著者

高田 恵利子

出版者

清泉女子大学

雑誌

清泉女子大学紀要 (ISSN:05824435)

巻号頁・発行日

no.47, pp.33-49, 1999-12

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This article is chiefly concerned with an examination of the delicate and unique lyricism as revealed in the narrative verse 'The Prince's Progress' (1866) written by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-94). She is one of the main representative lyrical poets of the English literature, owing to the prolific creation of her superb religious verses and poetic works. We will focus our attention on the poet's poetic depiction of the princess who plays the role of a heroine as we can find "in a daydream or in a fairy tale". She is described in terms of "lilies and rosebuds" (1.25) which are symbolical of her life of innocence, purity and virginity as well as of the final misfortune of her own death before the arrival of the handsome prince. Rossetti has presented the prince as representing a man's lust for conquest. He is easily dissuaded by some kinds of temptation and delays his journey towards the palace, although he is determined to rescue his spell-bound bride. This princess seems quite different to such a female figure as the heroine of Jane Eyre (1847) who claims herself to be "a free human being with an independent will" as to be equal to a man in the sight of God. What Christina Rossetti is trying to convey to us is that the Victorian society has been totally centered on men, where women tend to be vastly marginalized. As a matter of fact, Christina has experienced being wholly excluded from any active entry into society, both social and academic. With regard to this narrative verse, the princess is depicted with an image of "the entranced passivity" which is redolent of our poet's attitude towards her own life. As Frances Thomas, the author of the biographical and literary accounts of Christina Rossetti (1963) has pointed out, Christina has depicted "all nineteenth century women, powerless before men." However, the sorrowful, tragic life of the princess has been highly elevated into the blissful and serene realm of Heaven, the New Jerusalem as sung in the form of the final dirge which is turned somehow into a bridal song sung with a tune of elegic rhapsody. We can, therefore, maintain that our poet knew very well how to express her own predicament in terms of her poetc and religious creativity.