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Female Representation in 'Body's Beauty' & 'Lady Lilith'

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Lady Lilith

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti created the poem Body’s Beauty and the associated painting Lady Lilith in a time and place where women had a specific role in society. The ‘ideal’ nineteenth-century English woman was submissive to any male influence in her life, always proper, and well behaved. With this poem and painting, Rossetti presents an alternative view on females in this society, one that will be explored through analysis and interpretation of this written and visual work. Body’s Beauty and Lady Lilith challenge the societal norms and expectations of women in the nineteenth-century. Rossetti does this by depicting a woman putting herself and her own needs before that of any man, by addressing the potentially negative aspects of women that society tends to repress, and by using religious tones for the use of comparison. Rossetti’s purpose in all this was to portray women as they truly are, which is much more complex than nineteenth-century society allowed them to be.

An average nineteenth-century woman had many men to answer to in her daily life. This included all male members of her family, her pastor, eventually her husband, and any man who happened to be older than she in her community. Women, with an array of characteristics, feature prominently in Rossetti’s works@. The proper English lady would always be submissive and obedient to any man that fit into any of these categories, and in Body’s Beauty Rossetti dares to present a woman that would not. The subject of the poem, Lady Lilith, is portrayed as a femme fatale, a woman who answers to no man and instead uses them for her own pleasure@.

Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told

(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)

That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could

deceive@Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

Lady Lilith is referred to as a witch, to be seen as a threatening and haunting presence@. She was the type of woman to get under a man’s skin, to ‘haunt’ him with her presence even after they had parted, and had the ability to deceive any man just by moving her lips. This image Rossetti has portrayed does not embody the stereotypical wallflower a proper nineteenth-century woman was designed to be. A lack of submission is a prominent theme in Body’s Beauty, as Rossetti said himself, “that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle … is about the most essential notion of the sonnet”@. Lady Lilith is portrayed as a woman who tends to her own needs before that of any man, which again is challenging society’s ideology of the stereotypical female.

Body’s Beauty by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is riddled with religious connotations. Lady Lillith supposedly Adam’s first wife. She refused to submit to Adam and fled the Garden of Eden. Some mythology centers on Lady Lillith and her role as a sex symbol and succubus. When Rossetti was painting this portrait to go along with his poem Body’s Beauty, he clearly knew these ideas and portrayed them onto his subject because he incorporated many temptress-like attributes.

Lillith as shown as a very vain woman which was never an acceptable trait in a woman. She is looking into a mirror as she grooms herself because she knows she is beautiful and knows she has that to her advantage. Women in the 19th Century were not encouraged to boast about their looks and to be humble and quiet. Lady Lillith fought this interpretation head on by very obviously flaunting her porcelain skin and luscious hair@.

Sibylla Palmifera By Rossetti

companion to Soul's Beauty

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Rossetti also uses his poem to address the potentially negative aspects of women that society tends to repress. Lady Lilith is presented as a temptress.

And, subtly of herself contemplative,

Draws men to watch the bright net she can weave,

Till heart and body and life are in its hold@Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

Although society would prefer not to acknowledge this kind of behaviour, Rossetti was merely exploring the varying dynamics of relations between a man and a woman. For Rossetti, the great affections between one another, determined by that “material loveliness”, formed the undeniable reality in things@. By portraying Lady Lilith as temptress, weaving her web to ensnare men, he was only trying to encompass the complexity of characteristics that any given woman was capable of. This indeed embodies the empowerment of women, and potentially the doomed nature of any man who dares come her way. It is Lilith’s self-interest that weaves this dangerous net and leaves only the abyss for men to fall into once they become fascinated by her@. It was not Rossetti’s intention to come across critical of women. Rather, he meant to explore what had inspired him to write. Rossetti was writing about the ideal intensity of love, a love based upon a “perfect yet peculiar” type of physical or material beauty@. It is the notion of physical beauty that stands out in Body’s Beauty, as in the title of the poem alone, as it is Lady Lilith’s beauty that ensnares these men. The very same physical beauty that the average nineteenth-century woman, if she is meant to be considered proper by society’s standards, ought to repress.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Michael Rossetti

While Lady Lillith is seen as a vixen, she is a also a representation of women's freedom because she is not presenting herself to anyone and just admiring herself. As a temptress, she went against all moral codes, giving off negative female connotations.

In the background, the subject is surrounded by a multitude of symbols. Roses and poppies are around her, reminding the audience of both life and death. The garden behind her in the window could be interpreted as the Garden of Eden that she ran away from when she was expected to submit to her husband Adam. The fact that the candles reflect in the window, making the audience unsure of whether it is a window or mirror, correlating with the life and death flowers@.

