Goblin market interpretations PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Goblin market interpretations PDF

Description

GOBLIN MARKET INTERPRETATIONS: Goblin market as a children’s fairy-tale: Morality tales for children were very common, often quite twee or clichéd, with a very obvious moral towards the end. 

Moral of the story / lessons



‘there is no friend like a sister’ – loving family can save you

Lewis Carroll, in Alice in Wonderland , mocked these when Alice has a conversation with the Duchess about finding morals in other tales. o

‘eat me , drink me , love me’ (references to Alice in Wonderland)

Goblin Market can be read as a fable for children in which Laura’s curiosity nearly causes her death (and does in fact cause Jeanie’s), but in the end she’s saved by her sister’s love and the two of them go on to have happy, loving lives. -

‘ afterwards when they were both wives, with children of their own’

The moral? Curiosity is bad so don’t look outside your world – but you can be rescued by a loving family. o

‘ for there is no friend like a sister…to strengthen whilst one stands’

o

‘till Laura dwindling seem’d knocking on Death’s door, then lizzie

o

weigh’d no more … better and worse but put a penny in her purse’

o

‘ we must not look at the goblin men’  Acts a warning / foreshadoiwing the disaster that can come with the goblin men

INTERPRETATION 2: SEX AND SEXUALITY 

‘Curious Laura’ explores her sexuality with the Goblin men, who are at first animalistic but become more masculine as the poem continues. She experiences it with pure desire and lust, but her preoccupation with returning for more threatens to destroy her.

-



Jeannie is the cautionary tale of a girl who similarly experienced desire, and it brought her death (perhaps a comment on the dangers of pregnancy and death in childbirth?).



‘twicthed her hair out by the roots/jumped upon her tender feet/ held her hand and squeezed her fruits/ against her mouth to make her eat.

There’s also a glimmer of homosexuality (and therefore incest), when Lizzie encourages Laura to feed on her to taste the fruits’ juices.



‘lizzie uttered not a word’ ‘worn out by her resistance’

The poem explores rape and masculine power, especially in the goblins’ assault on Lizzie. The men are wholly in control in this poem.

-



‘ do you not remember Jeanie/ how she met them in the moonlight?

Lizzie, who remains stoic and refuses to give into desire, saves her sister. Even though Lizzie experiences the fruit of the goblins, she doesn’t enjoy it, and therefore is in some ways the ideal virtuous Victorian woman.



‘curious laura chose to linger wondering at each merchant man’

‘ hug me, kiss me, suck my juices’

Yet as ever with Rossetti there’s a conflicting undertone – by the end, there’s no real difference between Laura and Lizzie. They both marry happily and have children (the pinnacle of feminine success!). Therefore, is this a protest that ‘fallen women’ shouldn’t be made to suffer for the rest of their lives, as Jeannie is?

-

‘ their mother hearts were set with fears, /their lives bound up in tender lies’

INTERPRETATION 3: PRESENTATION OF MASCULINTY 

This poem is probably the most negative of Rossetti’s portrayals of men! The goblin creatures are animalistic, vicious and controlling – they exert complete power over the girls they tempt.

-



‘grunting and snarling/one called her proud/ cross-grained, uncivil / their tones waxed loud.’

And the goblin med do tempt; it’s their calls that bring Laura in, then when they have what they wanted from her they cast her aside, not caring that she is ruined . o



The goblin men assault Lizzie viciously and sexually, and they take both a part of Laura (her hair) and money from Lizzie, indicating that they take everything from a woman. o o



‘come buy, come buy was still their cry’

Animalistic descriptions of the goblins Goblins’ vicious, active verbs as they assault Lizzie

Perhaps this is a critique of the Victorian marriage laws restricting property ownership. o

Disappearance of men at the end – although the girls are wives and mothers, their husbands aren’t mentioned.

INTERPRETATION 4: CRITIQUE OF COMMERCE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA 

The Goblins’ market cries sell fruit, a rarity and expensive in the era although becoming increasingly common with the improvements in trade, refrigeration and so on. o



There’s an abundance of it – perhaps even too much – suggesting a critique of the consumerism that started with the Victorian development of the leisured classes, increasing wealth in the middle class, and ways to display that wealth. o



Abundance of the fruit which is “all ripe together” no matter what the season, as farmers/grocers started trying to manipulate growing times to suit a demanding population

‘one holds a basket/ one bears a plate/ one loves a golden dish’

Cities also emerged in the Victorian era, and brought with them a moral panic and concern because of the close proximity of a huge population, influx of prostitutes, criminals and others considered to be an ‘underclass’, along with the the movement of young people away from the family home completely changing the landscape of family relationships. Herbert has suggested that the techniques of the Goblins when trying to persuade Lizzie to buy from them are similar to complaints made about the rise of advertising in the era. o

