Blog Entry 2.1: Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti, “the youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics” (G. Everett) is considered to be one of the most important British female poets of the XIX century. According to Glenn Everett, she was so religious and strict to herself, that she would reject the love of her life if he did not belong to the same religious creed, she would give up on playing chess as she felt that she enjoyed winning too much, and spent later years of her life working for the House of Charity, “an institution located in Highgate which was devoted to the rescue of prostitutes and unmarried mothers” (Jason B. Isaacs). No wonder that one of her most famous poems, “Goblin Market”, is devoted to the issue of original sin and opportunities for reprieve.

The action of Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is set up in a small town. Two main protagonists, sisters Laura and Lizzie, are hurrying to get home before the twilight, when they hear the crowd of goblin merchant loudly advertising their luscious fruits. Lizzie is wise and obedient, she rejects to even look at the tempting fruits, covering her ears not to hear the goblins’ chanting. Laura is not as cautious, and after her sister hurries home, Laura approaches the merchants and accepts the indecent proposal to buy the fruit, paying with her golden lock instead of money. Never has her palate tasted anything as sweet, as juicy, as luscious:

129Sweeter than honey from the rock,

130Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

131Clearer than water flow'd that juice;

132She never tasted such before.

Since the moment she tasted the dangerous fruit, Laura forgot herself (“And knew not was it night or day”) and would thwart to her sister’s upbraiding as she returned home. She said, that the fruits were so good, that she would buy more next day and bring some for Lizzy to try. But next morning brought devastating news. Two beautiful young girls, who grew up together and were so similar in their happy days, so alike, grew very different as Laura fell under the terrible spell:

210Lizzie with an open heart,

211Laura in an absent dream,

212One content, one sick in part;

213One warbling for the mere bright day's delight,

214One longing for the night.

Laura’s golden locks turned grey and dry, she wasn’t enjoying her lovely youth, “turned cold, like stone”, “her tree of life droop’d from the root”. All she could think about was to try the fruit again, but she could not listen to the goblin men chanting as hard as she tried…

299Tender Lizzie could not bear

300To watch her sister's cankerous care

301Yet not to share.

Lizzie pluck up her courage and went to find goblin men to buy some fruit and relieve her poor sibling. As she would not accept the invite to share the meal with the goblins, they attacked her and tried to force her to eat their fruit in their presence, but

430Lizzie utter'd not a word;

431Would not open lip from lip

432Lest they should cram a mouthful in.

When the goblins gave up and vanished, Lizzie came home all soaked in the fruity juices. She let Laura lick the juices off her body (468Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices 469Squeez'd from goblin fruits for you) and therefore was rescued, turned back to life: her pain and anguish passed, and next morning “Laura awoke as from a dream, Laugh’d in the innocent old way” with “her breath sweet as may”. Many years passed by, the sisters grew up and got married, got their own kids, but would never forget the perceptive story from their young years..

The poem is highly symbolic, and without doubt is an interpretation of the original sin story from the bible. The various fruits mentioned throughout the poem (e.g. lines 5-30) symbolize the camouflaged danger (“554Their fruits like honey to the throat 555But poison in the blood”), and their diversity corresponds with the multitude of temptations throughout peoples’ lives. The golden lock that Laura used to pay for her enjoyment symbolizes the transfer of power, her life energy, to the goblin men (her hair turned thin and grey). The mouth, eating and later licking off the juices is a highly sexual reference, and can also be perceived as the process of becoming something else: (“What you are eating can symbolize qualities or skills that you are trying to digest and make a part of yourself” - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor). Gray color of Laura’s hair symbolizes her spiritual death. Lizzie’s closed mouth during interaction with the goblin men symbolizes resistance to the evil forces, to committing a sin. The fact that Laura got so sick once she tried the fruit juices again symbolizes that we have to pay for enjoyment by further suffering, and her further convalescence symbolizes hope for salvation and revival, but only through love and repentance.

Rossetti uses a few archetypes in her poem. Archetypes are mostly used to portray characters who are universally recognizable. Thus the poet does not need to describe the character and intentions of the goblins for us to understand who we are dealing with - once we hear "goblin" we imagine a wicked character, a perverted human with animal features, we know we'd better be careful around them (71-76). The archetype of the virgin maidens symbolize virginity, purity, innocence, naivety (32-40). Lara's behaviour lets her shadow out - her dark, disobedient self - as she contradicts what she knows and does what her desires make her do: eat the forbidden fruit (126-127).

I consider the poem to be an excellent story for the kids, that the adults could inherit from as well. An interesting and unusual take on the story of the original sin, Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" offers a happy ending, which gives us hope to get back to the lost paradise and promotes sibling love that can break any spell.

Works Sited:

bellaonline.com/articles/art10574.asp - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor
2. http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30246.asp - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor
3.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio.html - Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English
4.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio1.html - Jason B. Isaacs