Re-Presentations of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Portrayals in Fiction ...

Another intriguing aspect of Rossetti’s relationship with Lizzie is the possibility that his philandering led her to suicide. Rossetti himself seemed to believe that he was responsible for her death because of his inattention to her. Ida Proctor, an early source on Siddal, reports that she, like Rossetti, was an addict, in her case to laudanum. “Following the birth of her dead child, Lizzie took increasing doses of laudanum to relive her sleeplessness and neuralgia…Lizzie’s power of endurance failed her…she took an overdose of laudanum while Gabriel was out” (382). The image of Rossetti as oppressor and even murderer of his wife is a startling and completely negative one.

Although the relationship between Lizzie and Rossetti was one of several that came to influence him, in many ways it was the most significant one. Therefore, the question of her persona is often inseparable from representations of Rossetti himself, and any discussion of Rossetti would not be complete without significant attention to scholarship on Elizabeth Siddal. She was so important to the creators of the 1973 exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts that the official poster features a small reproduction of a picture of Rossetti in the lower right-hand corner with a larger outline of Lizzie looming over him. Christopher Firmstone, the designer of this poster, explained that his intention had been “to suggest something of the yearnings and tensions within the man by juxtaposing the fine, but sombre, photographic portrait of Rossetti in later years with an image of the subject of his early passion hovering like a phantom above him.” To accomplish this, Firmstone “bled out Lizzie’s dress with the background to emphasize the phantom-like qualities of the face and hands, etc.” (Firmstone).

In The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, Marsh makes the case that Lizzie can be seen as “a victim, of silencing, of slander, of double-bind disqualification, of disdain and of theft” (358). In any such portrayal of her, Rossetti must necessarily appear as the main victimizer. These images of her will be seen in several of the primary sources of this study. But such a conclusion would do her less than justice. It would also be greatly unfair to Rossetti. Marsh asserts that within the Pre-Raphaelite circle, the women found many encouraging, supportive, and loving men,