Explore the ways in which vanity is presented in Some Ladies dress in Muslin Full and
White and one other poem of your choice.
Christina Rossetti was known to be very religious, and often believed that moral value was
synonymous with religious devotion, as shown through many of her poems. For this reason,
Rossetti was a firm believer in the double standards that existed between men and women in
society as they were presented in the bible and Christianity. Within christianity, pride is one of
the seven deadly sins; vanity is defined excessive pride in or admiration of one's own
appearance or achievements. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Rossetti would’ve negatively
viewed vanity, and pegged it as a religious sin that deserved punishment. The poem, ”Some
ladies dress in muslin full and white,” was written as a response to a letter written to Rossetti
asking her to advocate the suffragette movement in the late 1870s, which Rossetti refused due
to her belief that the Bible was based upon an understood unalterable distinction between men
and women, their position, duties, privileges. Her response is very critical and takes on the role
of condemning society for its faults.
The title of the poem, ”Some ladies dress in muslin full and white,” directly addresses and
criticizes the higher classes in Victorian society and how they dressed to show off their wealth.
The word "full" implies an excess suggesting that this is unneeded and wrong, and therefore
wasteful. Similarly, in the next line, ‘Some gentlemen in cloth succinct and black,’ the same
criticism of men who pay extra attention to physical appearance - those who would’ve been
referred to as a ‘dandy’ - is made. The anaphora used in the repetition of ‘some’ removes the
narrator from the contemptuous group she describes, and places her in a position to criticize and
ridicule this group, as well as distinguishing this group from the rest of society and the other
classes. Additionally, in the phrase, "Some patronise a dog cart, some a hack, / Some think a
pained clarence only right” the satirical tone dismisses vanity and obsession with appearance
rather than practicality, and the sarcasm is a swipe at materialism, as it ridicules the emphasis
placed on choosing a cart which is a trivial matter. A clarence would’ve been used by the
extremely wealthy in society, and the description of those who patronise dog carts, and believe a
clarence is only right is a criticism of the pride of the upper classes and their conceitedness. As
the poem progresses, it becomes more openly critical and less sarcastic. In the next quatrain,
”Youth is not always a pleasing sight” implies that society should focus less on outer
appearances as looks fade. Focusing on religion and God is most important and the Victorian
notion that devotion and renunciation on earth will lead to an eternal life with God in heaven
Critical tone. Rossetti clearly has a number of issues with the people of the younger generation.
She looks down on them as being indulgent, gluttonous, and vain. The dismissal of those who
dress to show off their wealth and their portrayed materialism is a link to the deadly sin of pride,
which deserves punishment. This punishment is portrayed in the sestet following the volta - ‘If all
the world were water fit to drown /There are some whom you would not teach to swim, / Rather
enjoying if you saw them sink.’ The satyrical tone used throughout the poem now turns more
vicious, as Rossetti suggests that those guilty of the sin of excessive materialism and vanity are
deserving of punishment and death. The idea of the world being made of ‘water fit to drown’ is
reminiscent of the Flood in the Noah’s Ark story, where the sinners were drowned and the
righteous saved by God. The structure that Rosetti has use dis slightly ironic, as the form of a
petrarchan sonnet is usually used for love poems, and the sestet shows a resolve to the poem.
Rossetti does the opposite, subverting the typical petrarchan sonnet, as this sestet instead
implies a cruel resolve - that social cleansing and punishment will fix the problem of
consumerism and vanity. This symbolises the speaker feeling a lack of compassion, and isolated
from their society. Additionally, Rossetti uses iambic pentameter, as this controlled structure
could reflect how society is consistently materialistic to no end.
The same negative view of vanity and materialism is taken is portrayed in Babylon the Great.
Rossetti describes a woman who is outwardly beautiful. She has endless amounts of material
