More Goblin Market

Exploding with luscious imagery, Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" basically contains both passages that convey narrative details — but nonetheless include visual information — and passages that vividly create the mood of a scene almost entirely by means of rich visual descriptions. The latter passages represent distinct pauses in the progression of the poem, allowing the reader to rest in a moment and absorb the details that the author describes. These portions provide appealing imagery presented in language that heightens its effect. Thus, as descriptions of objects tempt the mind's eye, similarly alluring language draws the reader in, increasing the momentum of the poem even as the narrative action has halted. After succumbing to the goblin brothers' fruit, Laura describes the pleasures of the forbidden delicacies to her sister Lizzie, who has resisted the temptation:

"Have done with sorrow;
I'll bring you plums to-morrow
Fresh on their mother twigs,
Cherries worth getting;
You cannot think what figs
My teeth have met in,
What melons icy-cold
Piled on a dish of gold
Too huge for me to hold,
What peaches with a velvet nap,
Pellucid grapes without one seed:
Odorous indeed must be the mead
Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink
With lilies at the brink,
And sugar-sweet their sap."

Long sentences with an almost staccato rhythm characterize this and other instances of Rossetti's intensely visual passages (for example, lines 5-31). This passage listing enticing fruits gains momentum in several ways. By dividing a single thought between two lines, Rossetti forces the reader to hurry voraciously to the next line. After the words "You cannot think what figs", which build suspense, excitement, and a sense of anticipation, Rossetti waits until the next line to provide the highly physical and literal satisfaction: "My teeth have met in." She employs this same method in lines 180-181. In addition, rhymes provide aural pleasure, entreating the reader to luxuriate in the rhythm and sounds of the poem. Furthermore, Rossetti's this passage and the other visual rest passages rely heavily on an appeal to the senses, containing captivating descriptions of colors, textures, aromas and tastes.


Interestingly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations of his sister's poem do not highlight the lush images of fruit that would seem likely choices for representation. Although he gives the goblin's golden plate of fruit a prominent location in one of his illustrations, the fruit is only vaguely depicted, and the focus is instead on Laura's mournful action of sacrifice and submission to temptation set against a backdrop of goblins-animals with human limbs. His portrayal of the girls — clearly his main interest in the illustrations — departs slightly from how his sister describes them as well as from many of his other depictions of women. Christina Rossetti's language at the beginning of the poem evokes delicate, virginal young women: she describes them as maids and writes that when the girls walked near the goblins, "Laura bowed her head to hear, / Lizzie veiled her blushes" (lines 34-5). Later on in the poem, they together engage in domestic activities, including making "Cakes for dainty mouths to eat" (line 206). In both of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations, massive, muscular arms and broad shoulders take central positions in the composition. In the illustration accompanying lines 123-27, Laura has rolled up her sleeves before cutting her hair and kneels in a position emphasizing the thickness of her arms, the weight of her body, and the broadness of her shoulders. In the illustration to the title page, Lizzie holds Laura in a protective, comforting embrace, her left arm forming a massive barrier at the forefront of the image between the viewer and Laura. By contrast, many of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's female figures have slender arms (such as the Virgin in Ecce Ancilla Domini (1849-50)) and narrow shoulders (such as in Beatrice, a Portrait of Jane Morris (1879) and Lady Lilith).

Cousin Kate notes

A first-person narrative

The poem is told from the viewpoint of an unnamed narrator: it is a first-person narrative. This poem’s ‘story’ is that the pretty blonde narrator, who is from a humble working family (‘cottage-maiden’) is seduced by a ‘great lord’. When he tires of her he abandons her ‘like a glove’, partly because he has spotted another attractive girl of ‘mean estate’, the narrator’s cousin, Kate.

Because Kate remains ‘good and pure’, and doesn’t allow herself to be seduced, the lord marries her. The bitter (jealous?) narrator, ‘an outcast thing’ in her community, believes (or pretends?), that she has the greater happiness because she has the lord’s child whereas Kate is childless.

The moral tone

The moral tone of this poem is strange. Is Rossetti really suggesting, against the grain of conventional Victorian thinking and the belief of her own church, that the narrator is better off than Kate? Marriage was supposed to be at the heart of Victorian life and what every girl wanted. Think carefully about this and look closely at the poem for evidence.

Because there is considerable moral ambivalence in this poem Rossetti gives the narrator several oxymorons (two apparently contradictory words used together) Consider the effect of:

‘shameless shameful’     and         ‘my shame, my pride’

Consider the sexual significance of:

‘He wore me like a golden knot’

‘He changed me like a glove.’

