Analysis: The representation of women in 19th-Century poetry through the works of Tennyson, Browning and Rossetti
The Victorian era (1820-1914) was a period of massive industrial and political growth in England. In many ways, England became a cultural capital that boasted of print media, performance, spectacle etc. However, underneath this garb of romanticism and etiquette, the scales of balance between women and their male counterparts were tipped in the favour of the latter; where on one hand women were considered, “too pure and sacred to share in the disgusting lusts that affected men” according to Karen Armstrong, on the other hand, it was believed that women were not to be given the same education as men, owing to the women’s intellectual weakness. This disparity was also apparent in the professional sphere due to which the literary canon in the Victorian era largely consisted of male writers with female writers scarcely publishing their works; when they did, they usually did so under a male pseudonym.
In this piece, I reflect on the representation of women in poetry in the 19th-century, through a selection from the works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti. It’s also interesting to see the difference in perception and portrayal of female characters by male writers vs female authors.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson was first published in the year 1832 and the revised version was published in 1842. In his poem, the then poet laureate of Great Britain draws on a number of sources such as Donna di Scalotta, T.C. Crocker’s Fairy Legends and Thomas Knightley’s Fairy Mythology.
The Lady of Shalott is an eponymous heroine who is depicted as someone who lives on an isolated island, and weaves what she sees in a mirror incessantly because she believes “A curse is on her if she stay (stops).” It is made known to the reader that the Lady has a curse upon her which will unleash itself if she stops to look out toward Camelot. Within the poem, the lady and the island, represent the women in the Victorian era at large who are confined by “walls” and “towers” thus limiting them to the private sphere. The image of weaving could also be alluding to Sappho, and by drawing upon her, Tennyson invokes a whole line of literary foremothers from the Classical period onwards. It could also be invoking the idea of weaving as a method to keep suitors at bay and maintain virginal purity, drawing from the myth of Penelope, wife of Odysseus in Greek mythology. As against this, Lancelot, who is seen riding, down towards Camelot, may represent the public domain, temptation or the sphere of the masculine.
Through the use of phallic and yonic symbols like “towers” and “flowers,” Tennyson establishes the male-female dichotomy. His use of words like “casement” might be suggestive of the Victorian frameworks within which there is little place for women to be autonomous. Tennyson also admitted to drawing a parallel between the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat, and the tale of Elaine could present a revealing intertext or prologue to the poem; it sheds light on the captive conditions of the Lady of Shalott.
Tennyson’s love, death, marriage trajectory might be suggestive of the certain death of the woman when her life culminates in marriage. Also, the song Tirra Lirra from Winter’s Tale that Lancelot sings seems to highlight the sexual frustration of the Lady of Shalott, which used to be a taboo topic for women in 19th century England.
Despite the poem mentioning various predicaments that were faced by women in the Victorian era, the treatment of the poem seems quite ambivalent. In Carl Plasa’s words, the poem is “At once upholding and dislocating patriarchal assumptions.” The death of the lady, in the end, renders the poem incapable of questioning the gender issues in society. As Tennyson allows her to die, her moment of empowerment also becomes her moment of destruction. The spirit of defiance could perhaps still have been preserved in the 1832 version wherein the Lady of Shalott gets the last word:
“The web was woven curiously
The charm is broken utterly,
Draw near and fear not — this is I,
The Lady of Shalott.”
Having revised this in 1842 to Lancelot reducing her to just a “lovely face” seems to subject her to the male gaze, revoking the agency that she had had in the 1832 version. Thus the position of the woman is not seen as an empowered one, but as one that is a victim of her circumstances.
Robert Browning
Among the many writers of the 19th century, Robert Browning adopted a very unique form to take forward his narrative. Making use of the dramatic monologue, Browning, in his poem My Last Duchess, (1842) portrays an account concerning Alfonso II, the Duke of Ferrara, from the 16th century. In the poem, the Duke seems to be showcasing a painting of his last Duchess to the emissary who has brought the proposal for the Duke’s next marriage. As the Duke continues on a diatribe of the 16-year-old girl, it is eventually revealed that it is owing to the orders of the Duke that his Last Duchess was killed. Through the use of the heroic verse, Browning establishes the Duke’s need for immense control and authoritarianism.
The poem has also been called a portrait of oppression which depicts the growing concern surrounding domestic violence against women that was occurring in the Victorian era. The Duke, according to Suroopa Mukherjee, expects single-hearted, worshipful loyalty from his bride. His bloated male ego is perceived when he articulates his disgust at her attempt to engage in an altercation with him.
“…nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
– E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop.”
It’s evident that the late bride was of a more democratic nature and the fact that she failed to put the Duke on a pedestal is what aggravates him to a degree where he “gave commands, then all smiles stopped together.” Throughout the Duke’s monologue, one can identify that he feels that his bride's affections, emotions and adulations all belong to him. Upon getting another marriage proposal, the Duke says that his demand for “dowry” should not be “disallowed.” The reader sees yet another marriage for money and power. Thus, the women in the poem are projected as commodities and properties of the possessive Duke.
A similar depiction of the possessive lover trope can also be seen in Porphyria’s Lover, where the speaker is the lover and is seen suspecting Porphyria’s fidelity. Finally, to keep her his own, he strangles “her little throat,” with her hair, completely denying her of her agency. The tragedy of the poem lies in the fact that the lover feels that the only way to ensure Porphyria’s loyalty is by taking away her life and rendering her incapable of making any further choices.
