Christina Rossetti expresses a woman’s longing for recognition and respect through the employment of nature in her poems. She describes women as “blossoms” – which grow and give valuable things to the world – but whose contributions are overlooked. She points to women as being valued for their beauty but not for their other contributions to society.
In her poem, “Song (Oh Roses),” Rossetti points to how, in Victorian days, women were recognized and appreciated for their beauty in their youth. However, as they grew old and their youthful beauty faded away, they were no longer given much recognition by the rest of society.
She begins her poem describing “the flush of youth” and a woman at her “perfect prime.” However, as the woman’s beauty is plucked from her like “ivy branches” through aging, the woman is tossed away as having lost significance. Her value is no longer recognized. Rossetti uses the phrase “Grown old before my time” to describe how a woman’s beauty grows old before her contributions to society do.
Even after her physical beauty has faded, the woman’s lasting effects – through childbirth, motherhood, and care of the home – remain with society, and she continues to contribute to society through her hard work in the home. However, this fact is ignored by Victorians. In the next stanza of her poem, Rossetti uses the phrase “grave of youth,” again pointing to how a woman’s youthful beauty dies before the actual woman does.
In her poem “The End,” Rossetti points to the lack of recognition given to women once they are not at their “perfect prime.” In Victorian times, women in general, but especially older women were accustomed to being overlooked. Because their worth was so often measured by their outer beauty, as they grew old they were attributed less worth and were left longing for recognition from the rest of society.
Rossetti expresses this longing for recognition in her poem, describing recognition as love. “Love, strong as Death, is dead.” A woman’s hope for recognition passes, as she is lowered into her underappreciated role as housewife. With less to look forward to, a woman’s eyes are now “fixed on the grass,” and she is ignored by society as insignificant: “shadow-veiled as the years pass.” Once there is no more outer beauty to show, women are all the more “shadow-veiled.” They are left in the corners as though they do not matter.
Rossetti furthers her point in her poem “Sweet Death.” She writes how women continue to give their contributions to society. The “shed their fresh leaves in showers.” Their contributions continue to effect what is considered the greater society: men and the workforce. “Their perfume rose up to the sky.” However, while the silenced woman continues to “nourish the rich earth” she is not recognized for her contributions, particularly her long-term contributions. When she dies, she is not remembered in the way that many men are. To society, her life “passeth by and is as though it had not been.” In other words, women are entirely taken for granted for their important contributions to society and they are quickly forgotten.
The under-appreciation of women in Victorian society was made explicit by the many privileges denied them that were given to men. For example, women rarely inherited a man’s property. In England, when a woman’s husband died, his property and possessions were usually given to a male heir. Even if a woman did manage to make money outside the home, the money she made was considered her husband’s property. This money would also be placed in the hands of the husband’s heir while the women was left with nothing. Also take into consideration the fact that, in America, women were not given the right to vote until 1920.
The two points I am trying to make above are first, that during the Victorian Era, women were primarily valued for their external beauty and second, that they were not recognized as valuable for the important contributions they made to society, especially through their roles as housewives.
I see Rossetti’s writings as a call for women to be given more recognition and more respect for the importance of their roles in society. I question how far we have come since the Victorian Era in giving women recognition and respect.
An article by an organization for women called Guiding Star notes: “True feminism works for the right to participate in the culture, in the home, in business, in politics, and any other sphere not on the pretense that we de-feminize ourselves and become like men, but that we can participate as women because our way of existing in the world is every bit as valuable and necessary as the way men exist.”
Women have finally been let into the workforce. They have finally been given rights to their property and the right to vote. However, I see society still giving women their worth based on external appearance. I see society still viewing women as sexual objects. Consider Victoria’s Secret, for example. Women are not shown respect through Victoria’s Secret’s ads. Women are dehumanized and turned into pretty things to be admired for their physical beauty and to be tossed when they no longer live up to society’s ideal for their appearance.
Watch the above clip 0:00 through 2:45
Also, while women are often applauded for the contributions they give to society in the public workforce; they are still under-valued for the work they do in the house: raising children, doing household chores, etc. Even women who would rather embrace the role of housewife are discouraged from staying at home by society. This implies that the work done within the home is not worth as much as the work done outside of the home.
I question when women will be valued equally no matter their physical appearance, and I question when women who choose to stay at home as housewives and mothers will be given respect and encouragement equal to those given to who decide to leave home for the public workforce.
