Nature of Women in Literature

Paper Summary:

Examines two literary works that describe the nature of women in terms of good/bad distinctions. Discusses Geraldine Jewsbury's 1848 novel THE HALF SISTERS & Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem GOBLIN MARKET to explore the theme. Contrasting sisters by both writers to demonstrate potential & waste of potential in women. Literary strategies to accomplish purpose.

From the Paper:

"Both Geraldine Jewsbury, in her novel The Half Sisters (1848), and Christina Rossetti, in her narrative poem "Goblin Market" (1862), use the device of a pair of sisters for exploring the nature of women and expanding their audiences' understanding of women, their capacities, and the limitations placed on them by convention. Women, generally speaking, were viewed as either good or bad, with the domestic and un-domestic or, perhaps, the dutiful and undutiful, as the terms of the definition. Within these two categories individual differences among women were usually described in terms of their location on a horizontal continuum of goodness and badness and only two vertical characteristics made much of a basis for differentiation: class (with the associated question of wealth) and nationality (perhaps associated with the question of religion as well). The essential..."

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