Rossetti was quite unable to be sexually explicit, but does she make her meaning clear? If so how? Do you find it repugnant? Are you meant to?

Notice Rossetti’s use of strong verbs in ‘Cousin Kate’. Most are single-syllable words derived from Old English rather than from Latin or French, such as ‘lured’ ‘chose’, ‘cast’ and ‘howled.’ Do you think such lexical choices contribute to the poem’s bitter tone because they are direct and unequivocal?

Rhyme and rhythm

Study Rossetti’s rhyme and rhythm and work out why ‘Cousin Kate’ is effective as poetry. She could – in theory – have used the same subject matter as the basis of a short story.

What do you think about the six-verse/eight-line structure and the fluid rhyme pattern which become more fixed as the poem progresses and the narrator becomes more assertive? You will definitely need to comment on this in an examination essay

Questions to get you thinking:

1     What is the symbolic significance of the word ‘dove’?

(Remember: a symbol is something standing for something else such as the Union flag representing Britain or a wedding ring as a sign of marriage)

2     What do you notice about the sound pattern in ‘So now I moan like an unclean thing’? Look at the vowel sounds. Make sure you know what onomatopoeia is (and that you can spell it!) and what assonance is. What effect do they have here? How do they influence the way you think the voice is saying the line?

3     Whom does the narrator blame for her predicament? How does Rossetti convey this?

4     Victorian poets often resorted to archaic language and word forms. Are there any examples here and if so why are they used and to what effect?

5     The narrator is unnamed. What is the effect of this and how does it affect the reader’s response to her? By contrast Kate is named three times in the poem and once in the title.

Goblin Market notes

Plot and Major Characters

The story narrated in "Goblin Market" is often described as simple. Two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, who apparently live together without parents, are taunted by goblin merchant men to buy luscious and tantalizing fruits. Lizzie is able to resist their coaxing and runs home, but Laura succumbs. She pays for the wares with a lock of her hair and gorges herself on the exotic fare, but her desire increases rather than being satisfied. She returns home and informs Lizzie that she will venture back into the glen and seek the goblins again. But Laura can no longer hear the call of the goblins and grows increasingly apathetic. She refuses to eat and begins to age prematurely. Fearing for her sister's life, Lizzie decides to seek out the goblins in order to purchase an "antidote" for her sister. When the goblins learn that Lizzie does not intend to eat the fruit herself, they throw her money back at her and verbally and physically abuse her, pinching and kicking, tearing at her clothing, and smearing the juice and pulp of their fruit on her. Lizzie refuses to open her mouth and returns home with the penny in her purse. She invites her sister to suck the juices from her body, which Laura does. The juice of the goblin fruit now tastes bitter to Laura, and she writhes in pain from having consumed it. But the antidote works. Laura returns to her former self, and the epilogue of the poem describes Laura and Lizzie as wives and mothers. Laura now tells the story to their children, reminding them that "there is no friend like a sister."

Major Themes

Critics look to the language and structure of "Goblin Market" to identify the poem's themes. The argument for the poem's erotic and sexual nature is supported by the language of the poem. The nature of the goblins' fruit is extensively detailed and described as luscious and succulent. Laura consumes the fruit ravenously ("She sucked until her lips were sore" [1. 136]) and physically pays for it with a lock of her hair. Once Lizzie decides to seek the goblin men, their taunts carry heavy sexual overtones as well. First they "Squeezed and caressed her" (1. 349) and then invite her to "Bob at our cherries / Bite at our peaches" (11. 354-55), and to "Pluck them and suck them" (1. 361). When she refuses to eat, they "Held her hands and squeezed their fruits / Against her mouth to make her eat" (11. 406-07). Finally, when Lizzie returns home, battered and bruised, she invites her sister's embrace: "Come and kiss me. / Never mind my bruises, / Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices / . . . Eat me, drink me, love me; / Laura, make much of me" (11. 466-68; 471-72). This erotic language has been used to support readings of the poem as a sexual fantasy and an examination of the sexuality and cruelty of children. Some critics focus primarily on Lizzie's suffering and subsequent offering of herself to her sister, reading this not as a sexual advance but as a sacrifice similar to Christ's redemption of humanity's sins or as exemplifying the power of sisterhood in a secular or feminist sense.

