'There is a budding morrow in midnight:'—
So sang our Keats, our English nightingale.
And here, as lamps across the bridge turn pale
In London's smokeless resurrection-light,
Dark breaks to dawn. But o'er the deadly blight
Of love deflowered and sorrow of none avail,
Which makes this man gasp and this woman quail,
Can day from darkness ever again take flight?
Ah! gave not these two hearts their mutual pledge,
Under one mantle sheltered 'neath the hedge
In gloaming courtship? And, O God! today
He only knows he holds her;—but what part
Can life now take? She cries in her locked heart,—
'Leave me—I do not know you—go away!'
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Found[1]
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"Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a woman's chastity[2] and with female promiscuity. Its use was an expression of the belief that to be socially and morally acceptable, a woman's sexuality and experience should be entirely restricted to marriage, and that she should also be under the supervision and care of an authoritative man. Used when society offered few employment opportunities for women in times of crisis or hardship, the term was often more specifically associated with prostitution, which was regarded as both cause and effect of a woman being "fallen". The term is considered to be anachronistic in the 21st century,[3] although it has considerable importance in social history and appears in many literary works (see also Illegitimacy in fiction).
- ^ Quoted in Stevens, Bethan (2008). The British Museum Pre-Raphaelites. London: The British Museum Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-7141-5066-6.
- ^ Nochlin, Linda (1978). "Lost and Found: Once More the Fallen Woman". The Art Bulletin. 60 (1): 139–153. doi:10.1080/00043079.1978.10787522.
- ^ The Oxford English Dictionary: "A fallen woman"
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