Category: Spring 2015

Both Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market and the Illman Brothers’ etching The Fair Dreamer engage in a long artistic tradition of placing females in idyllic settings. In both texts, nature is associated with sexual desire and seduction.

While The Fair Dreamer may appear like an innocent portrait of a sleeping female figure, a closer look suggests salacious undertones. The bend of the tree on which the woman rests draws attention to the sensuous S-curve of her body. Although her body remains covered, the shadows and highlights on her skirts create the impression of stretched fabric and consequently suggest that her knees are spread apart provocatively. Reinforcing this sexual position, the tension in the clenched hand that tightly grips the tree branch suggests the ecstasy of climaxing, rather than the relaxation of sleeping. The propriety signified by her parasol and hat is cast carelessly aside as she basks in the wood by a brook on a lush summer day.

In a similar way, Goblin Market also posits nature as the site of sexual desire. For example, the poem repeatedly locates the goblin men selling their fruit in a “glen” (474, 477, 488) by a “brook” (474, 479, 488). This emphasis on sexual threat, represented by the goblin men, within a natural setting is emphasized by the parenthetical line “(Men sell not such in any town)” (488), “such” referring to “fruits” two lines previously. The populated “town” is free of corrupting fruit, but the “haunted glen” (488) is fraught with temptation. Like the etching, which suggests the fertility of summer by depicting a thick canopy of green leaves and tall reeds, the poem sets the action in “summer weather” (480). The “warm” wind suggests the heat of desire and passion (474).

Just as the curves of the woman’s figure are mirrored in the contour of the tree trunk in The Fair Dreamer, Goblin Market frequently compares the sisters to trees. For example, a simile likens Laura’s “gleaming neck” to a “moonlit poplar branch” (475), and later in the poem her “fallen” nature is compared to “a wind-uprooted tree” (487). Lizzie, too, is compared to a tree to emphasize her simultaneous strength and vulnerability:

“Like a fruit-crowned orange-tree

White with blossoms honey-sweet

Sore beset by wasp and bee” (484).

The stingers associated with “wasp and bee” here suggest a phallic metaphor, as does the earlier description of the “Their hungry thirsty roots” (474). In the poem, the antecedent of the pronoun “they” is ambiguous, referring to either “goblin men” or “fruits”; the phallic image of “roots” is paralleled in the skinny tree branch that the woman grips in The Fair Dreamer.

As these two texts demonstrate, sexual desire is often juxtaposed with nature because of its fertility, seclusion, and phallic associations. Yet the texts muddy the exact relationship between nature and women: are women one with nature, or does nature pose a particular threat to them?

Having viewed the painting of The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse before reading the poem that it was originally inspired by, I already felt struck by this incredible painting. After examining both the poem and the painting, it is evident to see how both poet and artist reject traditional Victorian ideals, while even furthering the ideologies of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. There is a constant struggle in the poem between the indoor and outdoor life, which reflects these difficulties for women in Victorian society. In Part I, it is explained that she is inside “Four gray walls, and four gray towers, / Overlook a space of flowers.” The gray color of the enclosing walls paired with an removed view of outside emphasize the contrast between the dull, trapped life of many 18^th century women who were only ever considered a domestic figure. When the Lady of Shalott ventures to explore Camelot and the outside world, this is what leads to her fatal demise. Her attempt to traverse societal lines and explore what a woman should not explore is the ultimate deviation from the rigidity of Victorian society.

 

The poem, though, is not what intrigues me most. I found Waterhouse’s artistic interpretation of this poem intriguing in what he decided to include or not include. He incorporates the gray walls as a backdrop of the painting, an element that seems to be completely forgotten about. The stairs and the walls are also the only geometrically aligned elements to the painting, which reflects the rigidity of the life she has literally turned her back on. Waterhouse includes the lilies in the pond as well as the “willowy hills and fields among,” making sure to include the natural details that so characterize a majority of this poem. He also includes the tapestry, which was a major focus during the duration of her “entrapment” until this escape. He adds three candles, in which the last of them is about to be blown out, reflecting her soon impending death.

