Because Goblin Market is such a long and complex poem – entire books have
been written about it! – I’m approaching this one slightly differently. The
full text is at the end of the guide. Below, you’ll find a quick summary of the
key interpretations, and some idea of the technical basis for this
interpretation, though there’ll be plenty more in the whole poem. You wouldn’t
be expected to know the whole poem, and if it’s named on the paper only a
section will be used, of course – but it’s worth really getting to grips with
this one, because it can link to virtually everything in the rest of the
collection.
While Goblin
Market can be read as a children’s fairytale -and Rossetti insisted in
public that’s what it was – there’s also far darker interpretations, and
privately in a letter to her publisher, Christina said it shouldn’t be marketed
to children – an interesting conflict to bear in mind!
INTERPRETATION: CHILDREN’S
FAIRYTALE
Morality tales for children were
very common, often quite twee or clichéd, with a very obvious moral towards the
end. Louis Carrol, in Alice in Wonderland,
mocked these when Alice has a conversation with the Duchess about finding
morals in other tales. Goblin Market can
be read as a fable for children in which Laura’s curiosity nearly causes her
death (and does in fact cause Jeannie’s), but in the end she’s saved by her
sister’s love and the two of them go on to have happy, loving lives. Moral?
Curiosity is bad, don’t look outside your world – but you can be rescued by a
loving family.
Evidence
•
The goblin creatures, common in fairytales, and
described in animalistic terms but at least to begin with not frightening –
more like woodland animals.
•
Relative simplicity of vocabulary and syntax
•
The balladesque narrative, which creates a
story-like quality, like a fairytale
•
The happy ending when balance is restored -
Laura and Lizzie are “wives/with children of their own” and warn their own
children
INTERPRETATION: SEX AND
SEXUALITY
“Curious Laura” explores her sexuality with
the Goblin men, who are at first animalistic but become more masculine as the
poem continues. She experiences it with pure desire and lust, but her
preoccupation with returning for more threatens to destroy her (link: Soeur Louise). Jeannie is the cautionary tale of a girl who
similarly experienced desire, and it brought her death (perhaps a comment on
the dangers of pregnancy and death in childbirth?) Lizzie, who remains stoic
and refuses to give into desire, saves her sister. Even though Lizzie experiences the fruit of the goblins,
she doesn’t enjoy it, and therefore is
in some ways the ideal virtuous Victorian woman (Link: Maude Clare, From the
Antique)
The poem explores rape and
masculine power, in the goblins’ assault on Lizzie as they “push their fruits
against her mouth”, for example; the men are wholly in control in this poem.
There’s also a glimmer of homosexuality (and therefore incest), when Lizzie
encourages Laura to “hug me, kiss me, suck my juices”.
Yet as ever with Rossetti there’s a conflicting
undertone – by the end, there’s no real difference between Laura and Lizzie.
They both marry happily and have children (the pinnacle of feminine success?!)
and so is this a protest that ‘fallen women’ shouldn’t be made to suffer for
the rest of their lives, as Jeannie is? (Link:
Winter: My Secret)
Evidence
•
Contrasting descriptions of Laura and Lizzie in
their encounters with the goblins. Similarities with Jeannie. Look in
particular a the colours and animal imagery of the girls (white, swan etc.) and
the way they move – veiled versus looking
•
Description of the rape of Lizzie
•
Happy ending resolution
•
Contrast of the two sisters’ actions
INTERPRETATION: PRESENTATION OF
MASCULINTIY
Probably the most negative of Rossetti’s portrayals of
men! The goblin creatures are animalistic, vicious and controlling – they exert
complete power over the girls they tempt. And they do tempt; it’s their calls that bring Laura in, then when they have
what they wanted from her they cast her aside, not caring that she is ruined (Link: From the Antique, Winter: My Secret).
Rossetti’s work at the women’s refuge made her angry about the double standards
for men and women – for women to be prostitutes, men must be buying their
services! They assault Lizzie viciously and sexually, and they take both a part
of Laura (her hair) and money from Lizzie, indicating that they take everything
from a woman, perhaps a critique of the marriage laws restricting property
ownership.
