In An Artist's Studio By Christina Rossetti Summary

A Man’s Need

I am not sure why this poem stuck out to me so much. Maybe it is because I find the idea of a women’s only job is to wait on a man and to be ready to be molded by any man who comes along sickening. That idea of women being merely objects to men and their sole purpose in this world is to please is extremely disturbing. In “In an Artist’s Studio” by Christina Rossetti she hits the Victorian stereotype of women only being useful if they are “angels”, “saints”, “beautiful”, and “emotionless”. Many writers in this time were on both sides of the spectrum when it came to a women’s rights. Some people were for empowering women and some were for keeping women in the home looking beautiful and waiting for their knight in shining armor.
In an Artist’s Studio you can see where the artist stands and what he thinks is best for a woman. The woman in the painting isn’t even given a name as if that wasn’t dehumanizing. It shows you that her only job was to please and nothing else. Her sole purpose was to be his muse “smiling at him with kind eyes every day”. Could you imagine what her life would be like if she was not just a painting on a wall hidden behind screens? This was probably like what most women felt their lives were like at this time. They probably felt lifeless as if their only purpose was to fulfill mans dreams and not to follow …show more content…
She sticks up to the goblin men and chooses to be strong and willful, she does not give in to the fruit and in turn saves herself and her sister from them. She doesn’t choose to sit and watch her sister die because she is afraid of them. She chooses to be brave and not a woman in a painting sitting and smiling back. Even the goblins showed how a man’s need is over a woman. How they had the right to pick and leave women whenever they chose without any