Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market Essay

Within ‘A Doll’s House’ Nora Helmer has a strong appetite for knowledge. This is particularly evident in her voracious longing for independence: “But it was great fun, though, sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man”. This knowledge of “being a man”, and what that entails, would be unknown to many women during the Victorian era due to the fiercely patriarchal society that was perpetuated. The desire for knowledge and its inaccessible nature is particularly evident in the lack of further education for women. In fact, in the United Kingdom the first widespread report of female further education was the Edinburgh Seven in 1869. Whilst that instance of knowledge was not destructive, in the case of Nora and ‘A Doll’s House’ her appetite for knowledge is ultimately catastrophic for the Victorian female ideal due to the secrecy she creates around it: “My husband must never know of this”. As a result of this concealment and Nora’s appetite for knowledge, the Victorian ideal unravels and ultimately becomes destructive. Likewise, in Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’ an appetite for knowledge is ultimately destructive for the characters within the poem. After tasting the “fruit” of the “Goblin Men” and becoming knowledgeable of the taste and effects of it Laura “knew not was it night or day”. This confusion of time and geographical

The goblin men are selling fruit that Laura eventually gets her hands on. As she begins to eat, she stops herself. The desire overwhelmed her to the point that when she did stop she “knew not was it night or day” (Rossetti 139). The fruit in the proceeding lines could be symbolizing drugs the goblin men were

However, as time progress, Laura and Lucy’s exploration of sexual desires and/or aggressiveness puts them in a spot of being down upon as they may face dishonor and ostracism from a Victorian perspective. In Goblin Market, Laura is enticed by the goblin men during a visit to the market with her sister Lizzie. Laura’s sister warns her, stating how “[Laura] should not peep at goblin men” (Rossetti 49). However Laura’s curiosity overpowers her sister’s warnings, as she is made unable to resist the luring of the temptations of the goblin men’s fruits. The tasting of the fruit makes Laura a fallen women. Rossetti describes Laura’s diminishing pureness by writing how “[Laura] sucked and sucked and sucked … / … until her lips were sore” (134-36). The fruits of the goblin men have sexual and sensual connotation to them, and Laura who was pressured into tasting the fruit was also unable to resist due to her curiosity and human desires, which changes her into a fallen women. In the Victorian period that Laura is featured in, women are expected to follow a standard of conduct, such as remaining a virgin before marriage. However, Laura is not married

Christian Rossetti utilizes a unique insight into her works of ‘Maude Clare’, ‘Goblin Market’ and ‘Amor Mundi’ to express the struggle of religious values of the Victorian era. Throughout the three passages Rossetti uses devices such as alliteration, repetition and symbolism in order to express sentiment.

In Goblin Market, when Laura is infected with the goblin’s poisonous fruits “her sister [stands] in deadly peril to do her good, and win the fiery antidote”. (Rossetti, 558-559) Evidently, the relentless bravery Lizzie illustrates when facing the violence and temptations of the goblins to save her sister’s life is used by Rossetti to provide an impression of power in female refusal to vigorous male

The Victorian period marked the first traces of progress in the feminist movement, and poet Christina Rossetti embraced the advancement as her own long-established principles slowly became publicly acceptable. Her poem "Goblin Market" comments on the institutions in Victorian society that she and her feminist contemporaries wished to see altered, creating modern female heroines to carry out its messages. The goblins serve as malicious male figures to tempt the innocent heroines, sisters Laura and Lizzie, to corruption.

Christian allegory of temptation, fall, and Redemption. Rossetti does this to challenge the decidedly patriarchal perception of norms within Victorian culture in terms of sexuality to reconstruct the Christian idea of redemption.

Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” proves the ways in which hair was prized as an embodiment of a woman’s sexuality. In Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” hair is used as a form of currency and a vehicle for giving into temptation, eliciting notions of Eve’s original sin. Furthermore, the poem bears resemblance to Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. An important similarity between these two is how each story is presented: through third person omniscient. This perspective evades bias and favors morality. However, in Pope’s

Coleridge’s definition of imagination consists of the imagination as the prime agent for all human perception. However, Goblin Market is a story that completely rejects the Romantics’ ideals of the imagination since it is a Victorian text. Thus, the imagination is shown as something associated with being evil and dangerous, which compliments the Victorian ideals while criticizing the Romantics’ admiration of the imagination. The initial setting of the tale dwells upon the nature taking evil and satanic forms due to the destructive tone of the imagination that contradicts the Romantic’s policy of nature being pure and divine in any form it takes. Basically, the initial setting of the tale takes shape with the aid of local folklore about the mysterious mythical creatures that appear with luscious baskets of fruits. The author builds upon this folklore by distancing the characters, such as Laura and Lizzie, from this weird folk culture by introducing the harm inflicted by these goblins on innocent, gullible young girls. Therefore, the author has already contradicted a central tendency of Romanticism, which is to root their stories in relation to inquisitive adventures regarding folk culture and myths. Furthermore, the term used for these imaginative figures is goblins, which is considered by the Oxford dictionary as “a mischievous, ugly, dwarf-like creature of folklore” (Oxford University). Once more, Mrs. Rossetti

