this world and the
  transcendent world
• Poetry mediates between religious values and
  aesthetic values of Pre-Raphaelite movement
• An aesthetics of renunciation

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Goblin Market

• An allegory of temptation and redemption
• The little men represent worldly affections
• The two sisters could be the two sides of
  Christinas own character
• Redemption of a guilty person by an innocent one
• Analysis of gender roles

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Dante Rossettis Illustrations of Goblin Market
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