The Fallen Woman

In lesson we were talking about the fallen woman, who is a woman who has had sex before marriage and is socially cast aside in shame. We first read 'The Decieved Girl,' which is about a traditional fallen woman, who is shamed and called a whore and no longer a part of society because of this. We then read Cousin Kate by Christina Rossetti.
Cousin Kate is the story of a woman who falls in love with a Lord and sleeps with him, even though they are not married. She is then forgotten when the lord sees the speakers cousin, Kate, who is more beautiful than the speaker. He then marries Kate and even though they have both done the same thing (slept with the Lord,) the speaker is called a whore and Cousin Kate is called pure, because she is married.
Cousin Kate is different from a traditional fallen woman story, because the speaker is in power at the end, as she has a son who will inherit their families land and it is made out  by Rossetti that Cousin Kate is unable to have children. The speaker shows pride and strength at the end and she doesn't seem to be as bothered as other fallen women would be by what has happened to her. This is another feminist poem by Rossetti, which seems to be a running theme in her poems.