Goblin Market

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1862

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Morality: Sin, Temptation, & Redemption

While “Goblin Market” makes no explicit references to Christianity, its themes of salvation, temptation, and morality are apparent when looking through the work’s context. Rossetti, a devout Christian, often thought about the nature and requirements of goodness. Victorians also fretted over widespread vice and addiction. Many well-known Victorian values were rooted in the Christian faith. Rossetti peppers “Goblin Market” with subtle symbols, alerting readers to its themes. It is not a coincidence that the goblins list the apple first among their wares at the poem’s start and when Lizzie confronts the goblins.

Although Laura gives in to temptation, she is not automatically damned. Her actions do not change her intrinsic nature. Even after Laura eats the fruit, Rossetti still pairs her with Lizzie. The girls sleep in the same bed and possess the same purity. Rossetti compares them to freshly bloomed flowers, snow, pigeons, and ivory—all things either a solid white, fresh and beautiful, or symbolically associated with love. Nature protects them during the night. It does not stop because Laura has sinned.

Unlike the fall of Adam and Eve, Laura does not receive punishment from a higher moral power for her transgression. Instead, evil forces inflict her illness. The contrast between the natural world and the supernatural goblins re-enforces the idea of God as Laura’s ally. Sin and its consequences do not take place within a vacuum. They are often the result of external factors.

Even Lizzie’s strength and virtue come from within herself. She does not call upon God or a higher power before challenging the goblins. She confronts them because she realizes her sister is dying, not due to a divinely sent epiphany. Lizzie endures the goblins’ assault thanks to her restraint and innate physical strength. Her endurance is not on loan.

“Goblin Market” posits that morality and virtue are something inherent within people. Temptation and salvation happen within communities, which frames faith and morality as interdependent. Sinners can recover their buried righteousness, especially with aid from loved ones.

This idea contrasts with the more common and popular Fallen Woman stories. Even though the heroine only sins out of desperation, the narrative still punishes her transgressions with death. Laura’s illness is not framed as penitence or atonement as Lizzie’s actions cure Laura. Lizzie takes on a Christ-like role, sacrificing herself to redeem another. Because of her actions, the intradiegetic cautionary tale shifts from one of doom to one of hope and love. If Laura can choose to give in to vice and achieve redemption, anyone can find redemption.

The Nature of Choice and Self Determination

Two common exploitation methods are withholding something a victim needs and limiting their ability to function independently. In “Goblin Market,” the goblins take advantage of Laura’s curiosity. Once she tastes the fruit, Laura becomes addicted. However, the goblins then withhold the fruit from her. When she returns to get another batch, she discovers she can no longer hear them. When the goblins take away her choice, she withdraws, and her health rapidly fails. She becomes too weak to do her chores. She seems only able to pine and mourn.

The problem is not with Laura for choosing, as Lizzie also decided to visit the goblins. Instead, the problem lies with the goblins. They offer the fruit. They make the rules of the market. They attack Lizzie when she refuses to play by their rules by asserting her free will. Laura only receives the cure because Lizzie chose to help her sister, despite the goblins’ danger.

Rossetti opposed slavery and helped exploited and outcasted women. When considering these biographical details along with the text, Rossetti makes a nuanced point about choice and victimhood. Victim blaming was typical during the Victorian era. However, Rossetti arguably avoids shaming or judging Laura. She centers Laura’s feelings and Lizzie’s worries over her sister’s health. Rossetti seemingly proposes that choice is a virtue. Lizzie’s choice allows Laura to regain health and control of her body. Rossetti places the blame on the system—represented by the goblins—for allowing something as harmful as the Goblin market to continue.

The Importance of Female Community

Early in “Goblin Market,” Rossetti subtly contrasts her protagonists and her antagonists. Lizzie and Laura are sisters. Meanwhile, the goblins are a brotherhood. “Sly brother” works “with sly brother” to lure Laura into a false sense of security and enjoyment (Line 96).

