This poem actually makes a number of profound statements
about gender relations and also art and the depiction of women. However, you are right
in identifying the gender inequality between men and women to be a key theme of this
exciting and memorable poem. Key to understanding what Christina Rossetti is trying to
say through this poem is the way that the woman, who is obviously the muse of the
unnamed male artist, is used and abused by the painter. Note that it is "one face" that
dominates all of his work, "one selfsame figure" that is depicted in a variety of
different guises, whether as a "saint" or as an "angel." However, as the last few lines
of the poem make rampantly clear, that all of these paintings do not show this woman in
her reality, but only how she fulfils the fantasy of the
artist:
Not as
she is, but as she fulfils his
dream.
The meaning is
evident: women are not entitled to their own identity and existence. Rather, they are
dependent on men to be given that identity and stereotyped reality that is really no
reality at all. In a sense, we could argue that the artist/muse relationship is an
allegory for the role of women in Victorian society. They only have license and
independence in as much as they "fulfil the dream" of the patriarchal society in which
they live, that is able to cast them in what role they wish, but always denies their own
independence and reality. Women are shown only to be viewed through the male gaze that
objectifies them and disempowers them.
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