Theorist William Rathbone Greg best summaries the feelings of the Victorian age towards fallen women: "If the passions of woman were ready, strong, and spontaneous, in a degree even remotely approaching the form they assume in the coarser sex, there can belittle doubt that sexual irregularities would reach a height, of which, at present, we have happily no conception" (Greg 10). ... In this age, the ideal woman was to be pure and free of any sexual aggression. ... The poem represents the isolated Victorian woman as a submissive person that has agreed to her place in the home by runni...

• Word Count: 3387
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate