{"id":440,"date":"2015-03-06T14:28:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T14:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=440"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:11","slug":"similarities-between-in-an-artists-studio-and-the-woman-in-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/06\/similarities-between-in-an-artists-studio-and-the-woman-in-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Similarities between In an Artist’s Studio and The Woman in White"},"content":{"rendered":"

The portrayal of the nameless lady in Christina Rossetti\u2019s poem In an Artist\u2019s Studio<\/em> evokes, in many ways, Laura\u2019s representation in the Woman in White<\/em>. These two female figures are, in fact, similarly objectified and described as the center of male desires and of their own projections.<\/p>\n

Portrayed differently in each painting, as \u201ca queen in opal or ruby dress\u201d, \u201ca nameless girl\u201d, \u201ca saint\u201d or \u201can angel\u201d (Rossetti 5,6,7), the woman of Rossetti\u2019s poem has been completely deprived of her real identity in order to become a mere reflection of the painter\u2019s desires. This description seems to match almost perfectly Laura\u2019s in Collins\u2019 novel. The last verse of the poem, in fact, could be easily referred to her character, since Walter shapes Laura in the same way the painter depicts his lady: \u201cnot as she is, but as she fills his dream\u201d (Rossetti 14).<\/p>\n

Walter\u2019s objectification of Laura, although veiled, can be seen since the beginning of the novel, when on their first meeting he describes a water colour drawing he made of her instead of describing her directly. Walter therefore portrays Laura as he sees her and as he wants her to be, while the real Laura is silenced. A perfect example of how he makes Laura \u201ceven more hazy and less individualized\u201d (Donaghy, 393) can be seen a few pages later when he says \u201cthink of her as you thought of the first woman who quickened the pulses within you that the rest of her sex had no art to stir\u2026Take her as a visionary nursling of your own fancy; and she will grow upon you, all the more clearly, as the living woman who dwells in mine\u201d (Collins, 52). Laura is here\u00a0generalized and her emptiness of character is seen as necessary, since\u00a0she functions as a center of projection of\u00a0the other characters’ desires.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the two figures of Laura and of the nameless woman in Rossetti\u2019s poem, seem almost to overlap, as both their identities, although in different ways, have been completely annihilated by a male figure. In fact, both the painter, through his work, and Walter, through his actions and narration, objectify the two women whose role is merely reduced to \u201ca blank to be filled by male desire\u201d (Donaghy, 393).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The portrayal of the nameless lady in Christina Rossetti\u2019s poem In an Artist\u2019s Studio evokes, in many ways, Laura\u2019s representation in the Woman in White. These two female figures are, in fact, similarly objectified and described as the center of male desires and of their own projections. Portrayed differently in each painting, as \u201ca queen … Continue reading Similarities between In an Artist’s Studio and The Woman in White<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2618,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}