‘ would not open lip for lip: unless they crammed a mouthful in ‘



There’s also an argument which looks at the poem as a critique of the marriage market in the era – what women can bring to a marriage determining their value. o

o

Repeated language of sweetness in the goblins’ allure – maybe a reference to the growth of sugar by slaves in America as the civil war was continuing (although this is speculative) . Juxtapose this slightly underhanded production with Lizzie and Laura’s wholesome domestic productivity Exchanges – Laura’s gold hair, and Lizzie’s coin

INTERPRETATION 5: RELIGIOUS NARRATIVE OF SACRIFICE AND SALVATION 

Laura is humanity, an allegory for Eve’s sin. Laura seeks out the goblin men’s fruit as Eve sought the fruit from the tree of knowledge. -



‘ she sucked and sucked and sucked some more/ fruits which unknown orchard more/ she sucked until her lips were sore’

When she obtains it, Laura is lost – her sinfulness is shown in her lack of interest in life and loss of industry, drawing on the Puritan/Christian work ethic, believing that hard work is a way to praise God. -

‘And knew not was it night or day

As she turned home alone.’ 

Lizzie’s self-sacrifice mirrors that of Christ. As he was crucified on the cross, Lizzie is assaulted by the Goblin men. -



‘Held her hands and squeezed their fruits Against her mouth to make her eat.’

She returns to Laura and her words echo the Eucharist – the sacrament following the Last Supper when Jesus said to his disciplines, “Drink this wine and eat this bread, for it is my blood and flesh” – the ritual on which Communion is founded. Lizzie’s feeding of Laura is a close allegory of this ritual. -

Eat me, drink me, love me; Laura, make much of me:’

INTERPRETATION 6: WOMANHOOD AND POWER  Sandra Gilbert has suggested that the fruit represents access to the artistic world being controlled and sold by men. For women to enter it, they have to give up so much of themselves. Its worth is therefore questionable. -

‘Held her hands and squeezed their fruits

Against her mouth to make her eat. 

Laura wants to be a part of it but it destroys her femininity – her ability to complete the domestic and moral tasks she is responsible for. -



She no more swept the house, Tended the fowls or cows,

Laura is also creative and free (at first), but that destroys her, and she must learn to control this side of her character to be a responsible mother. -

Laura stretched her gleaming neck Like a rush-imbedded swan, 

The girls are portrayed as the two sides of women – vice and virtue – although Laura is forgiven her misdemeanours. -



Laura bowed her head to hear, Lizzie veiled her blushes:

A happy ending is created with the two sisters now wives and mothers, telling their own children morality tales. It’s perhaps a bit of a disappointing ending in some respects as after such a dark, lascivious tale, the girls return to a very stereotypical femininity. Yet Rossetti is a Victorian after all!

- Afterwards, when both were wives

With children of their own; Their mother-hearts beset with fears, Their lives bound up in tender lives; INTERPRETATION 7: AN ADDICTION NARRATIVE  The way Laura reacts to the goblins is classic addition – she grows pale, thin, listless and loses interest in anything else. - She no more swept the house,

Tended the fowls or cows, Fetched honey, kneaded cakes of wheat, Brought water from the brook: But sat down listless in the chimney-nook And would not eat.



All she can focus on is finding the next ‘fix’, the next opportunity to see the goblins and get some more fruit.

Lizzie with an open heart, Laura in an absent dream, One content, one sick in part; One warbling for the mere bright day's delight, One longing for the night. 

Jeannie, who went before her, is dead of a similar addiction, perhaps through overdose.

But feared to pay too dear. She thought of Jeanie in her grave, Who should have been a bride; But who for joys brides hope to have Fell sick and died 

While this poem pre-dates the addictions of Dante Gabriel and Lizzie Siddal, there are striking similarities in the descriptions of Laura’s state post-goblin to an addict’s withdrawal symptoms.

- Then sat up in a passionate yearning, And gnashed her teeth for balked desire, and wept As if her heart would break.

She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn To swift decay, and burn Her fire away.

INTERPRETATION 8: ELEMENTS OF THE GOTHIC  The Goblin men are a typical monstrous feature of Gothic literature – used as ciphers through which to explore the monstrous nature of mankind. 

- ‘ No longer wagging, purring,

But visibly demurring, Grunting and snarling. One called her proud, Cross-grained, uncivil;

Their tones waxed loud, Their looks were evil.’ o The animalistic portrayal of the goblin men represents how they are monstrous 

Whether Rochester’s supernatural voice in Jane Eyre or the vampiric Dracula, the powers and desires of men are frequently exhibited through other-worldly creatures.



he cat-faced purr'd, The rat-paced spoke a word -





The gliblin men are used to highlight the evil natue of mankind

The two sisters could also be considered doubles – two sides of one person, a common Gothic feature (consider Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, for example). -

‘Lizzie most placid in her look ,laura like a leaping flame’

-

They often do similar things but differently (‘ Laura bowed her head to hear, Lizzie veiled her blushes)

Laura is the darker, curious side, while Lizzie is the good urges of women. -

To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands."

Laura went astray and Lizzie strengthened her and ultimately saved her....