Evidence
•
Animalistic descriptions of the goblins
•
Goblins’ vicious, active verbs as they assault
Lizzie
•
Disappearance of men at the end – although the
girls are wives and mothers, their husbands aren’t mentioned.
INTERPRETATION: CRITIQUE OF
COMMERCE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA
The Goblins’ market cries sell
fruit, a rarity and expensive in the era although becoming increasingly common
with the improvements in trade, refrigeration and so on. There’s an abundance
of it, maybe even too much, suggesting a critique of the consumerism that
started with the Victorian development of the leisured classes, increasing
wealth n the middle class, and ways to display that wealth. Cities also emerged
in the era, and brought with them a moral panic and concern because of the
close proximity of a huge population, influx of prostitutes, criminals and
others considered to be an ‘underclass’, along with the movement of young
people away from the family home completely changing the landscape of family
relationships. Herbert Tucker has suggested that the techniques of the Goblins
when trying to persuade Lizzie to buy from them are similar to complaints made
about the rise of advertising in the era.
There’s also an argument which looks at the poem as a
critique of the marriage market in the era – what women can bring to a marriage
determining their value (Link: Maude
Clare, No Thank You John) Evidence
•
Abundance of the fruit which is “all ripe
together” no matter what the season, as farmers/grocers started trying to
manipulate growing times to suit a demanding population
•
Laura’s temptation to buy and buy
•
The exchanges – Laura’s gold hair, and Lizzie’s
coin
•
Listing of the fruits – chaotic, noisy and
aggressive
•
Repeated language of sweetness in the goblins’
allure – maybe a reference to the
growth of sugar by slaves in America as the civil war was continuing (although
this is speculative) . Juxtapose this slightly underhanded production with
Lizzie and Laura’s wholesome domestic productivity
INTERPRETATION: RELIGIOUS
NARRATIVE OF SALVATION AND SACRIFICE
Laura is humanity, an allegory
for Eve’s sin committed by seeking out the fruit from the goblins as Eve sought
the fruit from the tree of knowledge. When she obtains it, she is lost – her
sinfulness is shown in her lack of interest in life and loss of industry,
drawing on the Puritan/Christian work ethic, believing that hard work is a way
to praise God.
Lizzie’s self-sacrifice mirrors
that of Christ. As he was crucified on the cross, Lizzie is assaulted by the
Goblin men. She returns to Laura, and her words echo the Eucharist, the
sacrament following the Last Supper when Jesus said to his disciplines drink
this wine and eat this bread, for it is my blood and flesh – the ritual on
which Communion is founded. Lizzie’s feeding of Laura is a close allegory of
this ritual. (Link: Song, Remember, Good
Friday, Birthday)
Evidence
•
The listing of fruit (acknowledging too that the
fruit in the Bible isn’t specific as an apple)
•
Laura’s return – “suck my juices”
•
Self-sacrificing language describing Laura
during the Goblin attack
•
Redemptive ending: both sisters are saved
INTERPRETATION: WOMANHOOD AND
POWER
Sandra Gilbert has suggested
that the fruit is access to the artistic world – being sold by men and for
women to enter they have to give up so much of themselves, the worth is
questionable. Laura wants to be a part of
it but it destroys her femininity – her ability to complete the domestic and
moral tasks she is responsible for. Laura is creative and free, but that
destroys her, and she must learn to control it to be a responsible mother. (Link: Birthday)
The girls are portrayed as the
two sides of women – vice and virtue – although Laura is forgiven her
misdemeanours. A “happy ending” is the two girls as wives and mothers, telling
their own children morality tales. It’s perhaps a bit of a disappointing ending
in some respects as after such a dark luscious tale, the girls return to a very
stereotypical femininity. Yet Rossetti is a Victorian after all! (Link: Winter: My Secret, Maude Clare, From
the Antique)
Evidence
•
Description of the two girls as “maids”,
virginal colours, sweet and elegant creatures
•
The language of desire including enjambment when
Laura’s intense need is being described speeding the pace
•
Ending with them both as wives and mothers
INTERPRETATION: AN ADDICTION
NARRATIVE
The way Laura reacts to the
goblins is classic addition – she grows pale, thin, listless and loses interest
in anything else. All she can focus on is finding the next ‘fix’, the next
opportunity to see the goblins and get some more fruit. Jeannie, who went
before her, is dead of a similar addiction, perhaps through overdose. While
this poem pre-dates the addictions of Dante Gabriel and Lizzie Siddal, there
are striking similarities in the descriptions of Laura’s state post-goblin to
an addict’s withdrawal symptoms.
