For this blog entry I will be working on Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market. Rossetti was a well known English poet during the Victorian Era. She was born in London on December 5, 1830. Raised by an Italian family, Rossetti was one of four children to Gabriele and Frances Rossetti. She was educated at home by her mother Frances and just like her parents, Rossetti had a strong interest in poetry. In 1842, Rossetti’s first verse was written. Around the 1880’s she was diagnosed with a serious illness called Graves. Because of this illness she rarely went outdoors, but it didn’t stop Rossetti from writing poems. She is well known for her ballads. Rossetti is also considered by many to be one of the most prominent Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market is about two sisters named Laura and Lizzie, as well their altercation with the goblin men. The goblin men in the poem are described as half man and half animal. This is shown through lines seventy-one to- seventy six:
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 skurry.
Since the start of the poem, the goblin men tempt both Lizzie and Laura into buying their fruits with chants. This is shown in line three.
Come buy our orchard fruits,
Though the goblin men don’t fool Lizzie because she acknowledges that these goblins are evil and therefore avoids them. The same doesn’t go for Laura. Lizzie warns Laura to not look at the goblin, but despite Lizzie’s warning, Laura's curiosity for the goblins takes over. The goblin men got into Laura’s mind and she becomes tempted to eat their fruits, though she doesn’t have any money to pay for them. So in exchange Laura trades her golden hair for the goblins fruits. Once Laura eats the apple she experiences a moment of ecstasy, this can be found through lines 129 to136. By eating the fruits she forgets her current state of mind. When Laura returns home, Lizzie informs her about Jeanie and her encounter with the goblin men. Her meeting with the goblin men led to her death, but Lizzie’s story comes a little too late as Laura has already accepted the goblin men’s fruits. The next day, Laura becomes aware that she cannot see the goblins, which meant that she could no longer receive the fruits that she so much enjoyed the day before. Without these fruits she becomes depressed and ill, Laura slowly begins to die. In order to save Laura, Lizzie figures that she might be able to save her if she buys the fruits from the goblin men. So she takes a coin and heads off to the goblins as she is the only one who can still hear their chants. When Lizzie encounters the goblin men, they force Lizzie to eat the fruits as they want to have a feast with her, but she refused. The goblin men get angry and attack Lizzie and they force her to eat their fruits. But Lizzie stays strong and refuses to eat their fruits. The fruit juice then spills all over her body, she then quickly goes and takes some of the juice for her sister. The fruit juice cause Laura to return to her normal healthy condition. The sisters then happily become married to their husband and tell their kids about their encounter with the goblin men. They also explain on how their sisterhood was able to defeat the evils of the goblin men.
There are a lot of symbols found in Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market. I assume that Rossetti wanted to explain her readers on the struggle of men with temptation by writing this poem. I believe she did that by writing it similar to a fairy tale and using the characters and objects as symbols to explain the human problem. The first symbol I came across was found in the poem’s title. In the poem the goblins are symbols of evil. Goblins from what I am aware of are described in literature as villains, troublemakers and pranksters. Throughout most of the poem the goblins try to get the two sisters into buying their fruits with their chants. This can be found mainly throughout the poem like in lines 3 and 4:
Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, Come buy
The goblin men chant can also be a symbol of temptation. The goblin men tempted both Lizzie and Laura to consume their fruits with their chants.
Another symbol found in the poem is the fruits. In the poem the goblin men offered both Lizzie and Laura fruits. This can be found in lines five to fourteen.
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and orranges,
Plump upeck'd cherries,
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-doom-cheek'd peaches
Swart-headed mulberries
Wild free- born cranberries
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots strawberries;
In the mythical world fruits are supposed to represent man’s temptation to sin, and Laura acknowledges the goblin men fruits as bad in lines 65 and 66.
Their offers should not charm us
Their evil gifts would harm us.
Lizzie’s golden hair is also another symbol in the poem found in lines 125 to 127:
“Buy from us with a golden lock,
She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
She drop’d a tear more rare than pearl
Lizzie’s golden hair represents her innocence, which be could resemble her virginity. Gold is considered to be very valuable among jewels, and the fact that the goblin accepted Lizzie’s hair after knowing that Lizzie doesn't have any money for the fruits is beyond bizarre. Money is also considered to be an item that we need in life. This can only imply that Lizzie’s golden hair must be more valuable than money. What made me think that her golden hair represents her virginity are the sexual actions that are found in lines 128 to 136.
Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red:
Sweeter than honey from the rock
Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
Clearer than water flowed that juice;
She never tasted such before,
How should it cloy with length of use?
She sucked and sucked and sucked the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore,
She sucked until her lips were sore;
The Goblin men, Lizzie, Laura, and Jeanie, all have different archetypes. Lizzie in the poem can be seen as human conscience, the part inside us that knows right from wrong. Lizzie can also be viewed as a heroic character that manages to resist temptation from the goblin men. She is a person who we would all like to be in life. While, Laura can be seen as a human flaw. In this poem, the human flaw is men’s struggle against desire and curiosity, it’s what we struggle as humans. The Goblin men can be characterized as evil such as the devil himself, who harms and targets the innocent. Lastly, Jeanie represents the consequence made by the human temptation. In the poem she couldn’t resist the temptation of the goblin men, which results in her ultimate death.
In conclusion, Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market kind of reminds me of the story about Adam and Eve, when human curiosity of the unknown leads to temptation. I think that this poem is about the struggle we humans have among ourselves, as well as the struggle throughout mankind between good and bad. In the poem Lizzie is representing the human good, while Laura is representing the bad. The good being our conscience and the bad being our temptation. What I think Rossetti’s message was throughout the poem is that we must say no to our temptations and desires even when it seems impossible.
