Aubrey Beardsley created this illustration, A Young Woman Surrounded by Briars, Lightning, and Roses, as a chapter heading for J.M. Dent’s 1894 publication of Sir Thomas Malory’s text, Le Morte d'Arthur (500). Beardsley’s inclusion of briars and roses is a captivating element in this piece. When dissecting the implications of these symbols within the Victorian context, roses embody both sensual beauty and death, symbolizing the sinister forces that lurk behind this flower’s alluring charm. (Ramos 105). The scent of a rose draws admirers to pick it, only for the thorns to tear their skin as they clutch it in their hands. (Ramos 105). Encircled by these briars and roses, Beardsley invites viewers to contemplate the dual forces of beauty and peril found in this young woman, mirroring the act of picking a rose by allowing viewers to reach across into the dark undercurrent this illustration possesses.
Works Cited
Ramos, Iolanda. "A Not So Secret Garden: English Roses, Victorian Aestheticism and the Making of Social Identities." Gaudium Sciendi 8 (2015): 98-115.
Beardsley, Aubrey. “A Young Woman Surrounded by Briars, Lightning, and Roses.” 1894. Sir Thomas Malory. Le Morte D’Arthur: The birth life and acts of king Arthur of his noble knights of the Round Table their marvellous enquests and adventures the achieving of the San Greal and in the end Le Morte Darthur with the dolourous death and departing out of this world of them all. Vol 2. Dent, 1894. Internet Archive, p. 500 https://archive.org/details/TheBirthLifeAndActsOfKingArthur2/page/n7/mode/2up