Evidence
•
Description of Laura as pale, thin, losing
interest in the world around her
•
The “juices” functioning as a sort of methadone–
a substitute used to wean addicts off the drug
•
References to Jeannie’s destruction, first
through what’s thinly veiled prostitution and then through death perhaps by
overdone.
INTERPRETATION: ELEMENTS OF THE
GOTHIC
The Goblin men are a typical
monstrous feature of Gothic literature – used as ciphers through which to
explore the monstrous nature of mankind. Whether Rochester’s supernatural voice
in Jane Eyre or the vampiric Dracula, the powers and desires of men
are frequently exhibited through otherworldly creatures.
The two sisters could also be considered doubles
– two sides of one person, a common Gothic feature (consider Jane Eyre and
Bertha Mason, for example). Laura is the darker, curious side, while Lizzie is
the good urges of women.
•
They often act
similarly but are described
differently e.g. looking / veiled her eyes
•
All the darker urges are in one, the selfless
natue in the other
GOBLIN MARKET: STRUCTURE AND
FORM
Meter:
Mostly written in iambic tetrameter creating the
rhythmic, fast pace – the passion of the story, as well as the iambic rhythm
echoing natural speech, as though this is a fairytale read aloud in the oral
tradition. However, there are many variations, interruptions and changes
throughout the poem for different purposes.
Most of the language associated
with goblins is dactylic dimeter – a sense of incantation and, particularly
with the listing of the fruits, speeds the pace further to add to the sense of
abundance and loss of control.
Lizzie shouts “no, no, no” –
interrupting the rhythm, as well as exclaiming to stop Laura
Laura’s physical illness:
“fetched honey', ‘brought water', ‘sat down') verbally indicate the way in which
Laura is physically ‘seizing up' as her illness takes hold
In the description of Laura's
recovery, spondees are used to give emphasis to the power of the antidote that
Lizzie brings her. The repetition of the same initial letters in the phrases
‘Swift fire' and ‘Sense failed' (lines 507-513) further increases the sense of
the rush of life that overcomes Laura as she recovers.
Rhyme
The irregular yet insistent rhyme
carries the poem forwards. The poem contains numerous couplets which occur
especially in its lists. This increases the speed at which the poem is read and
creates a rushed and breathless feel. For instance, by framing the goblin's cry
using couplets and triplets, Rossetti emphasizes its speed and draws attention
to its overwhelming nature as it overpowers listeners with variety and quantity
of description.
Repeated imagery
Roots and shoots, including the
fruit – searching for knowledge, the idea that the fruit/knowledge reduces
growth and fertility, and happiness.
Fruit – symbolic of knowledge
and curiosity, references to the biblical fruit as well as temptation more
generally
Hair – a huge cultural
commodity and very popular in the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood as a metaphor.
Hair was put into bracelets and necklaces as keepsakes and memorials.
Throughout the poetry of the period, women's hair has been variously depicted
as a weapon, a veil, a snare, a web and a noose. Laura’s exchange of hair for
fruit is also metaphoric of prostitution, handing over herself to the men.
Narrative structure
The poem tells the story from a third person
perspective, so sounds more like an orally-transmitted fairytale than a written
piece. It’s designed to be read aloud in that tradition. The atory begins close
to the centre of the action with the two girls seeing the market appear. The
height of tension is Lizzie’s travelling to the market and her
exchange/assault. The story is resolved when both girls are happy wives and
mothers, apparently fulfilled.
