Summary A Level Essay Plan: Marriage in Rossetti Poems and Ibsen A Doll’s House
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Course
Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H47201)
Institution
OCR
An essay plan formulated based on my study notes for the A-level Drama and Poetry section of the course, studying specifically Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House and Rossetti’s poems featuring analysis, context and critics surrounding the theme of marriage which could potentially come up in a futur...
Marriage is presented as a
transaction opposed to a bond
1- marriage loveless
2- marriage and commitment
3-marriage subjugates women
Rossetti Ibsen
1-Maude Clare 2-No Thank You John 3- 1- Nora and Torvald 2- Rank and Nora 3-
From the antique/ Jhansi Mrs Linde
Context
The rossettis widely hated Gabriel’s wife, Elizabeth siddal, but in an artists studio an element
of sympathy and compassion is seen
Women wages low, 100,000 worked for less than one shilling a day
Education of middle class in music, reading and writing only for the purpose of conversation
with potential suitors
Her fiancés were painter and member of the PRB; collinson and Cayley; both broken off due
to uncertainty of religion
Dante Gabriel poem: Jenny: about a prostitute, showing an understanding of why some
women fall.
Medieval chivalry became one of the defining qualities of the English gentlemen- redefining
itself with Albert and Victoria
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills- poem which shows her inability to have a family
Marriage market in Victorian era highly competitive; disproportionate amount of women to
men;
Fallen women- often used and then never to be married Due to their sexual innocence being
taken
The new woman- Free spirited educated and independent
Marriage is presented as a transaction opposed to a bond 1
, Germanic ending 1880- barabric act- ends with nora in the kids room
Men indulge in prostitution
Contagious diseases act- forced medical examination of any woman suspected to be a sex
Worker; reform campaign for repeal of acts, argued male clients equally as responsible
Virginia Woolf wrote about killing the angel of the house
Martial rape illegal in Norway in 1971
Napoleonic code
Seperate spheres and the male gaze
Ibsens mother traditional angel of the house vs his mother in law who was a leader of
feminist movement
Coverture- law which made husband in charge of all legally binding decision
Ibsen had a child at 18 out of wedlock
Wives were jewels and fashions served as proof of husbands wealth and power
Ibsen would call his fans ‘his adoring princesses’ Suzanne wrote that he meant to leave her.
Emily Dickinson poem: “im wife” I’ve finished that
Ibsens parents marriage described as incestuous
Marriage is loveless
Rossetti
The new marriage of Nell and Thomas is immedeitly established as loveless “pale”, as
maude clare is the first character to be introduced.
Maude Clare imposes herself onto the romance as she has been wronged; the terms of
marriage, her being fallen, mean that she shall never remarry again, whilst Thomas by
double standards can,
Nevertheless the marriage between thomas and ‘village maid’ nell is seen as a
compulsory bond, context with dowry and reputation, his mother explains that she and
his father were in the same position
Maude haunts them in: “To bless the board, to bless the hearth to bless the marriage bed”
Marriage is presented as a transaction opposed to a bond 2
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