Maude Clare

• Structure

  • Regular stanza length= women are alienated and contained within each other// conflict is likely, shows elaborate gender imbalance instilled into society
  • 3rd person narrative= seperation, non-personal; giving a voice to the voiceless
  • Balladic Form= putting herself in English folklore tradition with Poets such as Robert Browning
• Madonna-Whore complex

  • Men= see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased prostitues
  • The Madonna: a woman who he admires and respects// The Whore: a woman he disrespects
  • Women may internalise this view, Thomas embodies this ideology
• "Out of the church she followed them."

  • Trochee, crashing the wedding, bursting in
  • Narration, adopts M.C's POV
• "His bride was like a village maid,//Maude Clare was like a queen."

  • Wife has no name, defined by marriage from the beginning
  • Juxtaposition: M.C is a fallen woman yet she is glorifying herself
  • Spondee, her name changes the meter
• "Your father thirty years ago//Had just your tale to tell;"

  • Enjambment, cyclical and generational misery/ passing down of relationships
  • Society is full of sinners yet everyone exonerates M.C
  • Mother tells him to get over it= wider commentary on society, men could hide their past and affairs, women couldn't
  • "Pale"= parents weren't as pure as Thomas, had sexual indiscretion pre-marriage// critique of marriage by Rossetti
• "My Lord was pale//Nell was pale with Pride:"

  • Both seem 'pure' and 'pale', internal sinners= Thomas hides his sins under social repectability
• "To bless the marriage-bed."

  • Maude’s envy, jealous that Thomas and wife will have sinless sex in the eyes of God
  • Insight of her past, had sinful, pre-marital sex with Thomas
• “Here’s my half of the golden chain”

  • Unusually domineering, asserting ownership over Thomas
  • Criticism of divorce laws that left women with nothing
• "The day we waded ankle-deep// For lilies in the beck"

  • Euphamism, inappropriate for two people who weren't married at the time
  • 'Waded'= desperation
  • Lilies: purity, day they had sex, searching for purity but couldn't find it because they had pre-marital sex
• "budding bough"

  • Pregnancy
  • Metaphorical meaning, believes relationship ended prematurely//she and Thomas should marry and start their own life together
• Thomas calls Maude Clare, "Lady,"// "Hid his face"

  • trying to keep his distance, can't even use her name
  • Getting public shaming that fallen women usually got
  • Hyphens, caesura, stuttering= fickleness of men, natural realism of stutter; isn't allowed to fit into ballad
• "I have a gift for you;"

  • Inherent emasculation of Thomas by treating him as the property of the woman
• "Mine of a paltry love:"

  • Ownership over Thomas (gold chain), radical statement= asserting a right to be treated well by him
  • Maude Clare is undoubtedly right, Rossetti is on her side
  • Colon= continuation of desire, cyclical, women will always be the victim
• MAUDE: "I wash my hands thereof."//NELL: "And what you leave, I'll take."

  • M.C is removing responsibility, Thomas is the corruption and she is pure and clean
  • Nell continues Maude's sentence, equal of her; no gap to pause
  • "Take"= Patriarchal values, standard attitude- stands by marital vows regardless of husbands feeling ("My lord for better and worse")
• NELL: "You're taller by the head,//more wise and much more fair."

  • Irony: Nell is inferior to the Fallen Woman who should be inferior instead
  • Queer Theory in terms of modern audience, chemistry and attraction between the two women
• NELL: "Me best of all, Maude Clare."

  • Nell gets the last say, domestic and quiet victory
  • Repetition, "best"= sense of assurance