Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Complexities of Gender

Abstract

This paper proposes to explore the mode in which Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s fatal woman figure subverts traditional Victorian gender categories. The analysis is based on three poems, i.e. “Soul’s Beauty”, “Body’s Beauty” and “Astarte Syriaca”. Additionally, the paintings “Sybilla Palmifera” and “Lady Lilith”, the visual equivalents of “Soul’s Beauty” and “Body’s Beauty”, as well as the picture accompanying “Astarte Syriaca” will also be discussed. Within the 19th century theories of normative masculinity and femininity certain stable features were attached to the conceptions of male and female roles. As a result, ‘separate spheres’ debate became a standard notion for a discussion of gender issues in the 19th century texts. Thus, femininity was conceived of as emotionality, home, withdrawal from scenes of public life and lack of self-interest, in contrast to public activity, desire for power, and emotional reserve associated with manliness. Rossetti’s treatment of these categories calls for a special awareness, as he seems to upset this traditional perception, figuring his femme fatale character in possession of features associated with manliness rather than femininity, and yet making her an object of male desire. In this way, his fatal woman is both seen as a male fantasy and a threatening agent. What follows is an equally subversive presentation of men who, instead of maintaining manly reserve and controlling their sexual drives, ‘fall into’ desire, an act which unequivocally questions their manliness.