Title - The World

• The Title 'The World' invokes a Christian concept of 'the world' as a corruptive force that lures individuals away from spiritual devotion and eternal salvation - The seductive beauty described in the poem’s daytime scenes reflects how the world entices people with pleasure, comfort, and superficial charm - Yet beneath this surface lies spiritual decay and danger, warning readers of the moral consequences of indulgence in worldly desires
• The Title 'The World' personifies it as a dangerous, alluring woman - an archetypal femme fatale - whose outward beauty conceals a monstrous, demonic core - This dual image reflects anxieties about female sexuality and the Victorian fear that women’s charms could corrupt or destroy men’s souls - The poem thus becomes a moral allegory where the world, like a temptress, ensnares and condemns the weak-willed
• The Title 'The World' suggests a world built on illusion and hypocrisy, appearing beautiful, gentle, and generous during the day but revealing its horrifying truth at night - Rossetti critiques a society that masks sin with elegance, implying that much of what we celebrate in life is a carefully constructed lie - This dichotomy mirrors Victorian concerns about public virtue versus private vice, exposing a dissonance between appearance and reality
• The Title 'The World' may symbolize the internal battlefield of the speaker’s own soul, torn between desire and righteousness, pleasure and piety - The female figure becomes a metaphor for the self’s temptation - something simultaneously beloved and loathed, longed for and feared - In this reading, the world isn't an external enemy, but a reflection of personal spiritual conflict and moral decay
• The Title 'The World' critiques Victorian society, which promoted rigid moral values in public while tolerating or concealing private immorality - The woman's daytime charm could represent social respectability and beauty standards, whereas her night-time horror exposes the rot beneath polite culture - The title, then, becomes a cynical reflection of a world where appearances are privileged over truth