‘Cousin Kate’ by Christina Rossetti Essay

This Victorian poem is ab start the cashier (a fallen wo worldly concern), the Lord and Kate. It is a ballad which tells the story from the fabricators perspective about being shunned by society after her experiences with the schoolmaster. The poems female vocalizer recalls her contentment in her humble surroundings until the local Lord of the Manor took her to be his lover. He discarded her when she became enceinte and his affections turned to another village girl, Kate, whom he then married. Although the vocalisers company condemned the loud vocalizer as a fallen cleaning lady, she reflects that her love for the lord was more faithful than Kates.She is proud of the password she bore him and is sure that the man is unhappy that he and Kate remain childless. Some readers think that she feels more betrayed by her cousin than the lord. This poem is a dramatic monologue written in the Victorian era. Structure The poem is written in first psyche narrative. It has 6 stanzas of 8 lines One stanza severally on the narrator, the Lord and Kate stanza 4 contrasts the position of the narrator and Kate stanza 5 criticises Kate and stanza 6 focuses on the narrators triumph at having a child.Each stanza is the same length and each line has a similar rhythm, giving it a ballad-like feel. It could to a fault be conveying the strength and perseverance of the narrator who has to face life in conflict with the expectations of Victorian society. Note that the tone changes as the poem progresses regret, accusation, rancor, triumph. The rime scheme always connects the B (2nd line) of each couplet. E. g Stanza one AB/CB/DB/DB. Sometimes the first line of the couplet is rhyme. The rhyme emphasises the go world to aid meaning.The regular rhyme could also suggest that narrator has not only been dominated by the Lord (because men and in particular men of a higher social standing) but is also trapped with Victorian social conventions (she is now a fallen woman in conflic t with the values of her society). Sometimes the first line is rhymed as in Stanza 3 AB/AB/CB/AB. In this guinea pig the lyric Kate, gate and estate are stressed in assure to convey the way Kate has been elevated from her position in society.However in stanza 5 this rhyme of true and you contrasts the narrators strength of thought with Kates. full cousin Kate is written with an iambic rhythm. Generally, one line of the poem has third feet, and the following(a) has four. The poem, therefore, generally get alongs the following pattern da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum Iambic rhythms often follow the natural rhythm of speech, a little like a heartbeat. If we mount this to one of Rossettis lines, it reads as follows Because you were so good and pure. whence the meaning of the run-in is captured in the line as specific words are stressed. The repetition of Why did a great lord baring me out, conveys the evoke and bewilderment of the speaker at her change of ci rcumstances, whilst the enounce good and pure has a hollow ring by its randomness occurrence. Thereafter, repeated phrases are altered to highlight the contrasting situations of Kate and the speaker The community call Kate good and pure, but call the speaker an outcast thing.Kate sits in gold, the speaker sits in dust. The physical body of dust connects to a life of poverty and also suggests how she has been soiled by society. Whereas gold suggests that her cousin has riches. Kates fate is to sit and sing, the speakers to sit and howl. This suggests the mental anguish that the narrator is experiencing at being abandoned whereas to sing indicates that Kate is content. However, the speaker believes her love was true, season Kates love was writ in sand suggesting that her love is stronger than Kates.The echoed complex body part in the final stanza that Kate has not got and is not like to get the reach of a child emphasises the speakers sense of triumph. Language The speakers questions in the first stanza express her anger and confusion at the experiences she has had to endure Why did a great lord find me out Why did a great lord find me out? She suggests that out front the arrival of the great lord, she was happy and contented (line 3). She was not flavor for a new situation in life.It came unexpectedly. The idea that the lord modify her heart with care suggests that she had less to worry about previously. She is angry that he made her anxious instead of happy and took her away from her friends, her cottage catch (line 3). She questions her cousin Kate in stanza 4 suggesting that she loved the lord whereas her cousin did not marry for love. The speaker addresses her questions, laments and moans to Kate. She begins the third verse, O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate and the fifth, O cousin Kate.Throughout, she employs a tone of accusation, repeatedly using the word you as she compares Kate to herself. In the last four lines, the speaker draws her attentio n away from her bitterness at Kate and addresses her son. She calls him my shame, my pride (line 45). The oxymoron highlights the conflict that she experiences at loving the Lord and her son but also knowing that she has defied moral convention. Through active and peaceful verbs Rossetti emphasises the powerlessness of women in Victorian society by associating the lord with a series of actions which take the initiative.He found the speaker out / praised her / lured her / wore her / changed her / cast her by / fooled her. These are harsh actions, which become more ominous with weigh to Kate. analogous a stalker, the lord saw her / chose her / watched her / lifted her To sit with him / forswear her/ win her / bought her. Like a hunter, the lord found the speaker out, lured her, then chose his next victim in Kate, whom he watched, then picked up (lifted) and butt against.Both women are referred to as birds, with Kate seeming to be trussed and bound by her fine clothes and wedding ring. In Cousin Kate, the go down image draws on these ideas of hope and fulfilment and is a symbol of innocence that stands in direct contrast to the contaminated state the speaker finds herself as she describes herself as an unclean thing (line 15). However, she acknowledges that the tenderness associated with the dove is no satisfy for Kates stronger wing.Even though the speaker claims that she wouldhave splosh and would not have taken the lord, the fact that this is in the future conditional tense indicates that the reality of the situation is in fact very diametric she will always be powerless. Alliteration is used throughout the poem The cottony innocence of the speaker before her life changed is conveyed by the soft M of maiden, mates and mindful in stanza 1 When the speaker claims that she was led to the lords house to lead a shameless shameful life, the sibilance in this line reinforces the joining together of oxymorons that these words perform.It also reflects th e hushed manner in which the speaker was ensnared by the lord, taken in, then later cast aside The speakers anger shines through the harsh consonants of Lady Kate, my cousin Kate In the final stanza, the speaker emphasises the close bond she shares with her son when she asks that he Cling immediate, closer even so (line 46). The emphasis here highlights her fear and together with the repetition of the word closer, suggests that it is for her own comfort, as well as her sons, that they remain together. watertight images are used to convey the predicament of the narrator. She claims that the lord considered her as a plaything (line 12) whom he could treat how he liked without any regard for her feelings. Much like the silken knot (line 12) he wore around his sleep with (a cravat or tie), he treated her as a fashion improver he could use and then cast away, rather than as an single(a) with her own needs. The speaker recognises that the lord changed me like a manus (line 13).He us ed her and moulded her into a shape that lodgeed him and then, like a glove that no longer pleases, dispensed with her completely. A glove is an intimate and ain object that fits itself around its user. By describing herself as a glove, the speaker acknowledges that she bemused sight of her own needs and desires in an attempt to please and suit the lord. Essay title Explain how Rossetti creates sympathy for the narrator in Cousin Kate. Use examples from the poem to support your answers.