 

As we have in detail discussed this idea of the femme fatale, this painting seems to abandon this idea altogether, portraying the focal female in the virginal white, reflecting what is in the poem, but also through her physical appearance, which is not as detailed in the text. Waterhouse’s choice to depict her with long red hair, red lips, and an open chest with a tilted back head reflects her repression, and more so than just her domestic repression but the sexual repression that was so prevalent during this time. Over everything, though, it is her facial expression, which seems to be so distinctive to Waterhouse’s work over the rest. Her sorrowful, mourning countenance so clearly depicts a pained woman, on her final journey to end her suffering. However, in evaluating how she might represent the whole of Victorian female society, I think back to “In an Artist’s Studio” by Christina Rossetti and I wonder if, for the male audience, “she fills his dream,” or the opposite, because of her expression and the fact that she is not looking outwards. Did this painting intend on a sort of exposition into the repression of women and their depictions in art as well? In my opinion, I would say yes. Perhaps this is why I found it to be such an incredible piece.

One significant aspect of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” that sets it apart from other Victorian poems we have read so far is its portrayal of a functional relationship between two women. “The Blessed Damozel,” “The Lady of Shalott,” “My Last Duchess,” and “In an Artist’s Studio” have all explicitly stated the genders of the two main participants in the action of the poems; invariably, they have featured a man and a woman. In most of these poems, with the possible exception of “In an Artist’s Studio,” the man and woman are involved in a heterosexual romantic relationship. In contrast, “Goblin Market” portrays two sisters living and working together in harmony.

While the relationship between Laura and Lizzie is established as sisterly, there are several instances during the poem in which Rossetti hints at a deeper connection between the two women. For example, early on in the poem, Laura and Lizzie “[crouch] close together… / With clasping arms and cautioning lips / With tingling cheeks and finger tips.” Later, as the sisters fall asleep, the poem describes them as “Cheek to cheek and breast to breast / Locked together in one nest.” This language redefines the relationship between the sisters as something more romantic and intimate.

Perhaps the most convincing indication of the sisters’ relationship as romantic partners is seen in the final stanza of the poem. While the lines “when both were wives / With children of their own” seem to indicate a very traditional ending to the poem in which both women marry into separate families, the conspicuous lack of any mention of their husbands can suggest another conclusion. Instead, it can be interpreted that the women act as wives to each other, forming an unconventional family unit between themselves and their children. This reimagined family, while atypical for the Victorian era, reflects an arguably stronger and more successful romantic relationship than the other poems we have read so far. Instead of the unequal power dynamic seen in “My Last Duchess” and “In an Artist’s Studio,” or the yearned-for but unrealistic relationships of “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Blessed Damozel,” Laura and Lizzie are a functional couple, living and raising children in mutual admiration and respect.

 

During the Victorian Era, women were considered unnecessary. Many women were not valued and thought of in a negative way. This concept is depicted in William Greg’s article “Why are Women Redundant?” At one point he states, “there is an enormous and increasing number of single women in the nation, a number quite disproportionate and quite abnormal” (158) and “[women] who remain unmarried constitute the problem to be solved, the evil and anomaly to be cured” (159). These ideas reflect the overall ideas of Victorian societies. Many believed married women were responsible for domestic duties, and had no real responsibilities other than these. Unmarried women, on the other hand, were viewed as burdens, as people who did nothing other than get in the way and cause harm.

Many of these ideas were portrayed through Victorian art and literature. Eugene Gaujean depicts the notion that certain women can be nuisances in the print “The Two Friends”. In the print there is a cat sitting on a chair next to reading glasses, knitting materials, and a crumpled newspaper. Cats are often considered feminine pets and associated with females, much like the concepts of knitting and reading. These all are reflective of feminine, domestic activities. If the cat represents the common Victorian women at the time, it shows how women were restricted to common household activities, many of which were scoffed at. However, if the cat were to represent unmarried Victorian women, it shows how they were often times in the way of others. The cat is sitting directly in the middle of the chair where typically a woman would be sitting. Not only does the cat replace the woman in this sense, but is also shown prohibiting work from being accomplished. Woman, often times, were considered inconvenient, much like the cat in the print.

