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Goblin Market

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One of the key methods of story telling used by Rossetti in the Goblin Market is through the

setting of the poem. The audience as easily imagine the "Goblin Market" being the main setting

for the poem. This portrays a fictiscious location that really enhances the fairytale theme that

has been adapted by the poem. The reader can see this through the use of "Goblin" as they

play a major part in the poem as the story progresses. Additionally the "market" insinuates a

very materialistic world that the two characters are a part of. It highlights the capitalistic that

places great emphasis on the emerging consumer society in the Victorian era. The idea also

holds moral implications as "soul consuming care" illustrates the biblical …show more content…

The use temptations and consumption of so many exotic fruits

in the opening could also be used to show the ways in which the market is a paragon of

temptation.

Rossetti shows the narrator to be very omnipresent in the story through the use of the third

person narrative of "said". A third person narrative gives the story a very distant perspective,

therefore giving a subjective point of view to the story. The use of past tense highlights the idea

of a flashback and retrospect that the narrator uses to enhance the childlike essence of the

poem. There is also the use of the rhyme meter used by the voice of the narrator presents the

mythical and enchanted theme of the poem. Another running theme of the poem is the way the

structure reflects the patronising tone of the narrator. The rhyme meter gives the poem the

edge of the tone that is very appropriate for the main audience of young children. However, the

condescending tone is used to mock the older audience as it is treating the sector of the society

to be childlike with very immature behaviour wihile behaving as children.

There is a heightened use of the theme of sisterhood and the question of appropriateness in …show more content…

This creates a great deal of concern with the idea of 'the

body maybe used in the service of the closest Union of God and man'. However, the

sexualisation of the characters that gives this poem a greater amount of uniqueness over the

rest of Rossetti's poems.

Moreover, the narrator has introduced three main characters of the sisters, Laura and Lizzie,

along with the goblins representing the antagonists in the story of the poem. The goblins are

the only male characters in the poem and are anthropomorphic, which is an interesting twist on

Rossetti's poems. They are presented as very demonic and vile creatures thus contradicting

the fairytale like setting of the poem and presenting a moral for children from the very outset of

the poem. This vile characterisation of the goblins illustrates a very vivid image of "tramped at a

rat's pace", "wombats" and "snail". These minuscule creatures are often synonymous to filthy

and disgusting locations rather than one in a children's stories. Furthermore, the goblins also

represent biblical references to the Book of Genesis which does embody the idea of the

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