The “Goblin Market” poem, by Christina Rossetti, heavily symbolizes religion with its goblin, fruit, and the two sisters’ presentation. Rossetti describes two sisters Lizzie and Laura as very close sisters, who live alone without their parents. After Lizzie tried fruits that goblins sell she yearns to try them again. These fruits become like drugs for her and she cannot stop thinking about them. Desire to try those fruits cannot be satisfied which leads her to depression and slow death. I believe that fruits in this poem symbolize different types of sins like adultery, lies, murder, stealing, and greed. Once person commits sin he or she cannot stop herself/himself from repeating it again. Taste of doing it is so sweet that it becomes difficult to resist it. Fruits that goblins offer are described as sweet and delicious, that once you try one you want to eat them forever: “Sweeter than honey from the rock/Stronger than man-rejoicing wine/Clearer than water flowed that juice”.
I found interesting that not every one can hear goblins. The poem notes that only maids can hear goblins cry, which can be interpreted as maid being innocent, not tainted with sin.
“Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry”
Goblins are described as devils that lure innocent maids to commit a sin.
Rossetti also shows the power of sisterly love. Lizzie’s love was proven in action. After Lizzie noticed that her sister Laura is dying, she sacrifices herself and let goblins humiliate her in order to save her sister:
“Though the goblins cuffed and caught her,
Coaxed and fought her,
Bullied and besought her,
Scratched her, pinched her black as ink,
Kicked and knocked her,
Mauled and mocked her”
This scene shows Lizzie’s love and care of her sister, Laura. Since Lizzie doesn’t try goblins fruit she is free from addiction, and she can resist goblins attack.
Also I found interesting the way Rossetti describes images of goblins. In this poem they are described as devils.
“Their tones waxed loud,
Their looks were evil.
Lashing their tails”
I really like the way Rossetti describes every detail of their appearance:
“One had a cat’s face,
One whisked a tail,
One tramped at a rat’s pace,
One crawled like a snail,
One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,
One like a ratel tumbled hurry-scurry”
Images in this poem play important roles. When I start reading this poem I imagine goblins as little cute creatures, resembling gnomes. However, Rossetti shows them as ugly and weird creatures with ugly face. Which give us a hint that those goblins are bad.
In conclusion I want to say that everyone has a choice in this life. Like two sisters, both of them had choice whether try fruits or not, as it can be compared to committing sins or not. Each chose her own way and bore appropriate consequences.
Svetlana Pak
I totally agree with Pak on certain ideas such as the description of goblins as evil, the power of sisterhood, and her conclusion that everyone has a choice in life. Nevertheless, I understood the poem in a slightly different way. I believe that this poem is about the degradation of men and the superiority of women which serve as a counterargument to the old societal understanding of women as inferior beings.
In the poem, Jeanie who had “joys brides hope to have” with the goblin merchants became sick and died. This made me think that Jeanie who was a bride and supposed to maintain her virginity might have had a sexual relationship with other men and therefore was ditched by her groom and isolated and punished by her community, all of which were possible in the old days. With this viewpoint, I approached the poem and viewed the goblins as men and fruit as either love or sex. Indeed, the poem says that “the evil people” gave up on feeding Lizzie due to her strong resistance (line 16, paragraph 3, page 9).
At the beginning of the poem, Laura fell for the tempting cries of the goblin merchants. She “sucked their fruit globes fair or red” and “sucked and sucked and sucked the more”. These sexual indications depict that Laura willingly had a sexual relationship and fell victim to love. It is men’s tendency to lose their interest in girls once they made love. So Laura now can no longer hear the alluring cries of men and feels depressed. And Lizzie who sought to reinvigorate her sister ended up being raped; the goblins “squeezed and caressed her”, “tore the gown and soiled her stocking”, and “Stamped upon her tender feet”. In addition to these sisters’ sexual experiences, the poem describes the goblins’ (or men’s) inclination to turn to violence once their desires cannot be satisfied (at the bottom of page 8). All of these from my viewpoint are to degrade men’s quality. Consequently, this understanding leads to the superiority of women as the sisters overcome the hardship derived from the unpleasant relationship with men and live to tell their offspring about the importance of sisterhood.
From the first stanza of the poem It seems Rossetti wrote a fairytale for children. But reading further we understood it is a fairytale for adult. I want to agree with Svetlava, that Rossetti used the religious themes in her poem. The context of the poem is based on the religious background, which was adopted from the bible. It reminded me a story about the first human sin, where a snake from an apple tree asked Eva to eat a delicious fruit form the tree what was prohibited by God. The numerous quantities of different fruits and berries symbolically represent a subject of human’s temptation, of pleasure and desire. The main characters, two sisters, represent humans as Adam and Eva from the Heaven. Finally, Goblins symbolizes the bible’s devil as the snack that can communicate with anybody, very cunning and “sweet” in speech.
“They sounded kind and full of loves
In the pleasant weather.”
However, we all know what happened with one of the sisters that ate the fruits. Her death was not completed but symbolically tells us that it is the first step to Devil’s trap like it happened with Eva. She was embarrassed of her nudity after the eaten apple and offered it to Adam that also forgot about God’s law. But all these sound as allegory to the sexual desire of people.
From this point I agree with Jun Ho and the first sin, an eaten apple by Eva as well as eaten fruit by one of the sisters represent the first sex desire of human that was for pleasure of the body, to feed the body and mind. It was a symbol people’s desires that have to be controlled by mind. It tell us we have to manage our desires but we all have a choice…And to full enjoy and get a pleasure we need to think twice what we can sacrifice for this pleasure of the life.
Anna Kapitsa
I also agree with pak in certain way, like the sisterhood but I don’t think it is about choice and committing sin or not. It sounds more like the author chooses to use the theme of sisterhood to show the reader the nature of the society during the Victorian era to me. The Goblin are enticing because they even offer their sweet fruits for free especially to ladies. Laura ends up being enticed by the Goblet men and accepts to eat the fruits they offer her for an exchange of a lock of her hair. Eventually, Laura becomes ill. The theme of sisterhood emerges when Lizzie does the brave act of going to the market and finding out what it is that the Goblin men did to her sister Laura. The author tells us that to heal Laura, Lizzie sucked the juices from Laura’s face. Lizzie actually braves being used by the Goblin men in order for her to get a cure for her sister Laura. This is truly an act of sacrifice that brings out the theme of sisterhood. The author writes this poem during the Victorian era when women still did not have the power to air out their views concerning issues in the society (Rossetti 13). In the poem “Goblet Market” Christina Rosetti presents a radical and new idea during a time when self-expression was considered to be controversial. During the Victorian age self-expression was considered to be unconventional. However, Rosetti manages to boldly bring out several aspects during this time that touch on the issue of self-expression. In the poem Laura expresses her desires to respond to the requests by the Goblins to buy their products. Although Lizzie is adamant and opposes the ideas presented by Laura, Laura still manages to buy the products being sold by the Goblins. In essence, the poem explains the plight of the Goblins and how they perceived the other classes. The Goblins were considered to be of a lower class and Laura and Lizzie were adamant to engage in any dealings with them. However, the author brings into perspective some notions that support emerging ideas. In essence, Rosetti manages to outline various modernism ideas.
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