Upon viewing Gaujean’s etching, “The Apparition” the Victorian Femme Fatale comes to mind. The sensual depiction of Solome is one that can be paralleled to the Femme Fatale as described by Jan Marsh[1], “She allows that artists gazed, fascinated but repelled, at women of a curious frigidity, cold but sensual, erotic but invulnerable.” Solome’s “cold but sensual” stance and searing gaze at St. John is one that fully embodies the Femme Fatale, as she is depicted standing erect with her hands reaching out to posses St. John. Additionally, Solome is portrayed as “invulnerable” because she holds the most power out of everyone for having just summoned St. John’s head on a platter. However, Solome defies Marsh’s “boiled down” Femme Fatale. Discussed by Marsh, “Women are rendered decorative, depersonalized; they become passive figures rather than characters in a story or drama… Women are reduced to an aesthetic arrangement of sexual parts, for male fantasies.” The depiction and story behind Solome is not one consistent to Marsh’s definition. Solome’s dance that she performs in order to be granted a wish, St. John’s head, not only fulfills the male desire but it also fulfills her own desire. Yes, Solome is sexually objectified as she uses a dance to coax her stepfather, but she does it knowingly so. Her sexual objectification is not used solely to fulfill “male fantasies” but fulfills her own desires as well. Additionally, Solome’s intense gaze at St. John, rather than at the viewers observing the etching, protects her own authority over her own self and body.

The story behind the etching displays a kind of sexual advocacy not seen before. The fact that Solome utilizes societal objectification of her body in her favor is very interesting. I believe that this image could have really inspired Victorian women to cultivate their sexual influence over the patriarchy.

 

 

[1] http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/object.html

Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” typifies the concept of the femme fatale in several ways. Elizabeth Lee states that the femme fatale in artwork occasioned scopophilia in two ways, of “the artist upon his nude or clothed model” and also of “the viewer upon the art object” (“The Femme Fatale as Object”). In this poem, the last duchess becomes this art object. We see the first instance of scopophilia in the depiction of Frà Pandolf, and the second in the speaker’s continued obsession over the painting.

That the artist gains some pleasure from painting the speaker’s late wife is evidenced by the speaker’s imagined exchange between the painter and his subject: “‘Paint / ‘Must never hope to reproduce the faint / ‘Half-flush that dies along her throat:’ such stuff / Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough / For calling up that spot of joy” (17-21). Lee observes that the depiction of female subjects as the femme fatale “not only objectified the woman, but also dismembered her body and her identity” (“Femme Fatale”). The femme fatale thus becomes formulaic, reduced to her womanly characteristics. This is perhaps most obviously demonstrated by Rossetti in “In An Artist’s Studio,” where the subject is recreated over and over again in paintings that all hold the same meaning. However, in “My Last Duchess” we also get a similar sense that this woman is one in a progression of many. The title itself, “My Last Duchess” perhaps suggests that the woman depicted in the painting was not the first to have married the speaker and met this fate, but perhaps just the “last” one to have done so. Furthermore, the speaker tells his companion that the Count’s “fair daughter’s self, as I avowed / At starting, is my object” (52-53). The proximity of this line to “Notice Neptune…thought a rarity” shows that the speaker is a collector of the beautiful, and that the “last duchess” depicted in the painting is just one of a collection of “rarities” (54-55).

Lee also asserts that the femme fatale held “a certain amount of power over the viewer, who is enthralled with fascination” (“Femme Fatale”). In the poem, though we suspect that the speaker exaggerates  much about the woman’s behavior, it is suggested that she was admired by many and was generous with her affections. The speaker tells us she thanked other men “as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift” (32-34). This “fascination” that many seemed to have with her further solidifies the woman’s position as femme fatale, and we can see the effect of the female gaze.

Thus, if we apply Lee’s thoughts on the femme fatale to Browning’s poem, we can see that the “last duchess” has many of the features of a femme fatale, and her preservation in artwork and the pleasure that others take from viewing her demonstrates the scopophilia that Lee defines. Lastly, we see that because the speaker retains this painting of the duchess, his “attempts to conquer” the femme fatale have failed (“Femme Fatale”).

