{"id":941,"date":"2017-11-13T22:39:28","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T03:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=941"},"modified":"2017-11-30T11:39:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T16:39:27","slug":"sexuality-and-the-new-woman-in-rossettis-no-thank-you-john","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2017\/11\/13\/sexuality-and-the-new-woman-in-rossettis-no-thank-you-john\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexuality and the New Woman in Rossetti’s “‘No, Thank You, John'”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With a sharp tongue, willingness to defy gender roles, and a spark of scandal, a \u201cNew Woman\u201d has entered Victorian literature. Christina Rossetti explores this New Woman and her connection to gender and sexuality through her poem, \u201c\u2018No, Thank You, John\u2019.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The poem begins with, \u201cI never said I loved you John,\u201d (Rossetti, 1) a blunt declaration that immediately strays away from the definition of an ideal Victorian woman. Rather than being submissive, our speaker becomes authoritative and directly attacks a man with whose views she doesn\u2019t agree with. In the next line, she mentions that John has \u201ctease[d] [her] day by day\u201d (Rossetti, 2). This statement juxtaposes tradition gender roles and takes a stab at masculinity. Normally, it is presumed that women are the ones teasing and taunting men. This theme is seen in our previous poem, \u201cMy Last Duchess\u201d by Robert Browning, where the Duke\u2019s wife, \u201cthanked men\u2014good!\u201d (Browning, 31) which became the main source of the female downfall. Yet, through the words of Rossetti\u2019s strong, confident, female speaker, we learn that the tables have turned. Therefore, the topic of sexuality is challenged considering the man is now the person pining over his lover, rather than the other way around. This is important for this era because typically females don\u2019t have much power in their marriage or relationships. Browning\u2019s work revealed that women often become the property of their male counterpart once he gives them a \u201cnine-hundred-years-old-name\u201d (Browning, 33) they can\u2019t refuse. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 However, we see a completely different version of women through Rossetti\u2019s poem. In fact, any masculine authority is taken away all together. The only time we hear John\u2019s thoughts are when the speaker is recalling them to the reader. \u201cI have no heart?\u201d (Rossetti, 13) she mentions, bringing up a statement John previously used to undermine her with. By hearing his words coming from her mouth, she completely takes control of the situation, taking his former accusation and making him the victim of the attack instead. Later that stanza, she tells him to \u201cuse [his] own common sense\u201d (Rossetti, 16). Here, she commands him and refers to him in a child-like manner. Rather than the male and female being equals, she speaks lower of him as if she is on an elevated plain. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The idea of sexuality is perhaps seen best in the endings line, \u201cHere\u2019s friendship for you if you like; but love, –No, thank you John\u201d (Rossetti, 31-32). The speaker asserts that a woman doesn\u2019t have to love a man even though he\u2019s interested in her, she has control over whether or not see wants to love him as well. The ideas of the New Woman ring true through Rossetti\u2019s poem and prove that women are progressing and taking a stand for what they believe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With a sharp tongue, willingness to defy gender roles, and a spark of scandal, a \u201cNew Woman\u201d has entered Victorian literature. Christina Rossetti explores this New Woman and her connection to gender and sexuality through her poem, \u201c\u2018No, Thank You, John\u2019.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The poem begins with, \u201cI never … Continue reading Sexuality and the New Woman in Rossetti’s “‘No, Thank You, John’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}