context

• religion


  turned to religion to find solace with mother and sister due to personal tragedies

  believed in the anglo-catholic movement
• most of her poems include themes of

  temptation

  sin

  salvation
• why did Rossetti break off engagements?

  unresolvable differences in religious beliefs so she never married but the rejection of husbands was uncommon in the rigid patriarchal society she lived in
• mid 19th-cent religion challenged by

  scientific advancements

  origin of species released 1859 so many characters struggle with religious doubt
• three ways tractarianism impacted her way of life

  helped prostitutes gain domestic skills at Mary Magdalenes house in highgate to keep them off the streets

  turned down 2 potential husbands due to religious incompatibility

  believed in soul sleep
• soul sleep


  when a person dies their soul sleeps until the final resurrection
• upbringing


  close with her religious family-had a religious education

  youngest of four siblings
• academic family


  became a professor at kings college
• older brother

  Dante polidori was the founder of the pre-raphaelite brotherhood
• father


  Gabriel Rossetti political exile whilst living in London
• pre-raphaelite brotherhood


  group of English painters and poets 1848 who were trying to show the realism of religion