Context - The World

• 'The World' was composed in 1852, during the early Victorian era, a time of strict moral codes, religious piety, and a deep cultural anxiety about sin, temptation, and the afterlife
• 'The World' was composed, during the early Victorian era, a time of strict moral codes, religious piety, and a deep cultural anxiety about sin, temptation, and the afterlife in 1852
• Christina Rossetti was a devout Anglo-Catholic, and her poetry often reflects her spiritual beliefs, especially her concerns about earthly temptation and the conflict between body and soul
• Christina Rossetti was part of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, which aimed to revive the detail and intensity of medieval and early Renaissance art and literature - Her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was a founding member
• Rossetti’s poem 'The World' is deeply allegorical, presenting the world as a seductive yet ultimately demonic female figure - It’s a meditation on the deceptiveness of earthly pleasures, moral decay, and spiritual peril - The poem may reflect Rossetti’s own struggles with temptation, flesh vs. spirit, and the damnation that can result from succumbing to sin
• 'The World' mirrors Christian ideas of vanitas (the futility of worldly pleasures) and the danger of being spiritually distracted by sensual or material enticements
• The speaker in 'The World' seems tormented by the split reality of the world’s daytime beauty and night-time horror - possibly reflecting a Victorian fear of hypocrisy and hidden sin
• 'The World' can also be read as proto-feminist, showing how women were often perceived through a Madonna/Whore dichotomy
• 'The World' uses an extended metaphor to depict worldly temptation as a duplicitous woman who embodies both charm and corruption - By day, she represents the seductive allure of material pleasures and superficial beauty, but by night, she transforms into a grotesque, demonic figure that reveals the spiritual decay hidden beneath the surface - This metaphor serves to illustrate the moral danger of being seduced by appearances, warning that the pursuit of worldly fulfilment can ultimately lead to inner ruin and damnation