Comparing Cousin Kate and Seduction :: Elaine McAuley Christina Rossetti Essays

Comparing Cousin Kate and Seduction 'Cousin Kate' is set in the Victorian ages. It is about a young, beautiful working class maiden, who is taken away from her simple life by a lord, to a life of riches and luxuries. She lives a very shameful life because she lives with him and is sexually active with the lord before marriage. She even has a child with him. The maiden’s much more attractive cousin appears and the lord is intrigued by her. He leaves the maiden for Kate. The poem has a twist at the end; Cousin Kate is only interested in his money, but she cannot conceive any children for him, and the maiden already has a son of the lord’s and he will inherit his father’s wealth and land as his heir. A once poor cottage maiden will now live the life of luxury again but in the right way. In ‘I was a cottage maiden’, by using ‘I’, I can tell that the poem is in first person and is being told from the victim’s perspective; this also gives the reader access to the narrator’s thoughts and feelings. The poem is in past tense. ‘Cottage’ emphasises that she is from a working class background and ‘maiden’ suggests that she is a virgin, but being in past tense, the use of the word ‘was’ indicates that she is no more. ‘Hardened by the sun and air’ suggests that she is an outside worker; ‘hardened’ suggests that she is weather beaten. This could mean that her skin could be tanned from working in the hot sun. This also indicates that she is lower class. ‘Contented with my cottage mates’ suggests that she is informal and ordinary. This line also tells me that she is happy with her life. In the next line the narrator says ‘not mindful I was fair’ suggesting that she is unaware of her beauty. She then asks a rhetorical question: ‘why did the great find me out?’ The narrator uses this to show her regret over the lord. On the next line she says ‘and praises my flaxen hair’. This shows the lords pathetic attempts to impress the maiden; the words ‘flaxen hair’ suggest that her hair was stringy, dry and a pale yellow colour. The narrator repeats the rhetorical question ‘why did the great lord find me out?’ again to emphasise her regret and mis-judgement over the lord. ‘To fill my heart with care’ is ambiguous: the first is that she loves him; the second is that the lord brings the maiden worries. In second verse the narrator is very critical towards her supposed