–Sheila Statz
Works Cited
Rossetti, Christina. Selected Poems. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
“To Be a Woman.” The Guiding Star Project. The Guiding Star Project, 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
Images
http://www.kingsgalleries.com/the-mirror/
http://celtica-harmony.deviantart.com/art/Grave-of-My-Youth-363426156
http://www.justjared.com/2008/11/26/miranda-kerr-covers-page-six-magazine/
http://abundant-solutions.biz/marketing-tips/capturing-leads-from-your-website/
http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/being-a-stay-at-home-mom-in-pictures/
Victorian Women Writers & Celebrity 
I definitely agree with your idea that Rossetti placed a huge importance on youth and beauty. One poem not read in class titled “The Bourne” also alludes to the idea of fleeting outer beauty. Rossetti explains that age creeps up on us: “Underneath the growing grass,/ Underneath the living flowers,/ Deeper than the sound of showers:/ There we shall not count the hours/ By the shadows as they pass” (26). Underneath all the attractiveness above ground, more matters beyond outer appearance. She goes on to write, “Youth and health will be but vain,” because in the end, why does it really matter?
While taking a COJO class abroad in London last January, I was surprised to find the indecency of the local newspaper The Sun. Every day, this daily paper that could be bought off any street corner or convenience shop includes a topless photograph of a model on page 3. One might just be walking to the coffee shop or riding the tube and shockingly get a glimpse of this degrading newspaper. The page 3 girls are solely there to show their bodies. Although I know that women are still degraded in this way all the time, it was shocking to me and my classmates that this public newspaper would openly depict women in this way. In conclusion, I find it very relevant to some of Rossetti’s poems about youth and beauty.
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I think this is a really insightful post, and very thought-provoking. I think one thing that really strikes me is the association between women and nature historically and mythologically (and here, in Christina Rossetti’s poetry). Oftentimes this association comes from women’s fertility and childbirth – in the same way that “mother” earth produces vegetation and nature, so too women produce children. When we talked about the gender spheres, we tend to see this dichotomy: woman is equivalent to nature and private/domestic realm (rearing children, etc.); man is equivalent to culture and public/political realm.
This way of looking at spheres really clarifies the reason why there may be sexism around nowadays. Historically, women have tended to stay within their own sphere because of legalities and social constructs keeping them there. In recent history, however, we have seen more and more women breaking into the public/political realm of the city, and thus “breaking out of” women’s spheres. This can be seen as threatening to men, who fundamentally and physically cannot “break into” the women’s sphere of childbearing, although they could step into the realm by taking care more of domestic life. It’s an interesting track of thought, and one to keep in mind as we move forward.
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Sheila – I had taken note on the emphasis Rossetti placed on youth and beauty as a means for a woman in the Victorian era to gain respect and recognition, but never thought to compare that to respect and recognition today. It’s amazing that so little has changed! Women are still praised above all for their physical looks and even with women in the workforce, they still don’t hold as many “titled” positions as men and only earn $0.77 for every dollar a man earns. Women in the domestic sphere are still undervalued, perhaps because our patriarchal society still believes housework to be a woman’s “natural” work. Regardless, women as a whole don’t receive nearly enough respect or recognition for their efforts compared to men. With youth being directly associated to beauty, and beauty being directly associated to recognition, it’s no wonder the plastic surgery industry is so popular, with Botox injections becoming more and more popular as a way to avoid becoming “shadow-veiled as the years pass.”
Perhaps with women now having earned 10 million more degrees than men since the 1980’s we’ll see a rise of women making a difference so that we as a sex can be recognized for more than just physical appearance, but also our intellectual efforts and work in the public realm.
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I am happy that you pointed out how Rossetti says women are only beautiful and useful to Victorian society when they are young. Once their beauty fades, they are no longer needed and their accomplishments are forgotten. As sad as it is, it is still extremely prevalent in today’s society. I really enjoyed the quote from Guiding Star you included. I think it is an excellent representation of what feminism is, and why women should be more proactive, instead of waiting for someone else to fix it for them. I think many older women are more complacent with where they are in society. Maybe because they feel that there is nothing they can do at this point to change their life situation. Young women are really pushing for changes, and are discovering ways that women are still being unappreciated, as you mention, in the workplace. I hope our female generation can continue to fight these expectations.
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Rossetti’s poetry exemplifies a very interesting form of feminism. I agree that she had a real appreciation for nature’s magnificence and female beauty. She definitely empathized with women and realized the temporariness of beauty, but I believe her poetry comments more on the fickleness of life in general than solely on the triviality of youth and beauty. Life is unpredictable and limited for everyone, not just the gorgeous woman.
