Rossetti

• Sexual Abuse

  It is likely that Rossetti suffered sexual abuse from her father while she was caring for him throughout his illness and that this is a cause for her religious mania.
• Sister Louise of Mercy

  She was the former mistress of King Louie XIV (14th) and renounced this life to become a nun under a strict Catholic group of Carmelites.
• Rossetti was mocked as a poet for being a woman and not using poetic devices.
• Education

  -Rossetti was home educated, which would have resulted in her being a governess and living with another family educating and caring for their children

  -Dante was given a formal education despite being less intelligent and more artistically inclined
• Governesses were often seen as prostitutes by society at the time because they lived alone with young boys and had no supervision or chaperone.
• Rosetti feigned illness so she could pursue writing and not have to be the main bread-winner
• An estimated 50% of working class women would have experienced prostitution before marriage.
• Queen Victoria

  -Isolated from siblings and paraded by her mother

  -As soon as she turned 18 there was a parade of suitors, out of which she chose her first cousin

  -She resisted early pressure to marry then proposed herself, hated being pregnant, thought breastfeeding and newborn babies were disgusting.
• Rossetti experienced trauma symptoms like migraines, nightmares, hallucinations, strong impulses to burn her fingers on the fireplace and a cutting incident - likely linked to sexual abuse.