The language of the poem is also filled with terms of commerce, economics, and exchange. The goblins sell exotic fruits to Laura, who pays for them with a lock of her hair. Lizzie attempts to pay for the fruit with money, which is refused. Such elements of the poem have been examined as statements about capitalism and the Victorian economy, as an exploration of the role of women within the economy and society, and, more specifically, as a discussion of the place of female literature within the economy. Some critics take this one step further and maintain that the poem represents Rossetti's own aesthetic theory. The theme of renunciation in the poem, demonstrated primarily through Lizzie's actions, is sometimes used to prove that Rossetti believed in the necessity of renouncing pleasure or art's gratification in order for poetry to have purpose or significance. On a more religious level, renunciation of pleasure is read as a means of achieving spiritual redemption.

The basic structure of the poem lends itself to a reading of "Goblin Market" as a Christian allegory of temptation, fall, and redemption, and some critics have contended that this is the main purpose of the tale. In this reading, Laura represents the biblical Eve who yields to temptation, and Lizzie is the Christ figure who sacrifices herself to save her sister. Yet other scholars have maintained that the sexual language of the poem compromises its reading as a moral tale. Additionally, some aspects of the poem fail to coincide with the allegory. For example, as several critics have noted, Laura's desire itself is never criticized by either the poem's narrator or by Lizzie, and Lizzie's act is not one of overcoming temptation or desire, for she never longs for goblin fruit herself. This, some critics argue, undercuts Lizzie's standing as a Christ figure.

Critical Reception

Twentieth-century criticism of "Goblin Market" is remarkably similar to its contemporary commentary. In an early review (1863), Caroline Norton wrote that the poem "is one of the works which are said to 'defy criticism.' Is it a fable—or a mere fairy story—or an allegory against the pleasures of sinful love—or what is it?" These comments reflect modern criticism, as "Goblin Market" still perplexes and inspires scholars. Perhaps the most common means of investigating the poem is based in biography. Most modern analyses of "Goblin Market" refer in some way to aspects of Rossetti's life. Some critics, such as Lona Mosk Packer (1958), suggest ways in which Rossetti's romantic relationships influenced the poem. Packer describes Rossetti's "intimate friendship" with William Bell Scott, and Scott's subsequent, perhaps romantic, friendship with another woman. By Packer's account, Rossetti's sister Maria may have informed Christina of Scott's new interest and "saved" her sister from misplaced desire in much the same way that Lizzie saves Laura.

Another biographical angle from which the poem is approached is that of Rossetti's work as a "sister" within the Anglican Sisterhoods of the Oxford Movement during the 1850s and 1860s. The work of the sisterhoods involved the reform of prostitutes and the reintroduction of reformed women into mainstream society. Critics such as Mary Wilson Carpenter (1991) argue that interaction with these women accounts for both the feminism and homoeroticism of "Goblin Market." Other critics suggest that the poem was meant as a means of cautioning these women about returning to their former ways. Additionally, critics such as Janet Galligani Casey (1991) suggest a more secular interpretation of "sisterhood." Casey points to the work of Florence Nightingale, and Rossetti's interest in this work, arguing that Nightingale popularized the notion of "sisters" as nurses. Casey goes on to suggest that, having been familiar with this concept and the fact that Nightingale attempted to elevate the role of nurturer (a traditionally female role) to that of the nurtured (a traditionally male role), Rossetti perhaps intended to emphasize that Lizzie heals or nurtures Laura and that the idea of "sisterhood" is really genderless.

One other way in which critics have used Rossetti's life as a key to interpreting the poem centers on Rossetti's involvement with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, in which Rossetti's brother Dante played a prominent role. The Pre-Raphaelite movement was primarily Christian in emphasis and was a reaction against both Victorian materialism and artistic neoclassicism. At the time of its publication, "Goblin Market" was considered to be the first major literary achievement of the movement. Dorothy Mermin (1983) described "Goblin Market" as a "vision of a Pre-Raphaelite world from a woman's point of view." Furthermore, Mermin supports a biographical reading of the poem in which Rossetti imagines a Pre-Raphaelite sisterhood which she did not feel existed in reality.

Finally, some critics have sought to synthesize various biographical aspects in interpreting "Goblin Market." Sean C. Grass (1996) attempts to account for the "commingling" of the influences of Rossetti's love affairs, her work in the sisterhoods of the Oxford Movement, and her association with the Pre-Raphaelites, through her writing of "Goblin Market." Grass emphasizes the importance of letting the poem point to the most "fruitful" ways of approaching it and identifies the use of lists within the poem as the "interpretive key." In his analysis, Grass finds that Rossetti experienced a conflict between her love of nature's variety and her belief that reveling in nature would cloud moral judgement; this conflict, concludes Grass, is the focus of "Goblin Market."