Maude Clare - Notes

Summary- Maude Clare was in love with a man who she couldn't marry because he was of a different social class to him even though she is like a 'queen' to him.
He marries someone else through an arranged marriage and Maude Clare interrupts the wedding.

Nell

She feels superior to Maude Clare, 'Me best of all Maude Clare'
Is jealous of Maude Clare because her husband wants Maude Clare and not her.
Is satisfied that she's married and that she's secured her future by marrying someone with wealth, which Rossetti uses to show the shallowness of arranged marriages and how they are not for love but for wealth and status.

She rubs it in Maude Clare's face by saying that even though she's 'more wise and much more fair', she's better because she married the Lord. Rossetti does this to show how poeple use thier status and social standing to distract from their flaws and insecurities, and also use them to feel superior to others.


Nell also gets the last word, showing how she has more power than Maude Clare due to her status.

The Lord

The Lord as a character is more of a title than a character.
He reperesents how even though you may have a title and social standing, it does not mean that you have control over your life and don't have to obey society's expectations of you.

The Mother

Starts off as quite proud at the fact that her son has reinforced thier social status, and is not interested in the fact that he may not be happy with Nell, which is how Rossetti agains shows that shallowness of marriage.
There's a hint that she went through the same thing, 'your father thirty years ago had just your tale to tell' and he didn't love her but someone else who he couldn't marry.
Rossetti uses the mother to show how deep these kinds of loveless marriaged run through victorian society.

Maude Clare

She rises above the fact that she isn't able to get her own way.
She may be saying that Nell doesn't have a heart and so should take hers, 'Take my share of a fickle heart, mine of paltry love.
Maude Clare could be a represntion of Rossetti, swowing how she want to disrupt order.




The Lord's mother speaks first, showing how hse is trying to influence what happense and is trying to control her son, representing society's expectaions of what he should do and how is is controlling his decisions. She also represents the aritstocratric part of society.
Maude Clare speaks secons to help show how she has disrupted the wedding by interrupting the mother. This also shows the amount of power she has depite her class.
The Lord speaks third, showing how even though he is the one with the title and the power, he doesn't have much authority or control over what is happening.
Nell speaks last and has the final word, showing how she comes out of it above Maude Clare and gets her way in the end, despite how everyone else feels.