82-85). Desire for the goblins’ exotic fruits proves to be too much of a temptation for Laura and, with her last restraint gone, she trades a lock of her golden hair for the treasures. Why does she shed a tear at this? It is merely a lock of hair, yet its implications are far greater. Laura falls from innocence as she sucks the fruits feverishly. Her act’s sexual connotations are clear as she “sucked and sucked and sucked the more” (l. 134; italics mine). The fruits motif’s importance is highlighted with superlatives such as “sweeter”, “stronger”, and “clearer” (ll. 129-131). This loss of virginity is surreal to Laura, as she “knew not was it night or day” (l. 139), and she wishes to remember this experience with a single kernel-stone from the goblins’ fruits. Can this kernel-stone be a symbol of a goblin’s sperm? As seen later in the poem, it breaks Laura’s heart when this seed does not bear fruit. The enjambment in Laura’s resolution – “tomorrow night I will/Buy more” (ll. 167-168) – clearly indicates how strongly Laura desires to again experience what the goblins have offered her.

Christina Rossetti’s poem, Goblin Market, was written in the Victorian era during a time of vast social change across Europe. Though the Victorian period was a time of female suppression and order, Rossetti exposed social stigmas and ideologies that are displayed through the journey of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. Despite initial impressions of a childhood fairytale, the suggestive and multi-interpretive use of language signifies an underlying message of erotic sexual commentary and feminist views. In addition, Rossetti conveys moral lessons by illustrating consequences of the goblin’s seduction. Through the sister’s experience with the goblins, the power of sisterhood becomes undeniable. Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market serves as a

One of the most common interpretations of the fruit is that it represents sexual temptation. Goblins are only men that sell their fruit at the market but only to "maidens" who hear their cry "come buy, come buy". Lizzie is aware of the evil men because of her friend Jeanie who ate the fruit and slowly passed away. Because of this, Lizzie tries to protect her sister and warn her about the goblins, "You should not peep at goblin men...Their offers should not charm us, their evil gifts would harm us.”( Rossetti 49. 65) Despite her sister's warning, Laura cannot resist the temptation. Laura trades a lock of her hair for the fruit, which symbolizes losing her virginity and paying with her body. “Buy from us with a golden curl. She clipp’d a precious golden lock ... Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red". ( Rossetti 125-128) Laura has never tasted anything like that before and soon she wants more, like an addiction. "Her craving for the fruit becomes like that of an addict, her inability to be satisfied causing her to be completely debilitated. She becomes "listless" (297), and unable to work because her hope of again eating the fruit is destroyed."(MPhill par 3) The "feast of fruit" symbolizes her transition from a maiden

Goblin Market, an 1862 narrative poem written by Christina Rossetti, also fashionably presents the theme of sisterhood even though the context of the poem is different from the one shown in Little Women. For the first century after its publication, many parents and teachers alike read the poem to children as a way of teaching them about the importance of sisterhood and sisterly heroism. Thus, Rossetti made the theme of sisterhood one of the poem's essential themes as a way of presenting a particular message to the community and the upcoming generations, especially considering that it was a period where women did not have a significant role in the society. One of the areas

Christina Rossetti 's poem "Goblin Market" is what many deem Christina 's best work. "Goblin Market" presents itself as rather fairy tale like, featuring of several strange things, a parade of mythical goblin men. In fact Rosseti claims to have written it as a childrens poem. However, many who analayze or many of those who have read this poem claim that the underlining themes of "Goblin Market" feature a host of adult themes. Of several of those are "a struggle between self and soul, a comment on sex as a capitalist commodity, a parable of feminist solidary, a lesson about poetry 's subversive power, and a lesbian love story" (Heather Henderson and William Sharpe, 2010, p. 1644). Although, these themes are all apparently present within Rossetti 's work, another theme that has not been mentioned is also present. Evident within "Goblin Market" is a signifcant focus on capitalism and industrialism. England during the Victorian era proved itself quite accomplished within the realms of industry, capitalism, science, and literature. There is evidence that as the nation became stronger, powerful, and more profitable, morality suffered. So, along with these many achievements, many individuals had crisis of religous faith, while a substantial focus on capitalist greed and social darwinism took center stage. A concentration of these social attutides and their consequences are featured within Rossetti 's "Goblin Market", in several areas of her poem.

Goblin Market was composed in the mid-eighteenth century, England; therefore, Rossetti’s poem contains the gender roles present during era. The opening lines state the type of characters that will be featured