A fallen woman and Cousin Kate

Last lesson we discussed what could be the possible definitions of a 'fallen woman', and several suggestions were made in the class. One suggestion was that it could just be a woman that has tripped and fallen down. Another suggestion was that it could be describing a woman who has succumbed to some kind of pressure, for example sex or drugs. One of the most agreed upon suggestions was that it was the definition of a woman who has fallen emotionally, whereas a physical act is being used to describe her emotional downfall. Betrayal is an example of something that may cause this.
   
Last lesson we also read through a new poem, entitled, 'Cousin Kate'. To simplify the poem, it seems to be about a woman who was sought after and used by a rich and powerful lord, only to be disgarded for her Cousin, Kate.
The poem is told in the first person, and for the first two stanzas it seems to be adressed at the reader. After this though, she seems to be adressing Kate herself, for example when she says, "You grew more fair than I". And in the last stanza it appears she is talking to her son, who hadnt been mentioned at all previously. This change in adressee may indicate that she is telling a story or talking to herself.
Another interpretation of this poem is that cousin Kate may not actually be her cousin, but she is using the prefix 'cousin' to describe their similarity and their relation with each other.
This poem is linked with the aspect of the 'fallen woman' as the character reciting the poem seems to have been emotionally betrayed and has fallen herself.

Feminism in 'Goblin Market'

Goblin Market's main theme is feminism because of all the clear and not-so clear references to feminism and general female 'sisterhood'.

There are many references to female closeness in the poem, for example, on line 36, Lizzie and Laura are described as "crouching close together". In the context they are doing this to protect themselves from the Goblin Men, so it creates the idea that when women are close, they can protect each other.
 Also, the Goblin Men are linked with having closeness themsleves as they are described as, "Brother with sly Brother". In this context, though, the connection with each goblin man seems to be of a more negative aspect, particularly as the word 'sly' can be synonimous with 'mischeivous' or 'sneaky'.

Another main theme within Goblin Market, which links greatly to feminism, is the evilness of men. This is a quite obvious theme as when considering the characters in the poem, the evil and temptatious characters are men and the "fair" and "kind hearted" characters are women. The Goblin Men are also described as carrying "evil gifts" which also places a negative prefix on them.

Christina Rosetti

Christina Rosetti was born on the 5th December 1830. She had two brothers and a sister, of which two became writers and one became artist and a poet. Christina was the youngest of the four siblings, but her writing talents became clear through her lively attitude and the fact that she formed and shared her first story even before she could write.
She was educated by her Mother and mainly studied classic literature, religious works and fairytales, which may explain the fairytale characteristics of one of her most famous poems, 'Goblin Market'.
In her early teens, her Father became ill and her family began to slowly slip into poverty. At that point, Christina began to suffer from depression and related illness. It was at this time that she became greatly interested in the Anglo-Cathlic movement of the Church of England and religious devotion began to play a major role in her life. Religion can also be linked with many aspects in her future poetry.
Rosetti began to write and date her poems in around 1842 at the age of 10. Her early poems imitated some of her favorite poets and she experimented with ballads, hymns and sonnets. Her early writings also mainly symbolised death and loss.
She wrote her most famous piece, 'Goblin Market', at the age of 31 and received widespread praise from colleagues and critics, establishing her as the preeminent female poet of the time.
Her poetry widely consisted of feminist themes and she herself was opposed to slavery and animal cruelty, which were much more widely practised in the 1870's.

first English lit blog - paper on the floor

"Mr Francis entered the room. there was a piece of paper on the floor." When this sentence is written as fiction and not fact, it means the author has made up this sentence and the fact that this detail was written signifies it is important to the story.
This detail could be significant to the story for many reasons, one of which being that it could be a way of describing how the room is messy without using too much detail, thus creating a slight atmosphere of messiness.
The piece of paper could also be a list of some variety and the sentence could be used to lead the reader down a different direction to another particular event in the story.
When an author writes a fiction book, most if not all sentences have to be relevant to the structure and, ( a lot of the time), genre of the story wether it be to create exitement or tension for example.