Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was an English poet, who was born in
London and belonged to a family of writers and artists. She began writing poems in 1845 and later on, she was often published in her brother’s Pre-Raphaelite journal
The Germ. Rossetti was very religious, which was reflected in both her written work and her personal life. She was engaged twice, both times the marriages were called off due to religious conflicts (her first fiancé converted to Roman Catholicism and her second love, not so much fiancé, wasn’t a Christian). Rossetti’s life was not an easy one, plagued by her own illness and her father’s. Her father’s retirement in 1853 put a lot of pressure on the Rossetti family to be able to sustain themselves and Christina reportedly suffered from depression during these hard times. This is perhaps why she, along with the other two Rossetti women (Christina’s mother and sister), became so interested in the
“The Goblin Market” was one of Rossetti’s most famous poems, which was published in her book Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862. This work is what ranked her among the most important female Victorian poets.
The plot of this poem is pretty extensive. It begins with the goblin merchants listing all the fruits that they have to sell to young maidens. Then, two sisters by the names of Lizzie and Laura are introduced, who go to the stream every evening to collect water. While they were collecting water, the girls heard the shouts coming from the goblin market trying to persuade the girls to come taste the goblin fruits. Laura was intrigued by the goblin merchants, while Lizzie urged her sister not to listen or pay attention to them. Laura, however, was too curious about the splendid fruits that the goblin merchants offered to heed her sister’s warnings. When Lizzie ran off home and Laura stayed behind, the goblin merchants came to Laura and tantalized her with their fruits. Laura told the merchants that she had no money to buy any of their fruits, but they agreed to trade some fruits in exchange for a lock of her hair and a tear. She passionately indulged in the in the flavors of the fruits and after walked home by herself. When Laura returned home, she was met at the gate by Lizzie. Lizzie reminded Laura the dangers of being out so late, warning her once again of the goblin merchants and the story of a girl named Jeanie who died after eating their fruits. Once inside the house, the sisters curl up together in the bed that they shared and went to sleep. The following day, Laura’s mind was too preoccupied with the thought of getting more fruit to think of anything else. However, when the sisters returned to the stream that evening to collect water as they usually do, Laura could no longer hear the cries from the merchants for her to come buy some fruit. Being unable to get more of the fruit and suffering from withdrawal of not having the fruit, Laura becomes physically ill and mentally depressed. One day, Laura remembered the seed that she brought home from her night at the goblin market and planted it with hope of harvesting the fruit herself, but nothing grew. Her condition got much worse over time, to the point where she stopped doing her housework and wouldn’t eat. Lizzie, unable to bear her sister being near death, decided to visit the goblin market so she could get some of the fruit for Laura. Upon entering the market, all the goblins got very excited and crowded around Lizzie, trying to get her to eat their fruit. Lizzie asked to purchase some fruits to bring home to Laura, but the goblins refused to let her leave the market with the fruits and insisted that Lizzie eat them there. The goblins became very hostile when Lizzie denied the fruit and began to try to force the fruit into Lizzie’s mouth. She kept her lips closed while the goblins covered her in fruit juices and pulp while physically beating her. Eventually, the goblins got weary and frustrated of trying to force Lizzie to eat the fruit so they went on their way, leaving her alone. Lizzie made her way home back to her sick sister and told Laura to drink the juices and eat the pulp off of her body. Laura does so and by the next day she was back to her old self. Lizzie’s brave actions to save her sister’s life made Laura realize the strength of sisterly love and the dangers of the goblin merchants’ fruits, and the poem ends with the two girls grown up, teaching their children these same lessons.
Christina Rossetti used a lot of symbolism in her poem. The two girls, Laura and Lizzie, were described as very innocent and pure; the part when the girls went to sleep in the bed that they shared (lines 184-198), Rossetti used words such as blossoms, flakes of snow and wands of ivory to describe them. She adorned her two characters with hair of gold, which was precious to the goblin merchants (hence why they traded their fruit for a lock of Laura’s hair). Even the part when Laura was being entranced by the goblin merchants (lines 81-85), Rossetti used words such as swan, lily and moonlit branch to describe the girl.
On the other hand, the goblin merchants were described as horrible little creatures. They were often referred to as evil and were portrayed as animalistic, both in looks and in actions. They made obnoxious sounds and touched Lizzie inappropriately.
There are three major archetypes found in “The Goblin Market”. First, Laura is portrayed as “The Innocent”, who is an inexperienced that is exposed to evil; Lizzie is depicted as “The Wise Old Woman” because she is “a character that assists or guides the protagonist”; lastly, the goblin men were the monsters or villains of the poem, since they were the antagonist characters.
(The definitions of these archetypes were found on the following website: http://www.peninsula.wednet.edu/classroom/robisonp/unit%204%20trad%20archetype%20list.htm)
This poem was written with so much emotion and passion in the symbolism and descriptions that it makes me feel that either Christina Rossetti herself or a female who was close to her had experienced some heart-wrenching wrong doing from a man. The women in the poem were glorified in their descriptions that depicted them as innocent and pure, whereas the men “goblins”, as they were referred to, were evil and malicious. It seems that Rossetti is trying to say that all men are this way because the only time a male character was present, he was a goblin. These goblins are who tempt the women to “eat the fruit”, which leads these women into a complete self-degeneration; the goblins are who corrupted Jeanie, who “dwindled and grew grey” (line 156) before she died after eating the goblin’s fruits. If these metaphors don’t seem an obvious enough reference to demonizing men as corruptors of innocent women, there is a very graphic scene where Lizzie went to the goblin market to get some fruits for Laura, who is already dying from having tasted the fruit, and the goblin men tried to force Lizzie to eat the fruit. This might at first not seem so significant, but the disturbing description of the “juice that syrrupp’d all her face, And lodg’d in dimples of her chin, And streaked her neck which quaked like curd” (lines 434-436) sounds an awful lot like a sexual reference, but more importantly an embarrassing and humiliating sexual reference. Such vivid descriptions from an author usually come out when one is writing about personal experience, which is why I believe that this entire poem was written to share the pain of a woman (that was somehow related to Christina Rossetti, if it wasn’t herself) being degraded and humiliated by a man.
