An Apple Gathering

An Apple Gathering CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI

‘An Apple Gathering’ is a poem composed by the Victorian era poetess Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). Theme: First of all, we must understand that this poem is written in the background of the typical patriarchal society prevalent in 19th century England. Naturally, that meant that women had little freedom or rights, an also were given very few choices regarding their romantic and sexual life and preferences: they can either be strictly platonic in their romantic relationships, have a respectable marriage, bear children, and lead the ‘happy (?)’ life of a wife; on the other hand, if they cannot or do not maintain their virginity (which is treated as an invaluable asset of a woman, by the way) during a romantic relationship, then they are not to get married, and are to be labelled as ‘whores’ and bear the ‘shame’ for their whole life. A third choice can be found in the poem ‘A Triad’ written by the same poetess, but let’s not get into that now. Women were treated as the objects of pleasure, ‘ranked’ in the marriage market solely on the basis of their beauty AND their status of virginity. All in all, women in Victorian England were miserable creatures, subject to the whims and fantasies of their husbands or lovers, utterly deprived of their basic human rights. It’s almost as if they were considered as a different species of creature and not human at all. In this poem, the main character is an unnamed woman who says she has lost her virginity in an affair with a young man; albeit, here it’s curious to note that she might have known the consequences of her actions, so we can’t really treat her as naïve and her ex-lover as the villain and call him a seducer. She is treated as a prostitute, an outcast from the society, forced to watch as other lasses turn into respectable ladies. In this monologue of a poem, she calls out in anguish to Willie, her ex-lover, that if he really valued her love less than his reputation, while she regarded love above all in the world. Finally, we see that she wanders off as evening falls, doomed to be alone, dewdrops falling incessantly on her head. The end scene is primarily of aloneness. She will not be exonerated form her ‘crime’, she has no hopes either of returning to normalcy, or to undergo

rehabilitation. All in all, a very deep and suffocating melancholy pervades this poem, which becomes its theme.

Style: As told earlier, women in the Victorian era were grievous sufferers in the patriarchal society. So, women Victorian writers can be expected to be rankled by this treatment of their sex and speak out against this injustice by portraying Victorian women as swooning, weeping creatures who are in the need of urgent redressals. So, it is quite startling for us when we discover that Christina Rossetti varies radically from the other Victorians, at least in this poem. She portrays women as free agents, having their own free wills, free to carve out their own lives, being strong enough to withstand any stigmatization, thereby lending a touch of existentialism to her work. Here, the poetess uses the female persona to explore the depths of female subjectivity which are not, in many cases, an expression of her own self. The poetess basically hides behind the narrator, and leaves just some vague hints about her own feelings. As is the case with almost all the Victorian poems, we can’t take this one at face value. There are many layers of interpretations in this poem, each becoming evident as the stanzas unfold. At the first, it seems merely a tale of caution warning us readers against the repercussions of premarital sex. But as we go deeper, we find out that the poem is actually a short critique of the Victorian style of love and marriage. It can also be interpreted as a modern adaptation of the Victorian sexuality. On a different level, this poem can also be said to bear religious meanings, as in describing the narrator as ‘fallen’ one who has a hope, albeit a faint one, of redemption. When she calls out to Willie, she is actually calling out to God. Here, the dewdrops falling on her in the last scene can be compared to God’s blessings, consistent to the ideals of Rossetti who was a devout Catholic. As is natural, realism, or rather psychological realism is displayed in this poem instead of romanticism. What is unnatural is that all kinds of social realism is absent from this piece of art. Also surprising is the lack of all scenic details from this poem, but this omission is somewhat compensated by the abundance

of sensuous touches of shapes and colours which crowd the poem, thereby enabling us to visualize pictures despite absence of any visual details.

Symbolism: This poem is saturated with symbolism. Let us make a list of all the symbolically significant terms in the poem and analyse them one by one: I)

II)

III)

IV)

V)

‘pink blossoms’: It represents premarital sex. The unmarried woman isn’t a lady, she hasn’t reached maturity. Thus, the red colour that stands for sexual maturity or, more accurately, her psychological readiness for a physical relationship cannot be applied to her, so pink is deemed an appropriate colour considering her age. ‘apples’: ‘apple’ signifies children and a so-called ‘happy married life’ in the Victorian Age. It’s curious to note that Rossetti does not hold the supposedly cherished ideals of womanhood- that of maternity and wifehood in high esteem, but rather shows them as something materialistic by comparing them with something as meagre as an apple, thereby reflecting the attitude of 19th century English society towards these aspects. ‘mother’s home’: Well, on first sight, this phrase takes the meaning of ‘mother’s home’ and nothing more. But on closer observation, we see that it actually means ‘society’: Lilian and Lilias, being happily married, are warmly welcomed by the society, while the narrator, being practically an outcast, watches from a distance. ‘apples with their green leaves piled above’: A very good indicator of Rossetti’s attitude in this poem. Here the phrase suggests that her lover Willie might be a polygamist and very likely has children with a legitimate wife, so the ‘apples’, but it is covered with his good looks and his charm in order to hide the true fact from his illegitimate love, thus the ‘green leaves’. Again, if viewed from another angle, it might also signify the male lover’s affinity to avoid scandals by eloping with his lover. So, we see the narrator cry out in anguish to Willie, asking if he really valued his reputation more than the undying love she had shown for him. ‘dews’: As told earlier, the dewdrops can be interpreted in many ways. One can simply assume the drops as a symbol for the despair the girl

feels. Or, it can be taken as a sign of heavenly consolation. Yet another meaning can be found here if we consider the viewpoint that Nature herself steps in to soothe the excruciating pain she feels. In conclusion, we can say that Christina Rossetti does a masterful work of a poem: shrouding it in ambivalence, she gives us ample grounds to interpret it in several ways; nonetheless, she does voice her opinion, it’s only that it takes a bit of careful observation to unearth it from the labyrinth of a poem she creates.

---Subhajit Das, JUDE, UG I.