Specifically, I read “Sweet Death” with more optimism. I believe it is commenting on the beauty and naturalness of death: “Sweet life, but sweeter death that passeth by / And is as though it had not been.” The first line suggests an afterlife superior to life on earth, a more fulfilling and intrinsically beautiful eternal existence. The second line suggests death is a natural and inevitable consequence of the earthly lifecycle. We cannot prevent it, so there is no point in trying to fight it. I believe Rossetti was an embracer of death because it possesses the potential for a more profound relationship with God. Rossetti was a devout Christian and considered her relationship with God of the utmost importance.
Though I did not read the poem in the same way you did, I still enjoyed your insights. The idea that women live on through their children is a fascinating notion. It makes women essential and transcendent.
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I really loved your use of the quote from Guiding Star. I thought this quote is so important! Because the emphasis of the feminist movement is not about man hating or making ourselves more masculine, but participating in society as women where we are respected, not demeaned. I think your point that Rosetti embodied this in her poems was spot on. I think it is subtle in places and more outspoken in others, but you can certainly see the longing for recognition in her poems. It is easy to write off women who aren’t pretty as being unimportant, because society has given us that attitude; raised us to be that way. I think your argument that Rosetti resented that and almost poked fun at it really is great. Rosetti used her famous name to bring to light her views on how women were treated and how they should be treated, and I think a lot of women at the time and today do this. But I think we still have a long way to go because, Surprise!, nothing has changed. We can vote now, and we have the “right” to work outside the home, but society still marginalizes us and I think that we forget about that sometimes. As a young girl you don’t realize you are being marginalized, you just know you REALLY want to be pretty. So I think Rosetti’s comments about beauty and how temporary it truly is are very important. Beauty is temporary! So why do we search for it with such gusto?
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Wow, fantastic posting Sheila. While reading, I noticed similarities to the paper topic I am currently working on. I am looking at the fact that Rossetti wrote about death and love frequently, but maybe there is more to it. I am considering that maybe Christina viewed death as the final escape, the one place a woman could have autonomy. It allows for an interesting and cynical reading of her work, but that’s the beauty of quality poetry; there are multiple levels on which it can be interpreted and true. The fact that you were able to find numerous examples of her poetry that expresses the importance of beauty and domesticity is also a testament to the gravity of the issue you wrote about.
Your post also made me think about the ways in which domesticity is perceived. We often talk about the “extremes” of womanhood in class, being either completely feminine, domestic, beautiful woman, or an ugly, “masculine,” woman. As you mentioned, there is great value in being a wife or a stay-at-home mother. I think too often, women, in desperation to detach themselves from Victorian oppression, view domestic women as weak or contrary to the feminist cause. But mothers and wives are important, and what feminism should truly promote is the idea that a woman can be whoever and whatever she wants.
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I really enjoyed this post, Sheila. I think you brought attention to a topic that is very relevant today. You did a great job of tying it into a contemporary context. I certainly agree that women in the Victorian Era were valued based on their beauty, as they still are today. I am fascinated by the double standard that our society places on women. I would argue that the pressure on women today is that they should be good at and do everything. We are supposed to be beautiful and sexy, but not slutty. We are supposed to work but also be responsible for how our children turn out. Women are reprimanded for wanting to work if they are perceived as “neglecting” their children. On the other hand, woman are also berated for “only wanting to be a housewife” if they do not wish to pursue a career. Being a woman should be about having the ability to choose what is most fulfilling to you in your life. Women are quick to judge other women when we should be supporting one another and the decisions they make. In relation to beauty and celebrity, women also judge other women based on their appearances. It is unfair to judge a woman’s worth solely on her looks. Women make great contributions to society regardless of how they look, and one should have nothing to do with the other. The pressure placed on women today in terms of their beauty is continuation from the Victorian Era and it is interesting to think about how the perception of women has evolved over time.
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Your claim that “the under-appreciation of women in Victorian society was made explicit by the many privileges denied them that were given to men” is spot on. The way women were treated as “things” to be looked at and not able to contribute anything to society was so true back in this time, and sometimes even thought of today. Just because women in the Victorian Era weren’t allowed to do anything did not by any means mean they were incapable of doing them.
The video you chose to use was very powerful. To show the gap between men and women in society through the eyes of different celebrities and government officials and people in power is really revolutionary. Their voices are loud and are able to project the rest of ours. The point you make about these women, like the ones in the video, who contribute to the workforce being honorable but those who are the homemakers and the stay-at-home-mom’s who don’t get the recognition is very important. We’ve crossed the bridge of getting women appreciated (or at least a little more than before) in the workforce we have to take that next step of woman being appreciated all across the board. Because if men are, than why can’t women?
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