On Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”
ENGL 221-001: Dr. Jennifer Gustar
March 21st, 2022
Anthony H. Harrison
● Remarks the “fear and sublimation of female sexual desire and the insistence upon the
dangerous, if not fatal, effects of its indulgence.”
● Also connects Rossetti’s “illness” with Victorian “ideology” about womanhood.
● Claims that her religious devotion ‘because a surrogate, and, within her cultural milieu,
acceptable channel for the expression and fulfillment of [erotic] desires fundamentally
sexual in origin.” (424)
○ The ideology around womanhood is really strange.
Feminist Readings
● The importance of literal and ideational sisterhood (Lizzie’s self-sacrifice is Christ-like)
● The redemption of the “fallen” woman (a woman whose virginity is taken away)
○ Suggests that the “fallen” woman can be redeemed
● The exposure of the cash and trade barter in women
○ The silver coin for the fruits of sex (dangerous towards woman at this time)
○ Women exchanged in marriage for relationships that secure property (trade)
● The exposure of sexual violence towards women, coercion (through the goblins)
● Affirmation of female sexual desire
○ Any representation of female sexual desire in this time is unusual
○ Perhaps unintentionally, Rossetti is speaking in a way that is respectful of and
even supportive of the expression of sexual desire
○ Story returns to a fairly normal ending (motherhood)
Goblin Market
● The first part of the poem comes to us innocently and quietly
○ Establishes the idea of a competitive market (goblins)
● You can’t read this poem correctly without understanding the connotations of the word
“maid” or “maiden” – virgin women
● Cadence & meter are significant, but look at the fruits that are being named:
○ A lot of fruits are exotic from far away (not Britain) – the fear of the other
(exoticism is scary to Victorians, pointing at an analogy that we might call
“xenophobic,” worried about those outside our notion of national identity)
○ These fruits are foreign or other.
■ Fear of contamination by the other – they don’t know where the goblins
come from – “Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty
roots?”
ENGL 221-001: Dr. Jennifer Gustar
March 21st, 2022
Anthony H. Harrison
● Remarks the “fear and sublimation of female sexual desire and the insistence upon the
dangerous, if not fatal, effects of its indulgence.”
● Also connects Rossetti’s “illness” with Victorian “ideology” about womanhood.
● Claims that her religious devotion ‘because a surrogate, and, within her cultural milieu,
acceptable channel for the expression and fulfillment of [erotic] desires fundamentally
sexual in origin.” (424)
○ The ideology around womanhood is really strange.
Feminist Readings
● The importance of literal and ideational sisterhood (Lizzie’s self-sacrifice is Christ-like)
● The redemption of the “fallen” woman (a woman whose virginity is taken away)
○ Suggests that the “fallen” woman can be redeemed
● The exposure of the cash and trade barter in women
○ The silver coin for the fruits of sex (dangerous towards woman at this time)
○ Women exchanged in marriage for relationships that secure property (trade)
● The exposure of sexual violence towards women, coercion (through the goblins)
● Affirmation of female sexual desire
○ Any representation of female sexual desire in this time is unusual
○ Perhaps unintentionally, Rossetti is speaking in a way that is respectful of and
even supportive of the expression of sexual desire
○ Story returns to a fairly normal ending (motherhood)
Goblin Market
● The first part of the poem comes to us innocently and quietly
○ Establishes the idea of a competitive market (goblins)
● You can’t read this poem correctly without understanding the connotations of the word
“maid” or “maiden” – virgin women
● Cadence & meter are significant, but look at the fruits that are being named:
○ A lot of fruits are exotic from far away (not Britain) – the fear of the other
(exoticism is scary to Victorians, pointing at an analogy that we might call
“xenophobic,” worried about those outside our notion of national identity)
○ These fruits are foreign or other.
■ Fear of contamination by the other – they don’t know where the goblins
come from – “Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty
roots?”