The contrast between the sibling groups hints at the gender dynamics Rossetti wishes to expose. As discussed in the historical context section, Rossetti worked closely with female sex workers and “outcasts” at a local charity. Men simultaneously used and punished female sex workers. While the mass media acknowledged that many of these women went into sex work out of necessity, the male-led government provided no aid (Silvis).

Instead, they punished sex workers with forced inspections and hospital stays. Even though men were the primary customer base and source of sexually transmitted diseases, their “brothers” chose to protect them and preserve their dignity.

The goblins behave similarly (Weiss). They work to create a system that benefits and protects them. They take what they need from women and leave them when they become “ruined.” They use their numbers to overwhelm any potential backlash. Since women could not vote, they had limited avenues of institutional political power.

Because women cannot trust men to go against other men, Rossetti argues that women must stand together: “For there is no friend like a sister,” Laura advises her children (Line 562). One way that female solidarity manifests in “Goblin Market” is storytelling. Lizzie learns from the tragic tale of Jeanie and flees the goblins. She tries to pass this on to Laura, but Laura does not listen. Later, Lizzie uses the account to calculate her plans’ risks. She uses it also to remind herself not to let her guard down and the stakes of her mission: Laura’s life. The poem ends with Laura working her experiences into the story so that her children may learn that sisterhood is key to their survival.

Xenophobia and Fear of the Other

As the British empire expanded, xenophobia and racism among its citizenry increased. The British government justified its invasions of other countries by positioning white Europeans as the most morally and biologically superior race. White people believed they had a duty to educate and uplift all other races. A byproduct of this racism was the fear that these foreign cultures would contaminate and endanger the British people.

Although Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” does not directly deal with race, she still would have absorbed and engaged with her era’s literary tropes and cultural belief systems. Even if she did not endorse these beliefs, she could have unconsciously perpetuated them by uncritically using those tropes in her works. Arguably, one of the central conflicts of “Goblin Market”—us versus outsiders—has been often used to stir up fear of people of color. The goblins enter into the community and endanger local women with their gifts. The fragility of white women was often defined in contrast to the perceived brutal threat of Black and brown men. Rossetti emphasizes the sisters’ innocence by highlighting their whiteness. She calls them “two flakes of new-fall’n snow” and “two wands of ivory / tipp’d with gold” (Lines 189-91). The goblins even desire Laura’s blonde hair, giving the color to monetary and spiritual value.

The goblin men’s physical appearance is also highlighted. Their bestial traits place them as different from the very human sisters. Portraying people of color as animals is a common trope. For example, the Irish were not seen as white during the Victorian era. Editorial cartoons often gave them ape-like appearances. The goblins even attack Lizzie in an animal like manner, showing their appearance as an indicator of their internal character.

However, the goblins prove most dangerous in what they have to offer. Lizzie’s first rationale for avoiding the fruit is its origins: “Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry roots,” she says (Lines 44-45). Indeed, much of the fruit the goblins offer does not grow in England. The exoticism and novelty of the goblins’ wares seduces Laura. Both the fruit and the crown they offer are not like anything Laura has previously encountered. Rossetti re-iterates throughout the poem that fruits and crown cannot be found for sale in any nearby town. Because fruit is grown and crowns are made, they could symbolize another culture’s traditions, rituals, and products. As a result, the wares’ otherness is a vassal to sneak danger into the local community. Laura becomes dangerously sick after eating the fruit. Jeanie even dies after partaking in the goblins’ festivities when she “ate their fruits and wore their flowers” (Line 150).

Rossetti arguably positions familiarity as safety. Lizzie knows the stories about the goblins, which saves her. By the poem’s end, Laura becomes a proper English mother. She passes down lessons about appropriate conduct to her children, teaching them to shun the market (Hughes). Because the goblins exist outside of the familiar and known, they pose a danger. Arguably, “Goblin Market” intentionally or unintentionally upholds the British Empire’s propaganda. British mortality—as represented by Lizzie—overcomes dangerous outsiders’ strange and unfamiliar customs.