On the Contradictory Feminism behind the Contradictory Image of Eve in Christina Georgina Rossetti’s Works

Abstract

The emotions of paradox and ambivalence constitutes the label of Christina Georgina Rossetti,British Victorian poetess.As an outstanding religious poetess,she always struggles in the conflict between religious passion and secular longings.Eve,in her works,is a contradictive mixture of "the first fallen woman" and " the mother of all living".And in Rossetti's eyes,all women are the daughters of Eve,born as another Eve.To understand these seeming inconsistencies and apparent contradictions,it is needed to examine in detail Rossetti's view of Eve,for behind all her views on woman's rights,duties,and privileges in this world stands the image of the first mother,the complicated,contradictory image of Eve in her text.