ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the most problematic aspects of Rossetti's work, which deals with identifiably contemporary Victorian subjects. Rossetti's tacit acknowledgment of the possibility the girl will do 'herself a hurt' situates this painting and sonnet pair within the discourse of suicide that proliferated in Victorian novels as well as the popular presses. While the provenance of this unfinished painting as well as its symbolism has been discussed by several critics, the chapter seeks to locate Rossetti's contemporary work within the discourses of written and visual representations of fallen women, prostitution, and suicide so recognizable to the Victorian reading public from cheap periodical presses and novels. Reading Rossetti's urban texts through and against popular fictional representations of these narratives, the chapter examines the ways in which his work adapts the recognizable tropes associated with them while problematizing the assumptions surrounding the representation of prostitution and the fallen woman in Victorian culture.
