'Cousin Kate'-essay plan with quotes

In our last lesson we started to plan an answer for the question; 'To what extent do you agree that the women in 'Cousin Kate' are heroic?'. These are some of the ideas we came up with:


To a certain extent the women in 'Cousin Kate' are heroic, for example;

• The speaker overcomes her bad experience and rises above tradition, whilst also challenging it. She takes the critism and carries on, she rises above it. For example she is called an "outcast thing" by the neighbours, and she is very proud of her son at the end. She calls him her "shame" and "pride", thus showing that she considers him her pride and joy but society sees him as her shame. She refuses to act as a weak woman who just accepts the power of men in society. We see in the poem that women in general are second best to men, however in the poem the speaker challenges this and ends up better for it.
• The female speaker is headstrong, she knows her morals and achknowledges that she did something wrong in being tricked into sleeping with the lord. Quotes that show this are "so now I moan an unclean thing" she considers herself dirty and she was obviously upset by what happened to her, but she uses her experience to make her stronger. When she says how she would not have been bought by the lord's land and she says she would "spit into his face"-this shows quite a feminist view and shows she has a strong feeling of what she thinks is right and wrong. This symbolises women standing up to men, and displays women's strength, therefore suggesting they're heroic.
• The speaker prevails over men at the end as her son will inherit his lands, it's like victory has come to the women at last. This is shown in "Your father would give lands for one to wear his coronet".
• Cousin Kate is on a moral high ground as she hasn't actually done anything wrong, however because we only see Kate through the speakers eyes it creates a speaker bias. For example she is called "good and pure by the neighbours which shows women's normal traits.
• At the beginning of the poem we see women to be gentle, beautiful and kind, for example "cottage maiden" suggest innocence and "not mindful I was fair" shows women in general to be humble. So the women are gentle and kind, but they aren't weak.

However you can also argue that the women aren't at all heroic in the poem 'Cousin Kate'. For example;

• The speaker seems to feel she is better than cousin Kate, when she says "neighbours call you good and pure" etc it's like she's saying Kate doesn't deserve this treatment, it shows the speaker's jealousy.
• The speaker gets tricked by the lord into sleeping with him. This shows women's weakness , naïvity and lack of sensible judgement. Quotes that show this are "lured me to his palace home" and "His plaything"-the speaker has been controlled and taken advantage of by the man, so this shows women not to be heroic as men have control over them. The lord is also able to "choose" cousin Kate, it's as if there is no input from the women, they just do as they're told, therefore displaying a form of weakness.
• The women seem very bitchy in the poem. For example in the poem the speaker is talking to her cousin Kate and she seems very bitter. She says "Because you were so good and pure" to Kate and it sounds like she is being sarcastic, even mocking Kate. She also ridicules Kate because she can't have children, which is awful as, as a woman the speaker should know how important it is for women to carry a child themselves. This is shown in "Yet I've a gift you have not got, and seem not like to get". This is like she's showing off, using her son to get back at Kate and therefore displaying no natural motherly instinct women are expected to have. So the speaker makes bitchy snide comments. Also Kate herself betrayed the speaker by agreeing to marry the speakers lover. We are told that Kate had a "stronger wing" than the speaker. So suggests she played the game better than the speaker as she doesn't actually have feelings for the lord. This is shown in "writ in sand" her love is temporary. This could even suggest that Kate is leading the lord on now as he may actually have feelings for her. (shows women to be just as bad as men).
• Women aren't heroic as the patriarchal rule remains at the end. The women are fighting over a man the entire way through which displays men's power and women's pettiness.
• Women display a love of material things. For example Kate seems to only marry the lord for his wealth, this is shown in "lifted you from mean estate", "bought me with his land" and "all your clothes and wedding-ring". Kate shows aspects of greed. The speaker, despite what she says, also displays a longing for material things at the end of the poem. For example "give lands for one to wear his coronet"-the speaker is using her son to rub it in Kate's face that her son will inherit all the lords land and Kate will be left with nothing.

Conclusion
Overall you could argue that women are heroic in the poem as we see the narrator go on a journey to eventually prevail over the man, she grows strong and is raising a child alone which, in itself displays heroism. She is a fallen women with a plan and hope for the future. However I think that women aren't heroic in the poem to a higher extent. For example even though the speaker prevails at the end it doesn't symbolise women prevailing over men, as Kate gets left behind. So I think the ending more shows that women are not unified and so cannot prevail over men until they get along with each other. Also the whole poem focuses on the betrayal of the speaker by cousin Kate, so this isn't very heroic. Finally the women appear bitchy, snide and jealous. For example the speaker seems jealous of Kate's beauty "You grew more fair than I".  
Rossetti may have intentionally made the speaker the victim and Kate the betrayer to show her views in feminism. For example that women can't expect equal treatment from men if they can't even respect each other.