Goblin Market primarily illustrates two sisters named Lizzie and Laura how they react in facing the goblin men who are demonstrated as wicked fruit merchant men. Lizzie is a strong, tough and straightforward minded one while Laura is very easily distracted by the temptation of getting the fruits. Lizzie tries to stop Laura from getting close to the goblin men but “its last restraint is gone” Laura can’t resist anymore and wants to buy them. Nonetheless, she has no money to buy but to take the offer from the goblin men-“You have much Gold upon your head” which I assume using her blonde hair or something precious in gold on her head in exchange with the tasty fruits. She got poisoned by the “temptation”. Lizzie is so worried about her sister so she turned away and goes to face with the goblin men to find out what exactly happened with her sister. Lizzie has one coin and she resists in giving to the goblin men. They attempt violently to force Lizzie to taste the “evil” taste. Luckily, Lizzie resists and is reluctant to open her mouth; however, the juice is all over her body. After that she went back home to see how Laura is doing. Laura fainted and has poisons all over her body. She tries to suck the juice from Lizzie’s body and fortunately, “Life out of death” Laura feels better after that and eventually realizes goblin men are the evil ones. Lizzie told Laura not to get tempted by them again. They both hug each other and are pleasant and this feeling has never been this clear. Lizzie says when they have kids in the future, they have to tell the “little ones” that do not fall into the trap by the goblin men and they should stay far away from the evil offer.
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti provides us with a tale of a pair of sisters with full of love and we can see from the story that Lizzie loves her sister so much that she can embrace herself to protect Laura. Love is the prime message shown in this story with no doubts. I found out that this sentence-“Men sell not such in any town” has been shown at the beginning and in the end. I think it is because the only men in the story are the goblin men which they are considered as the evil ones. It emphasizes the evilness of the goblin men and the “fruit forbidden”. To conclude, Lizzie shows her tough personality to the evilness. We can once again see it from “And heard her penny jingle, its bounce was music to her ear” which plays an important role in the whole story. She shows that she can resist the temptation and save her sister, Laura from the evilness. She loves her sister so much that she believes that she can bring Laura back from the bad and they can live happily in the future. There is one question-“Is it death or is it life” and it answers at the beginning of the next stanza provides us a clear answer-“Yes”. Laura is alive. ”Ah! Fool” proves that the way Laura is doing before is not appropriate. She at the end clears her mind and feels the great love from her Lizzie. She appreciates how Lizzie has done for her even she has to encounter the evilness. Love has pulled Lizzie and Laura back together and they now can face themselves without any hesitation.
I enjoyed reading your brief summary. It is really an intuitive and in-depth analysis overall. You managed to discuss all important points throughout the poems. I agree that there is a sense of romance, sexuality and deception here. For instance, when Christina wrote “Never mind my bruises, Hug me,kiss me, suck my juices, squeezed from goblin fruits for you..eat me, drink me, love me” (10). Almost in every pages she mentioned “kiss me”. Isn’t that she is being oblivious and over-sexuality?Like what others might have said in the other post, the “forbidden fruit” in the goblin is similar to the fruit of knowledge that Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. They are tempted to eat “special” fruits that reveals the truth beyond reality (expectations), in which it eventually leads them to fall in damnation. Similar to Jeanie, who died because of the forbidden fruit. Nevertheless, for me what lies beyond these contexts is all about deception. Many people are often deceived by love. Either it aims to satisfy personal preference or to hurt someone, being deceptive is a common personality for some people. In fact, Goblin, in the context, meant to be the evil-ish
It is a good summary of the poem. I managed to have a clearer picture on what is going on. You managed to discuss regarding love between the sisters and portray how men are portrayed as evil from the use of the term “goblin men”. However, I just want to point out that there is a change of perception in the story. In the beginning, both Laura and Lizzie had knew and unknowingly craves for the goblin fruits, hence able to hear the calls of the goblin. Due to Laura’s innocent and curiosity, she gave in to her temptation tasted the “forbidden fruit”. Eventually, with that experience, she had suffered deep pain. It relates to the difference from the relationship of poems from “the song of innocence” and “the song of experience” from blake, that it fortells two difference views of the story.
I really enjoyed reading your summary but unfortunately I did not really see a point. I like that you started saying that the “temptation” poisoned her. I believe you could have elaborated more on that. This poem could be interpreted in many ways. Just like I wrote on my blog post that this is a religious poem. I saw Lizzie as a Christ figure, she is Lauras savior. Lizzie seemed to be a more mature one from the beginning. She is the stronger one and she could resist the temptation. After Laura fell into trap and started slowly dying Lizzie had to go to the goblin man and endure all the pain and humiliation in order to save her sister from death. But in your blog post I think you could have compared “temptation” to Adam and Eve. Just like in the Bible Eve was tempted and ate a forbidden fruit. Laura definitely sounds like Eve to me, she is less mature and more naïve, or I would say very pure. She did not know any better. Therefore, just like you said, temptation poisoned her. If she hasn’t eaten a forbidden fruit she would have prevented her sister from going through all the humiliation just like Adam had to go through. Temptation is evil and it is all around us. It is easy to be tempted but sometimes I think that one has to fall into trap in order to learn a lesson and not make a same mistake in the future. Just like here sisters had to go through hell in in order to live happily ever after. I think temptation is a huge topic on its own. Technically, we all face temptation almost every minute of our lives and it is all about resisting it and making the right choices. Overall is a great post. I really enjoyed reading it. You were definitely heading in the right direction.
I really enjoyed reading your summary but unfortunately I did not really see a point. I like that you started saying that the “temptation” poisoned her. I believe you could have elaborated more on that. This poem could be interpreted in many ways. Just like I wrote on my blog post that this is a religious poem. I saw Lizzie as a Christ figure, she is Lauras savior. Lizzie seemed to be a more mature one from the beginning. She is the stronger one and she could resist the temptation. After Laura fell into trap and started slowly dying Lizzie had to go to the goblin man and endure all the pain and humiliation in order to save her sister from death. But in your blog post I think you could have compared “temptation” to Adam and Eve. Just like in the Bible Eve was tempted and ate a forbidden fruit. Laura definitely sounds like Eve to me, she is less mature and more naïve, or I would say very pure. She did not know any better. Therefore, just like you said, temptation poisoned her. If she hasn’t eaten a forbidden fruit she would have prevented her sister from going through all the humiliation just like Adam had to go through. Temptation is evil and it is all around us. It is easy to be tempted but sometimes I think that one has to fall into trap in order to learn a lesson and not make a same mistake in the future. Just like here sisters had to go through hell in in order to live happily ever after. I think temptation is a huge topic on its own. Technically, we all face temptation almost every minute of our lives and it is all about resisting it and making the right choices. Overall is a great post. I really enjoyed reading it. You were definitely heading in the right direction.
Aliya Adelman
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