Sign in
Sexual Polarities in The Defence of Guenevere
Journal article

Sexual Polarities in The Defence of Guenevere

Florence S. Boos
Browning Institute studies, Vol.13, pp.181-200
1985
DOI: 10.1017/S0092472500005423

View Online

Abstract

William Morris's early poetry is striking for its erotic intensity and powerful evocations of passionate and unhappy women. Indeed, his portrayals of confined, alienated, and dependent women are so sharp that they pose some obvious questions. Do they, in the end, simply stylize and project some of the most destructive conventions of Victorian patriarchy? Or do they actually provide some “defence” of female passion and sexuality, against the social hierarchies and emotional suffocation they depict?

Details

Metrics