| Lizzie—“Angel in the House” | ||
| “Placid,” “content,” “like a royal virgin town” | ||
| Resists temptation | ||
| Content with domestic duties | ||
| Laura—“Fallen Woman” | ||
| “Like a leaping flame,” a “restless brook,” a “vessel at launch when its last restraint is gone” | ||
| Succumbs to temptation | ||
| “Sick” of domestic duties | ||
| Forbidden Fruit | ||
| Forbidden experience (lines 40-45) | ||
| Illicit sexuality—erotic imagery, punishment typical of fallen women (lines 141-162) | ||
| Goblin Men | ||
| Temptation of “evil gifts” (line 66) | ||
| Men who sexually seduce and abandon women | ||
| Laura’s golden curl | ||
| Symbol of femininity, female sexuality | ||
| Item of sale—woman selling herself on sexual “market” | ||
| Lizzie as Christ figure | ||
| Deliberately enters the realm of evil (the glen) | ||
| Passively endures attack | ||
| Sacrifices herself for her sister’s redemption (lines 396-421) | ||
| Lizzie as “female hero” | ||
| Imagery of attack is suggestive of rape | ||
| Heroism depicted in erotic terms (lines 408-421, 464-474, 491-523) | ||
| Tension between spirituality and sensuality | ||
Sensual Imagery vs. Message of Self-Denial
| Reinforces Victorian domestic ideal | ||
| Lizzie’s heroism is based in self-denial | ||
| Lizzie and Laura become wives and mothers (lines 543-567) | ||
Sensual Imagery vs. Message of Self-Denial
| Critiques Victorian domestic ideal | ||
| Laura is redeemed | ||
| Laura’s longing is sympathetically portrayed | ||
| Erotic imagery suggests intense desire and dissatisfaction with self-denial | ||
| Erotic imagery of the sisters’ relationship, message of female solidarity | |
| No biographical evidence that Rossetti was lesbian | |
| Subconscious expression of lesbian desire? | |
| Repressed sexuality of Victorian culture emerging in “safe” imagery of sisterly affection | |
| Expresses longing and deprivation that accompany the Victorian domestic ideal | |