Maude Clare

• Maude Clare


  • Offers notable insight into the cultural custom of marriage in Victorian England
  • Explores the roles of the woman scorned, the ideal bride, the husband, and the mother
• In the Victorian Era, there was a particular "place" for a woman with regard to her relationship with her husband or lover
• The descriptions of intimacy between Maude Clare and Thomas would have been considered inappropriate for two people who were not married at the time
• Nell


  • Chooses to stand by her marital vows regardless of her husband's feelings
  • This is an interesting commentary for Victorian England, and a standard attitude for the time
• Madonna-Whore Complex


  • Freud said men see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased prostitutes
  • The Madonna = a woman who he admires and respects
  • The Whore: a woman he disrespects
• Thomas embodies the Madonna-Whore Complex ideology
• Women may also internalise the Madonna-Whore Complex view
• Contrasting views of women in Victorian England

  • Angel of the home
  • Fallen women
  • New women: evolving women, votes, promotes breaking out of this
• AO1: In ‘Maude Clare’, Rossetti explores… 

  • The fickleness of masculinity
  • Oppression and alienation 
  • Constant loss - odds pinned against women in all cases
• AO2:

  Rhyme Scheme: Irregular

  Form: Ballad-like poem

  Regular stanza length shows how when Women are alienated and contained with each other conflict is likely which shows the elaborate gender imbalance instilled into society

  Third person narrative - separation - non personal - her giving a voice to the voiceless
• • Narrative -  an woman confronting her ex-lover and their new wife - she is returning her gifts back to him 
• The Madonna-whore complex - women are categorised by men into one of two categories; the whore or the pure and virginal Madonna, an idea which isn’t exclusive to male society but also affects female attitudes. 
• • ‘Angel in the house’ - Coventry reflecting the ideal Victorian woman 
• “Out of the church she followed them With a lofty step and mien: His bride was like a village maid, Maude Clare was like a queen”

  • introduces 3 characters: a man, his bride + Maude Clare.
  • “lofty” and “mein” - feels superiority over them.
  • Narration, while third person, adopts Maude Clare’s POV. Clare has positive opinion of herself, description of man’s wife suggests a past of bad blood between the two.
  • - opened to desire - foreshadowing her sinful nature. / in media res / juxtaposition between what happens in society and in the realm of the lord / syntax - importance of religion
• “May Nell and you but live as true / As we have done for years; -

  •   - internal rhyme - the innocence of marriage 
• “Your father thirty years ago"

  • enjambement - cyclical nature of history 

  "Had just your tale to tell;"

  • alliterative rule of three - the fairytale aspect of marrage - the innocence of the idea vs the corruption of actuality
  • Thomas’ mother tells him to get over it. Wider commentary on society as men could hide their past and affairs and move on whereas women could not - double standards
• "My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare / Or ever he kissed the bride."

  • innocence of the whore / beauty and desire 
• "To bless the marriage-bed."

  • maude’s envy - sexual relationship - ruin 
  • Envious, obvious that Maude had sex outside of marriage with Thomas, she is jealous that him and his wife will have sinless sex in the eyes of God
• “we waded ankle-deep / For lilies in the beck:”

  • Searching for lilies (purity). The day they had sex they were searching for that purity but couldn’t find it because it was outside of marriage.
  • desparation
• “Here’s my half of the faded leaves, We plucked from the budding bough,With feet amongst the lily leaves, –The lilies are budding now.” 

  • Leaves (second half of gift)-symbolic of day w the lilies which she kept as memory of her time with him.
  • Lilies are in the budding stage of their growth - metaphorical meaning - she believes their relationship ended prematurely+ now she and Thomas should marry and begin their own life together — “budding,”
  • She ended up pregnant after wading for the lilies- they are budding now inside of her
• “Here’s my half of the golden chain - 

  You wore about your neck, - 
• 'She turn’d to Nell: “My Lady Nell, I have a gift for you; -'

  •  - class - morality - purity + proximity to God
• “Take my share of a fickle heart,"

  • reflect insecurity of women - women become the property of men and are consequently dependent on their desire 
• "Mine of a paltry love: "

  • end stop - the continuation of desire - cyclical nature of desire - women will always be the victim
• "Take it or leave it as you will, "

  • juxtaposition almost mocking - lack of will that women really have 
• "I wash my hands thereof."

  • pontius pilate - removal of responsibility - loss of innocence / pronouns - repetition /’I am innocent of the blood of this just person’/  - the idea that the man is being persecuted - one of the seven sacraments 
• “And what you leave, ” said Nell, “I’ll take,

  And what you spurn, I’ll wear; - 

  For he’s my lord for better and worse,

  And him I love Maude Clare."

  • endstop - the power of Nell - juxtaposing to the weakness of her husband
  • patriarchal values 
• “Yea, though you’re taller by the head,

  More wise and much more fair:

  I’ll love him till he loves me best,

  Me best of all Maude Clare."

  • ignorance of god - blaspheme in the home / futility of feminine strife  
  • The fact Maude Clare gets the last say is ironic - as it could be symbolic she gets the last share of suffering as each line of conversation she engages in merely shares a shameful side to past of pain and exploitation by the patriarchy