Goblin Market illustrations and a Wombat

Hello Victorianists,


Below are two sets of images pertaining to class discussion.  First, in class today we mentioned that numerous artists have illustrated Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" (or as we know it, "Fruit and Prostitution").  Among these artists is Kinuko Craft whose pornographic images, we noted, were published in Playboy in 1979.  If you are interested, the images here:

http://goblinmarketproject.blogspot.com/p/kinuko-craft.html

Second, we also discussed the fact that Dante Gabriel Rossetti owned a wombat, one of the beasts mentioned in "Goblin Market."  Below you will find two sketches DGR made of Top the wombat.  In the first, Top is accompanied by Jane Morris; in the second, DGR mourns Top's untimely death.  Finally, enjoy a clearer drawing by William Bell Scott entitled "Rossetti's Wombat Seated in his Master's Lap."

Faith and Doubt posts

Hello Victorianists,

For Thursday we are reading poems on the topic of faith and doubt by two of the most spiritually conflicted figures of Victorian literature: Matthew Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins.  As we know, the Victorian period witnessed an array of challenges to the Christian faith that had for centuries been part of the bedrock of British culture.  Both Hopkins and Arnold grapple with this perceived erosion of faith, albeit from different perspectives. 

Arnold was profoundly uncomfortable in his cultural moment.  On the one hand, he was the product of a doubting age, abandoning the Christian faith of his upbringing for agnosticism when young.  On the other, he saw nothing else in the modern era that could unite people and give meaning to life as true faith once had.  In his poem “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse,” he describes himself as one who is “wandering” between past and present, “between two worlds, one dead,/ The other powerless to be born” (85-86).  “Dover Beach” seeks to find solace for the erosion of shared faith in interpersonal relationships.  You might consider how satisfying the speaker finds this solution.

Storms off Dover Beach, 1840.

Hopkins, by contrast, struggled fiercely to maintain his belief.  On the one hand, he was so moved by faith that he left his Anglican upbringing to convert to Catholicism and abandoned a promising academic career to work as a priest.  Much of his work attempts to comprehend the presence of divinity in the natural world (“The Windhover” and “As kingfishers catch fire” are two examples).  On the other hand, he underwent a traumatic crisis of faith, documented in what are often called his “Terrible Sonnets” (which include “Carrion Comfort” and “No worse, there is none”).  Hopkins’ rhythms, syntactic play, and dense sonic patterns give his poetry a unique sound; you might consider how these unusual formal elements operate in his works.

A Kingfisher

Pages from Hopkins' journal from June 30, 1846.

Responses to Dickens

Hello Victorians,

Sketches by Boz: Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People is a collection of short prose pieces Charles Dickens wrote sporadically between 1833 and 1836.  Unlike the novels in the class, Sketches was not composed as a single text.  Originally, the sketches were written piecemeal and published in several different magazines and newspapers.  Also unlike our novels, many of the sketches are non-narrative.  Instead of a series of interlocking events, the three sketches we are reading present descriptions of people, places, or events in London, as witnessed by the pseudonymous “Boz.”

As you read, you might consider two interrelated points.  First, how are the sketches organized?  Is there temporal progression?  Are there compositional patterns akin to those of verse?  As we mentioned in class, these little pieces are like “Victoria Bridge on a Saturday Night” in that they rely heavily on lists.  What is the effect of this?  Are lists a means of imparting order?  Or do lists have no order at all?

Secondly, what is the role of Boz?  Is he a narrator in the same sense that Jane Eyre is?  Is he an objective reporter of whatever happens across his path?  Can we tell whether he is invested in what he is sketching, or is he always looking at London from a critical distance? 

In addition to being Dickens’ first published work, the sketches also represent the beginning of a long collaboration between him and the illustrator George Cruikshank.  I've included the illustrations to the three sketches in the handout; enjoy further illustrations below.

All best,

Prof. M.

Cover illustration

Illustration of "Gin Shops"

Illustration of "Seven Dials"

Jane Eyre posts (second half of novel)

Dear Victorianists,

Today in class we looked at the depiction of Bertha Mason and noted that it recapitulated numerous other moments and characters from the text.  The scene in which Bertha is tied to a chair, for example, reminds us of young Jane in the red room, but also echoes numerous other scenes of imprisonment we have seen, from Eliza Reed being "walled up alive" in a convent to Mr. Rochester playing the role of an inmate at Bridewell.  More broadly, Bertha as a character seems to be a version of Jane: she is "wild" and "strange", radically othered from those around her, and hemmed in by those who are wealthy and privileged.  Yet she is also likened to a host of others: Blanche Ingram (who is also large, dark, and virile), John Reed (who also attacks Jane as a usurper), Mr. Rochester (who is also called a "demon" and with whom she wrestles as a near equal), etc.

As you finish the novel, keep your eyes open for other instances of doubling, echoes, and parallels.  How does Jane's ending resemble her beginning?  How do those with whom she has most in common resemble those whose natures are at odds with hers?

Enjoy as you read this series of illustrations from different editions of Jane Eyre.  Bronte was asked to provide her own illustrations-- like Jane she was trained in drawing-- but she refused, arguing that as her protagonists were quite unattractive there was little reason to render them visually.  Since 1847, however, a host of artists have turned their attentions to the poor, obscure, plain, and little figure at the heart of her novel.

"In sleep I forgot sorrow." Helen Sewel, 1938.

"Young woman, rise." George Varian, 1902.

"I took a seat; St. John stood near me." Fritz Eichenberg, 1943.

"My heart is mute, my heart is mute." Edmund Dulac, 1905.

"Then Mr. Rochester was at home when the fire broke out?" Edmund Garrett, 1890.

Phrenology Information

Hello Victorianists,

As requested, I have for you a site with information, including abundant imagery, on phrenology.  Phrenology, you will recall, is the pseudo-science of interpreting character from the bumps and indents of the cranium.  When characters in Jane Eyre speak of "reading" faces or fronts (foreheads), or about locating characteristics within the body (e.g., "organ of veneration"), they are practicing phrenology. 

Visit the website here: http://www.historyofphrenology.org.uk

Jane Eyre posts (first half of novel)

Dear Victorianists,

For Thursday’s discussion of Jane Eyre, please read through chapter 21, in which Jane returns to visit the Reed family for the first time since she left to attend school at Lowood.  This point, roughly the middle of the novel, allows us to measure how much Jane and her life have changed.  What has she achieved by taking the position of governess?  What does it offer that teaching at Lowood did not?  What precisely is the position of a governess in Victorian society?

As you ponder these questions of Jane’s identity, consider also how Brontë uses language to describe—or fail to describe—her protagonist.  What characterizes Brontë’s prose style?  How does she shape sentences and paragraphs?

Some governesses in art:

Richard Redgrave's The Governess (1844)

Bernard Partridge cartoon from Punch

The Partridge text reads:

Mamma: "Now go and say good-night to your governess, like a good little girl, and give her a kiss." 

Little puss: "I'll say good-night, but I won't give her a kiss." 

Mamma: "That's naughty.  Why won't you give her a kiss?" 

Little puss: "Because she slaps people's faces when they try to kiss her." 

Mamma: "Now don't talk nonsense; But do as you're told." 

Little puss: "Well, mummy, if you don't believe me, - ASK PAPA!"