On my first reading of Goblin Market, it was easy to interpret it as a poem written for children. On closer inspection, it becomes harder to maintain this view. The text within this poem led me to believe this at first, with the use of repetition as such with phrases such as ‘come buy, come buy’ and the use of description for objects such as fruit eg: Bloom down cheeked peaches, Swart-headed mulberries and Wild free-born cranberries. It has all the elements of a children’s poem. It does however change my view when you take into consideration that the two main characters and sisters in Lizzie and Laura, position themselves in more sexually explicit situations.
When visiting the market for the first time, the ‘this is written for a young audience’ tone is still particularly persistent but the language in which this is so becomes rather adult. It becomes clear that Rossetti is attempting to merge the ideas of desire and temptation with the concept of sexuality. When it is taken into consideration that this was written in the 1800s and would be frowned upon to have written it openly, it begins to make sense that Rossetti is exploring the idea subtly and therefore leaves it to the reader to interpret her meaning. In this manner, Goblin Market becomes more of a feminist text with the exploration of female desires.
It also became a lot more apparent that she links the story to the biblical one of Adam and Eve. When Laura eats the ‘forbidden fruit’ and becomes immediately ill it draws comparisons to the temptation of something an individual isn’t allowed to have, and the fact it is so delicious doesn’t aid the idea of staying away. Alike the story of Adam and Eve, it appears that the sisters are located in a deserted place which consists of only them two, with no reference to other living beings other than the goblins. At the beginning of the poem (line 42), the line ‘We must not look at the goblin men, we must not buy their fruits’. This draws even more similarities with those of the Christian beliefs with the ‘we must not eat the fruit from the tree’ mentality.
The only major difference between the story and this poem would be the desires for sexual arousal that are particularly prolific from the opening of the poem. Line 35 of Goblin Market shows ‘With clasping arms and cautioning lips, with tingling cheeks and finger tips’. This immediately ignites thoughts of sexual desire and feminist ways, as this behaviour proves that as much as Lizzie wants to succumb to such powerful arousal, she is the strong one of the two. When the goblins draw closer, Laura escalates to the point where she must ‘have the forbidden fruit’ and pays with her ‘previous golden lock’ which also refers to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, and the referencing to these stories becomes more common.
When eating this fruit, Rossetti is once again considerably descriptive, and uses the phrase ‘She sucked and sucked and sucked the more, Fruits which that unknown orchard bore, She sucked until her lips with sore’. When reading this, it became immediately visible that this could be taken to be a reference of a sexual nature, although this may be due to the world of which we live now, in comparison to one of the 1800s, to which this may be a common occurrence (This is shown on Line 134).
The confusing bit of the poem would be that it didn’t take much convincing for Laura to be persuaded to try the fruit, unlike in Adam and Eve when the snake has his evil input into the situation. In this case, Laura changes her opinion simply by the sight of the goblins, and there is much of a sudden desire to do so. She doesn’t feel guilty by eating the fruit, but is rather annoyed at the fact that she has no more to eat. This could be portrayed as the desire for sex, and what could be seen as the female view of such acts in the 1800s. As much as Laura believes it is wrong to partake in such acts of a sexual nature, it doesn’t take much convincing but purely the sight of an attractive man to do so. The only frustrating bit in this context would be that the man has left, and her desire for more makes her ill.
The way in which this poem ends has surprising similarities to the ending of Adam and Eve. At the end of the biblical story, the two are forced to endure the pain of childbirth on their own. Lizzie and Laura are quoted to have married and had children, with the only difference being Rossetti’s interpretation of the two. Here, Rossetti replaces the man of the scenario with a woman, in aid to feed her sexual desires. It also gives the woman a lot more power than she would have been entitled to in the 1800s, with her being able to cure the illness and have her own sexual desires. This leads me to believe that Rossetti may have wanted to write a message within the story, along the lines of ‘A woman can be free to express herself in any way she desires, whether it be sexually, with either a man or woman’ in a world which was historically dominated by the male figure. Rossetti makes it clear that it is possible to be who you want to be without repercussions, and also makes it easier to believe that although this was written in a more sexually and explicit way than it possibly should have, it still has the makings of a children’s poem, with its morals, as well as it’s ‘happily-ever-afters’.