The role of the outsider in Christina Rossetti’s Poetry Katie Long 10th Grade

Many of Christina Rossetti’s poems explore the theme of those who are placed outside of society, supporting the claim that the outsider is always an intriguing figure in literature. However, this concept is explored and presented by many ways by Rossetti in a variety of her poems.

“Shut Out” is a poem that deals directly with the theme of the outsider and the narrator and events within the poem can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. The narrator describes how “the door was shut” on her and she can no longer access her “beautiful” “garden”. The narrator describes how she is “quite alone” and “blinded with tears “in her “iron bar” prison. This description does generate some sympathy from the reader especially when Rossetti contrasts the despair of the narrator with the beautiful natural imagery of the garden outside. The poem also includes a “shadow less spirit at the gate” guarding the narrator and showing her no mercy. One way this poem can be interpreted as a fallen woman “shut out” of society for her sins. In the Victorian era, women who had sex before marriage were declared “fallen”. It was believed that they were eternally tarnished due to their grave sin and were “shut out” of society to repent. During her...