Laura's Temptation: Goblin Market 15/10/15

Summary of Goblin Market

Two sisters, Lizzie and Laura

Laura and Temptation

“Despite its Christian morality, Rossetti gives all of the dramatic and poetic power to the character of Laura.” Explore the way Rossetti depicts temptation in Goblin Market in light of this quotation.

Compare the ways Rossetti Presents Nature in her Poems 13/10/15

Compare the ways Rossetti Presents Nature in her Poems

Christina Rossetti was a Victorian poet who uses nature in her poems to express her beliefs on religion and mortality. She was a High Anglican Christian and therefore her beliefs did not conform to the typical Victorian Christianity so she represents her views of God's power through nature. Specifically, she often uses flowers to symbolise spiritual purity in poems such as 'A Birthday', whereas in poems such as 'Paradise: In a Dream' she uses trees as a symbol for religion. Overall, Rossetti's poems are heavily influenced by her strong religious beliefs which is shown through the way Rossetti presents natural imagery.

Do a quick introduction about what the whole poem is about. Describe how the use of natural imagery is used to represent royalty. Like how peacocks are always thought of as a royal blue colour. Talk about the column how Rossetti uses nature to try and symbolise how royal and powerful God is. Mention how "silver" is not a natural colour for a flower to be so she is uses hyper-natural imagery in an attempt to represent her deity. In 'A Birthday', Rossetti uses a metaphor to symbolise the holy trinity. She describes "silver fleurs-de-lys" which are lilies with three parts. This implies a religious influence as the three parts of the flower could symbolise the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Religion was one of the biggest aspects of Rossetti's life- she was diagnosed with religious mania after a breakdown when she was 14- so the lily, which is delicate and beautiful, could represent the three most important things in her life which she believes to be the most beautiful. Similarly, in 'Paradise: In a Dream' Rossetti uses flowers to express how she interprets God's teachings. She describes "the flowers that bud and bloom in Paradise". The noun "Paradise" implies that Rossetti is describing the Garden of Eden and the flowers she describes represent the beauty and purity of the Garden before Eve ate the apple. The alliteration of "bud and bloom" emphasises the perfection of the Garden of Eden and highlights Rossetti's religious belief that God is all powerful and capable of creating complete "Paradise" in Heaven for those who deserve to go there. Furthermore, the alliteration implies that while in her "Paradise" everything is perfect where buds grow into flowers, she also believes that Postlapsarian times are sinful and imperfect as she firmly states that everything is much better in the Garden of Eden than on Earth.

Rossetti uses similes in 'A Birthday' to compare nature to her religious ideals. In the first stanza, the persona states "My heart is like an apple-tree" and the simile makes the tone of the poem more playful and carefree. Furthermore, the noun "apple-tree" may be a reference to the Garden of Eden where Eve gave in to temptation and ate an apple off one of the trees. This suggests that the persona finds happiness through Christianity and Rossetti is encouraging the reader to find peace through religion like the persona. The phrase "My heart" is repeated throughout the poem and Rossetti compares it to numerous forms of nature. This suggests that her poetry is often influenced by nature and the religious symbolism in the comparison to nature implies that she is able to find freedom like she can see in nature through her religion. On the other hand, Rossetti uses the metaphor of a tree in 'Paradise: In a Dream' to symbolise the image of Jesus Christ. She talks about "The Tree of Life" in the fourth stanza which is the medieval image of Christ on the cross. The structure puts the reference in the middle of the poem which may symbolise that Christ was at the centre of Rossetti's life. During her life, Rossetti turned down three suitors because they did not have the same religious beliefs as her which suggests she put her love for God before anything else and these strong beliefs heavily influence her poems as she makes numerous religious references.

Goblin Market analysis 08/10/15

Goblin Market Analysis



Summer Analysis:

Christian Interpretation-

Laura represents Eve, the goblin men are the equivalent of Satan, the fruit is the temptation to sin and Lizzie is the Christ figure.

Laura sins by eating the goblin's fruit, which is symbolism to Adam and eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Boom of Genesis.

The long list of the goblin's fruit represents the wide variety of temptation humans face. Similar to Adam and Eve, Laura discovers that the fruit brings consequences.

Lizzie suffers the consequences of Laura's sin when she rescues Laura from the punishment of death, just like Christ. The red fruit that Lizzie tries to get Laura to drink is like the blood of Christ in Eucharist. Rossetti describes Lizzie as pure "lily in a flood" and that is why she is the only person who is able to save Laura's life. The sacrifice Lizzie makes comes from pure love and sacrifice.

Sexual Interpretation-

In the poem there are symbols of repressed sexual desire and of sexual violence. Lizzie and Laura are both innocent and virginal at the start of the poem, but Laura's curiosity proves to be stronger than her sister's warning.

Amongst words such as "sucked" and "heaved", Laura loses her youth and virginity by taking the goblin's tempting fruit. In Victorian society, a woman's deflowering marks her transition into adulthood as a wife and mother. However, Laura is not married and is stripped of her 'maiden' status prematurely.

For Lizzie, Rossetti uses language of sexual violence when the goblin men attack her but she refuses to drink the fruit. She holds onto her virtue in the form of the silver penny- an Elizabethan term for female genetilia. However, virginity cannot be recovered so Laura's redemption could be in the form of her reintroduction into normal social relationships as she is married with children at the end of the poem.

Darker Interpretation-

The motto "there is no friend like a sister" coincides with the feminist theme. It suggests Rossetti hoped to show even fallen women could find redemption, leaving the past behind them.

However, there is a darker interpretation due to the language referring to buying and selling. In Victorian England, women were expected to conduct themselves to a certain standard. If they did not, it led to their depreciation of their worth on the marriage 'market'. Unlike Laura, Lizzie heeds the warnings about the goblin men and safeguards her money in he purse, thereby protecting her virtue.

JSTOR Resources:

Two readers-

"modern marketing techniques have identified two distinct readers-child and adult- and produced different meanings for each"

For a child reading it, the language in 'the goblin market' makes it sound like a fairy tale.
But to an adult the interpretation has more sexual undertones.

Rossetti's Sex Life-
Some people believe that the sexual undertones in 'the goblin market' was not intentional as she was not married so she did not have sex and therefore could not have been able to write about it as she did not experience it <--- I DO NOT AGREE

Heroic Sisterhood-
There is a sensuous energy throughout the poem but a feel of serenity at the end. This implies it is not a poem about bitter repression but a fantasy of feminine freedom, self-sufficiency and celebration of sisterly love. It is a dream/vision of the Pre-Raphaelite world from a woman's view.

Class notes:

Selfhood-
There is a theory that Lizzie and Laura are actually two halves of one whole.This can be seen in the mirroring of their names 'L'. It can also be seen in the metaphor "Locked together in one nest" which could represent a sense of self and the way multiple selves co-exist or be "locked together" in one identity. Lizzie represents the public self of Victorian femininity and Laura represents the private transgressive self of Victorian femininity.

Lizzie Quotes:

• "Lizzie veil'd her blushes"- first mention of Lizzie in the poem. This implies that Lizzie was shocked and embarrassed by the Goblin Market