Goblin Market Literary Analysis

In the Victorian Age, society commonly saw a woman’s sexuality as an incredibly taboo thing to discuss, let alone write and publish a whole poem about. The majority of the Victorian society not only advocated the idea that “respectable women were not supposed to enjoy sex or seek it,” but also adamantly denied the fact that women were able to take on any of the roles of men (Goblin 103). However, despite what the majority of society asserted, this era was also the point at which progressive authors started to use their writings to contradict these norms (Goblin 103). Christina Rossetti avidly broke these social standards by taking components of the Pre-Raphaelite styles of this time and applying them to the female characters in her work (Goblin

The poem opens up with the goblins crying over the wide array of fruit they have. The goblins list “apples and quinces, lemons and oranges, plump unpeck’d cherries,” and many other fruits that they have to offer to whichever young maids are willing to buy (lns. 5-7). When Laura finally brings herself to buy fruit from the goblin men, she finds that she only has “a precious golden lock” to offer the goblins in trade for their fruit (ln. 126). Laura’s golden lock not only represents the real gold she does not have, but it also represents the “surrender [of] her body” (Rappoport). It is after this point that the reader starts to see Laura’s decline in physical and emotional health. Not only does the payment lead to her decline, but also the eating of the fruit. The reader can see the fruit as a specific symbol for “the biblical fruit that tempts Eve into sin,” or just as the overall sexual obstacles that women struggle with (Goblin 100). The implication that the fruit represents sexual sin can be noted in the way that only “maids heard the goblins cry” (ln. 2). Since the goblin were only men, and their cries only heard by women, it can be concluded that the fruit they offer symbolizes the sexual temptation that men impede on women that leads them “away from chastity and virtue” (Goblin 100). Both of these actions independently represent something else- the offering of hair representing the loss of her

Since Rossetti wrote this poem in a time period that often looked down upon independent women, the lack of a male heroic figure and the addition of a selfless, sisterly relationship give this poem its distinctive, progressive qualities. Goblin Market is not only vital to the Victorian era, but also to every generation following due to its ageless statement on the roles of women and the struggles within female