Goblin Market Annotated

"Goblin Market," one among Christina's most sexual poems, contains various analogies to sexual appetites, however it's unclear whether or not she was aware of these sexual innuendos. As her need for esthetical fulfillment becomes a lot more intense, Laura takes on the characteristics of a beast, recalling the fate of many lustful figures. Rossetti permits herself the total freedom of her poetic gifts: her musicality, her visual sense, and her ability in each narrative and lyric modes. The sisters within the literary composition, Lizzie and Laura, square measure tempted by the witching and dangerous fruit the goblins sell as they trudge on the valley facet. Dantean pervades Rossetti’s work with themes of earthly love. That the guilty sister

Furthermore, Lizzie is also compared to “a royal virgin town” (Crump, I, 22:418) referring to the Virgin Mary, a royal figure of Christian faith, almost as much as Christ himself (Hill, 464; see also D’Amico, 74 and Peterson, Linda H. 219). This interpretation is perhaps rather hasty, and the comparison of Lizzie to Christ or the Virgin Mary seems conflicting with the sense of sisterhood that lies over this poem, and there is little else in the poem that would indicate a connection to the two spiritual figures. Furthermore, it is difficult to see the Christian imagery in this scene, since no symbols here are uniquely Christian. It has already been explained that the sisters are blonde, as well as beautiful, and the image of a beacon becomes more descriptive than symbolic. Moreover, there are other images “fruit-crowned orange tree”, “standard” and others that are not directly Christian, and neither does Hill, D’Amico or Peterson address them (Crump, I, 22:415-421). The “lily in a flood” and “rock of blue-veined stone” are not clearly Christian images, and they do not specifically refer to Christ (22:409- 410). Furthermore, the “royal virgin town” does not specifically refer to the Virgin Mary, and it is strange, to say the least, that this should be a natural connection. The sisters are virgins (maidens), and it is as simple an explanation as

Laura tells the story of the goblins and how Lizzie saved her, and how fortunate she was to have a sister to look after her. Mainly because of this verse in the end, the two characters of Laura and Lizzie have been interpreted as representing Christina and Maria Rossetti. I agree with this interpretation of Christina as the easily tempted, tormented Laura, and Maria as the strong, almost saintly Lizzie who rescues her sister from certain ruin. Christina did indeed think that she was dying much of the time of her youth and perhaps she thought that this was her own fault, that she was not good enough to deserve life, or that she must have sinned to deserve the illnesses she suffered from (Sawtell,