Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

This extract is part of the poem by Christina Rossetti entitled Goblin Market (1862), which belongs to the Victorian period. We can find the fragment located almost at the beginning, just after a description of the marketplace. In this excerpt we see the main event, how Laura gives in to the temptation posed by the goblin men, after Lizzie has warned her not to stray from what is expected of them. Goblin Market can be read as a rebellion against society’s expectations of women, showing how they should be the ones making decisions on their own lives and bodies.

Firstly, there is a clear sense of desire when Laura sees the fruits that are being advertised, the use of the word “longed” making that clear to us. At the beginning she tries to fight

This can be seen in the lack of hesitation she shows when asked to “Buy from us with a golden curl.” To which she only responds by doing what she is asked “She clipped a precious golden lock”. Having a female protagonist willingly giving her body as a means of payment is extremely revolutionary and controversial, because such a behaviour was frowned upon in the Victorian period, and even nowadays. Doing such a thing led to women becoming “Fallen Women” and, as Victoria Leslie writes, “possession of sexual knowledge outside of the institution of marriage was seen as a threat to the established norms and the fallen woman was especially dangerous, because she had known respectability and had chosen to disregard it” (Fallen Women, Victoria Leslie). It seems that Laura becomes a Fallen women knowingly, and when later in the story she tells her sister what happened there is no sense of remorse

This is another type of behaviour that would have been shamed in Victorian times: women were to save their virtue until marriage, but in the scene where Laura is eating the fruit we find clear references to sex. The repetition found in “she sucked and sucked and sucked the more” indicates how she is enjoying and therefore does not stop. She continues with “Clearer than water flowed that juice; She never tasted such before”, all clearly alluding to sex. Once again, this is a revolutionary act against society’s expectations of women, because here we have Laura completely in control over her body, doing what she wants for no other reason than her own enjoyment and pleasure.

On the other hand, we have Lizzie’s character, who can be seen as a representation of the patriarchal system in which the two sisters live. She has been warning her sister to follow the rules, to do what is expected of her as a woman in society, that is, to be a domestic being: dutiful, nurturing, and obedient. In doing so she is reinforcing these stereotypes that indicate how women should behave/be. However, in refusing to listen to her, Laura is not only rebelling against her sister, but against the entirety of the patriarchal