How does rossetti tell the story in the convent threshold Essay Example

could be her telling us of her sin, they reason she is repenting. We know that she is addressing her lover, so the use of this symbolism tells us that she is no longer ‘innocent’ and it indicates to us that the sin she is repenting is in fact a sexual relationship with her lover outside of marriage.

She also repeats the word “blood” quite a lot in the poem, which could be another biblical reference, but could also be another indication that she is either dead or dying. The setting of the poem is unclear. We aren’t quite sure whether it is set in a convent, crossing the threshold of the convent, on her death bed or purgatory. She says to her lover, “your eyes look earthward, mine look up”, this line makes us think that she is on the death bed. The way she says that her eyes look up makes the readers think that she might be lying down looking up towards heaven and that his eyes are looking down at her.

Line 16 is the beginning of her asking him to repent with her where she says “mount with me, mount the kindled stair. ” This may also mean that she wants him to go to heaven with her because she is struggling to repent her sins. Because she is struggling, she doesn’t want to give him up so she is asking him to go with her wherever it may be that she is going. Line 65, “only my lips still turn to you” also tells us that she is finding it hard to repent because she is still

enjoying earthly pleasures.