Throughout Browning and Tennyson’s poetry, one sees a steady portrayal of women who are supposed to be “pure,” loyal and contained within the domestic sphere. They are also expected to not just love but worship the men who want their affection and are considered immoral for harbouring any thoughts of a sexual nature. Though the women themselves seem to be calm, graceful and poised, the pathetic fallacy used across the poems in The Lady of Shalott (as seen below) represents the emotional turbulence and sexual frustration within the women characters:
"In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining”
And in Porphyria’s Lover:
“The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake.”
Some of the poems are set in a different period, but one may argue that the characteristics of the women presented, signify the expectations that existed of the “Victorian Woman.” It may also be interesting to note that the depictions of women through the eyes of the male poets seem to always be restrained, trapped and silenced – the lady on an island, the Duchess in a painting, Porphyria in her lover’s embrace – with death emerging as the only escape from the shackles they remain bound in.
As you move to the female poetess Christina Rossetti next, you can see a slight shift from this helpless and hopeless narrative to an empowered and powerful one.
Christina Rossetti
Even though the canon in the Victorian period is predominantly composed of male writers, a few female writers, like Christina Rossetti, emerged as important writers of the epoch. In her poem, Goblin Market, published in 1862, Rossetti takes a different approach toward the position of women and it is interesting to note this difference in representation between the male and the female gaze. In the poem, she crafts a world bereft of men, apart from the sinister roles of the goblins and propounds a sorority of sorts. It deals with the theme of temptation, and the two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, are often compared to Adam and Eve of the biblical story.
Rossetti first establishes the market vs home dichotomy, the sphere of the “male” and the “female” respectively. Next, she invokes the two gazes, the female gaze which is veiled, peeping, curious and meditated, and the male gaze, which is patriarchal, sly, cunning and objectifying.
While Rossetti continues to operate within patriarchal frameworks, there seems to be a certain defiance in her stance and a strong message of women standing up for other women. One can also observe how the depiction of both women, Lizzie and Laura, are free from judgement or defilement, even after Laura has supposedly tasted the fruit “forbidden:”
“Golden head by golden head,
Like two pigeons in one nest
Folded in each other’s wings,
They lay down in their curtain’d bed:
Like two blossoms on one stem,
Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow,
Like two wands of ivory
Tipp’d with gold for awful kings.
Moon and stars gaz’d in at them,
Wind sang to them lullaby,
Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
Not a bat flapp’d to and fro
Round their rest:
Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
Lock’d together in one nest.”
In the poem, there also remains a mention of Jeanie, a girl who supposedly tasted the fruit, gave into temptation and was brought to ruin. Although Jeanie has frequently been written off as a cautionary tale, one may wonder if by writing “Jeanie,” Rossetti is alluding to a certain Jenny, who is in a poem that her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote by the same name. In it, Jenny is depicted as a ‘fallen woman’ or sex worker. While the speaker, a customer, is sympathetic towards Jenny’s plight, he describes her as a:
“Poor flower left torn since yesterday
Until to-morrow leave you bare;
Poor handful of bright spring-water
Flung in the whirlpool’s shrieking face;
Poor shameful Jenny, full of grace.”
Other motifs from Dante’s poem include the gold coins, golden hair, the marketplace, lilies and a comparison between two “sister vessels.” One may also note that hair in the Victorian era was symbolic of women’s sexuality and when Laura buys the fruits with a “precious golden lock” of hair, she metaphorically equates her situation to that of Jenny’s. While Dante seems to find the “honourable” Nell, a cousin of the customer, and “fall’n” Jenny incomparable, Christina Rossetti almost rewrites this narrative through Laura and Lizzie, establishing their oneness and sisterhood.
In Christina Rossetti’s poem, the notion of the marketplace is a site of commerce and a place for men. However, where on one hand Laura is seen as the victim, on the other hand, Lizzie, who enters the market, understanding the laws of the market, is seen as the female rescuer. It is interesting to note that Rossetti consciously dismantles the trope of the “knight in shining armour” by introducing the other female protagonist, as the rescuer. Isobel Armstrong further speaks of this subversive power of virginity, that defies that a woman needs a man to be whole. One also observes that Lizzie’s attempt at operating within the market as an equal invites a great deal of sexual abuse. The moment she wishes to negotiate the terms of her purchase, the goblin men call her “proud, uncivil,” and they “clawed with their nails, tore her gown and her stocking, mauled and mocked her” and “kicked and knocked her.” This can be seen as the feminine perception of the masculine ego, and of the hunger for control and power.
Across the different narratives, the depiction of the pure woman vs the fallen woman remains a disturbing factor and there is an emphasis in all the poems on virginity or purity. Virginia Woolf, in Shakespeare’s Sister, calls this the fetishisation of chastity. The representation of women in 19th-century poetry seems to be working within the same ideological frameworks that the time period affords it. Whether it be male or female writers, the name of the game continues to be the same and continues to restrain women as tightly as perhaps the corset did.
Having said that, I can’t but wonder if the quiet but firm resistance that Christina Rossetti (a Victorian woman herself) puts up through her depictions, is representative of a slightly more defiant fairer sex than the men would like to believe.