The [Blessed] Damozel?


PosterĄG Jessie Chu at 11:5:22 12/13/97 from c550-5.svdcc.fju.edu.tw
MentionedĄG

Dante Gaberiel Rosetti's The Blessed Damozel demonstrates/ illustrates
an emparadised woman missing her earthly lover. I think the most interesting
point of this poem is that the poet is the one who emparadises the woman and
simantaneously makes her powerless. Being a goddess, under a logical condition,
the blessed damozel should have omnipotent and omniscient power. Or at least, she
can do whatever she wants but not sadly sits in the heaven and sees her earthly lover.
From the passage of the poem, we can see that Rossetti creats a sensual female image of a
goddess for his readers/ gazers and also for himself. "She had three lilies in her hands/
And the stars in her hair were seven."(L5,6) (Actually this image reminds me of the female
characters in Japanese comics.) "Her hair that lay along her back/ was yellow like the ripe
corn."(L10,11) It refers to the plumpy and mature characteristics of the damonzel. These
are exactly the male expectations of the female image-purity, innocence, sipirituality.
"...Until her bosom most have made/ the bar she leaned on warm."(L45,46) This sensual
image and physical closeness enhaces her image of chasity, tnederness, semtimentality,
and melancholy. The readers/ gazers seem to sense the warmth of her body. But she is not
touched and restricted in the bar. Undoubtedly Rossetti creates an ideal female image through
his poem and his painting. What grotesque is that she has no power. she is a doddess void of
power. She has to stay in the heaven being a sacred damozel and keeping her virginity. In other
words, she can't get married with her earthly lover and have sex with him. There is a stanza
revealing the damozel's desire, L91-96. By the ending, "And wept (I heard her tears.)", I think
the damozel prefers to be a mortal wife rather than an immortal goddess. So who makes the damozel
be a goddess? It's Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I think the epathy of the damozel is similar to Keats'
Psyche. The poets both emparadise or announce the position of goddess for their ideal women. Then
the goddesses can't contact with their lovers. Later Keats asserts that he is the priest of Phyche's
shrine/ fane. As for Rossetti, he is the one who controls the heaven and confines the damozel. The
heaven is Rossetti's regime which prisons the damozel and her virginity. So is she really the "blessed"
damozel? It's is interesting questions for all readers/ gazers. Besides words/ language is the poet's
power to construct their ownership. We would say "Keats' Phyche" rather than "Cupid's Psyche", and DGR's
"the blessed damozel." The ways we call thses two women also claim the poets' strong and exlusive posessiveness
and to maintain the sublime of the two goddesses.


Response:

  • Re: The [Blessed] Damozel? -- Kate Liu 10:38:58 12/17/97

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