Adam and Eve

As all students in the Royal Academy Schools, Rossetti was exposed to the Bible for the purpose of inspiration, as is reflected in many of his literary works@. In the very first lines of the poem Lady Lilith is referred to as the witch that Adam loved before the “gift of Eve”@. As it is commonly known in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, Eve eats the forbidden apple and dooms mankind to pay for her sin. To refer to Eve as a “gift” and Lady Lilith as a “witch” makes a bold statement towards Lady Lilith’s character. Rossetti used a female Biblical character that could be seen as both innocent, as she is deceived by the snake, and sinful, as she eats the forbidden fruit despite being warned not to. Rossetti is again portraying the complex levels of the female psyche that is not reflected upon in society’s view of the proper nineteenth-century woman.

Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went

Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck

bent,

And round his heart one strangling golden hair.@Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

Rossetti also aimed to incorporate varying types of imagery in his work as “aesthetic poetry is emblematic”, what is portrayed as natural, human and spiritual all at once@. These religious undertones, through the use of Eve, provide the reader with imagery that can be used to interpret Lady Lilith’s actions and raise questions about her true nature. Whether that is a cold and heartless temptress, or a misunderstood and lonely woman constantly pursued by men who are only interested in her looks.

Body’s Beauty and the painting Lady Lillith are companion works of art that also include Soul’s Beauty and Sibylla Palmifera as the perfect juxtaposing poem and painting@. Where Lady Lillith flaunts her skin, breasts and hair, Sibylla Palmifera’s head s covered and she is dressed in a very modest dark red rob. She is showing very little skin yet has the same facial expression as Lady Lillith. Both women look unphased and a little bit stern, Where Lillith is holding a mirror and wrapped up in looking at herself, Sibylla Palmifera is looking directly forward towards the audience with a fountain pen in her hand. The same flowers of roses and poppies are present behind the model as is the symbolism of life and death in the smoking pot and and pot full of fire on either side of her@.

While Sibylla Palmifera is the ideal woman and wife, Lady Lillith is the more free of the two woman. Although Lillth can be seen as confined by her vanity, she is also set free by it. Sibylla on the other hand has nothing to set her free from the confines of the female stereotypes and expectations.

Dante Gabrielle Rossettie created Body’s Beauty and Lady Lillith as works of art, but also as critiques of the society he was living in. He showed this by also painting Sibylla Palmifera and writing the corresponding poem Soul’s Beauty to enhance the social meaning of his artwork. Body’s Beauty and Lady Lilith challenge the societal norms and expectations of women in the nineteenth-century. Rossetti does this by depicting a woman putting herself and her own needs before that of any man, by addressing the potentially negative aspects of women that society tends to repress, and by using religious tones for the use of comparison. Rossetti’s purpose in all this was to portray women as they truly are, which is much more complex than nineteenth-century society allowed them to be.

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Female Representation in 'Body's Beauty' & 'Lady Lilith'

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Endnotes

1 Ormond, Leonee. “Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Old Masters”. The Yearbook of English Studies 36.2 (2006): 153-168. 6 Feb. 2011 < http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/stable/20479249>.

2 McGann, Jerome J. “Scholarly Commentary: Body’s Beauty” Rossetti Archive (2008). 16 Mar. 2011 <http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/2-1867.s205.raw.html>.

3 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

4 McGann, Jerome J. “Scholarly Commentary: Body’s Beauty” Rossetti Archive (2008). 16 Mar. 2011 <http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/2-1867.s205.raw.html>.

5 McGann, Jerome J. “Scholarly Commentary: Body’s Beauty” Rossetti Archive (2008). 16 Mar. 2011 <http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/2-1867.s205.raw.html>.

6 "Lady Liltih." The Rossetti Archives. 28 January 2011. http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/s205.rap.html

7 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

8 Pater, Walter. “Dante Gabriel Rossetti.” Appreciations, with an Essay on Style. Edinburgh: MacMillan and Co., 1889.

9 Miller, J. Hillis. "The Mirror’s Secret: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Double Work of Art." Victorian Poetry 29.4 (1991): 333-349. 6 Feb. 2011 <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/stable/40003000>.

10 Pater, Walter. “Dante Gabriel Rossetti.” Appreciations, with an Essay on Style. Edinburgh: MacMillan and Co., 1889.

11 “A Dialectic of Beauty in Rossetti's "Lady Lilith." The Victorian Web. 1 February 2011. http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/dgr/paintings/byecroft4.html

12 Ormond, Leonee. “Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Old Masters”. The Yearbook of English Studies 36.2 (2006): 153-168. 6 Feb. 2011 < http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/stable/20479249>.

13 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

14 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

15 Miller, J. Hillis. “The Mirror’s Secret: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Double Work of Art.” Victorian Poetry 29.4 (1991): 333-349. 6 Feb. 2011 <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.ryerson.ca/stable/40003000>.

16 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Body’s Beauty." ENG 633: 19th Century Literature and Culture II Course Reader, First Edition. Lorraine Janzen (Toronto: Ryerson University, 2011).

17 Rossetti, Dante. Sibylla Palmifera. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom.

Female Representation in 'Body's Beauty' & 'Lady Lilith'

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Female Representation in 'Body's Beauty' & 'Lady Lilith'

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Female Representation in 'Body's Beauty' & 'Lady Lilith'

Emily Brac & Katie Murray

Endnotes

Links

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