The woman depicted in The Apparation by Gustave Moreau seems to be a femme fatale. The painting’s focus on the woman, her exotic outfit and her bare skin creates an erotic impression, and the murder of John the Baptist suggests that her sexuality is what makes her dangerous. The depictions of the woman’s sexuality also reminds me of the woman in The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Tennyson, and how she was punished by death for acting upon her sexual feelings. Therefore, the women in The Apparation and The Lady of Shalott are depicted as dangerous because of their sexuality, which suggests that the 19^th century attitudes towards women’s sexuality were that it should be suppressed, and the ideal woman was pious and a virgin.

As the woman is in the foreground in The Apparation, the observer’s focus is drawn to her. The woman’s body seems to be “put together:” She has a long, bare leg, an upper body which accentuates her breasts, and a long, sensuous neck. The portrayal of the woman therefore reminds me of “the male gaze,” as sensual parts of her body are put in focus. However, as the jewelry that drapes her body suggests that she has monetary value, her sexuality has associations to a prostitute. In the background, a man sits on a throne, which could be her father. Since he is in the background and depicted as passive, and the woman appears to not have a husband, the patriarchy seems to be defied. Therefore, the painting suggests that sexually active women are a threat to the patriarchy. Furthermore, since it seems that the woman ordered the murder of John the Baptist, sexually active women were also a threat to religion – or more specifically Christianity – and shows the ideal of pious women, who are virgins until marriage. The walls of the room have ornamental decorations, and the clothing of the people in the room give me associations to East-Asian countries. Therefore, the painting seems to stereotype women of the East, and suggests that they, and their active sexuality, are a danger to the West, Christianity and patriarchy.

The femme fatale in The Apparition reminds me of the woman in The Lady of Shalott. Though she is not depicted exactly the same way as the woman in the painting, the poem shows the same ideal that women should suppress their sexuality: “A curse is on her if she stay / To look down to Camelot” (135). As Camelot is where men are, the “curse” suggests that she cannot act upon her sexual feelings. However, as she did look and died as a result from it, she was punished for longing for a man, which shows the ideal that women should “wait” while men “seek.” Therefore, while the woman in the painting is a femme fatale and dangerous because she is sexual, the woman in the poem was “turning into” a femme fatale by acting on her sexuality, and was punished for it by death.

Christina Rossetti seems to imply in her poem In the Artist’s Studio, that women are portrayed in art they are no longer themselves but a projection of the male fantasy that surrounds her. Her accusation of art as a means to deprive women of their individuality will be examined here through the portrayal first of Laura from the Women in White, as described through Walter’s painting.

Laura is described first through the lens of Walter’s watercolor of her. He asks readers to “Think of her, as you thought of the first women who quickened the pulse within you that the rest of her sex could not stir.” (Collins 52). This description is the most potent in demonstrating the uniformity of women through the eyes of male art. Laura is not her own person but rather a conglomeration of all the aspects of a woman that bring out “sensations” in men. He describes Laura as “matchless, music[al], and airy” even going so far as to say, “Take her as the visionary nursling of your own fancy; and she will grow upon you…as the living woman who dwells in mine.” (Collins 52). Christina Rossetti would likely roll her eyes to this romanticization of a woman to the point of potentially falsifying her appearance and almost certainly falsifying who she is as a person.

Walter’s initial portrayal of Laura becomes problematic as the story continues. As Laura becomes more ill “with sorrow dim” rather than shining “hope… bright[ly].” (Rossetti 12-13). Walter’s love for her seems to become less certain for her. There seems to be a shift in his unyielding romantic language surrounding Laura at the beginning to an almost piteous treatment of her towards the end of the novel. This shift almost seems to imply that Walter would rather be in love with his own painting of Laura than Laura herself, the thing which Christina Rossetti seems to be critiquing. Christina Rossetti, though critical, does not seem to imply a consequence to standardizing female figures in paintings. Could we, as readers, use the outcome of Laura’s changed relationship with Walter and Walter’s altered perspective of Laura as examples of consequences?