Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market
One of the strongest emotions inherent in us as humans is desire. The majority of the time, we are unable to control what we crave; however, with practice, we learn not all things we want are necessary. As a result of this mature understanding, we are able to ease our feelings and sometimes even suppress our desires. Something even more mature is understanding that when we give in to our desires, we become vulnerable. In a harsh, brutal world, vulnerability will not work to our advantage. In Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” she writes about a sister who succumbs to her desire and pays dearly for it while the other sister resists her desires and receives the ultimate reward of her sister’s life. By creating such a spectacular tale, Rossetti stresses the importance of being in touch with one’s desires and being able to prevail over their strong hold because in the harsh world we live in, we cannot afford to let our desire get the best of us.
Of the two sisters Lizzie and Laura, Laura is the one whose curious desires get the best of her. She and her sister encounter the goblin men and Lizzie just “thrust a dimpled finger / In each ear, shut her eyes and ran” (67 – 68); however, Laura’s curiosity gets the best of her and she chooses to stay: “Curious Laura chose to linger / Wondering at each merchant man” (69 – 70). These goblin men are selling fruit, and once Laura gets her hands on it, she is hardly able to stop herself. Quenching her desire is overwhelming for her, so much so that when she is finally done she “knew not was it night or day” (139). When she arrives home later, she tells her sister, “I ate and ate my fill, / Yet my mouth waters still; / Tomorrow night I ...
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... men’s fruit. Because of this, she suffers premature aging. Rossetti is conveying the importance of being aware of the possible peril that waits in the outside world, and controlling one’s desires in order to keep oneself from being vulnerable. If one gives in to their desires and makes oneself vulnerable, one will ultimately suffer. Lizzie does not succumb and does not do what the goblin men want her to do. As a result of this refusal, she has the power to bring her sister back to normal and take away her premature aging. Christina Rossetti is conveying the importance of maintaining control over one’s self: if one keeps oneself from becoming vulnerable, resists desires, and chooses the right path, one will remain safe and be rewarded handsomely.
Works Cited
Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market. Illustrated by Laurence Housman. 1893. New York: Dover, 1983.
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Symbolism is a poetic and literary element that interacts with readers and engages their feelings and emotions. In Sold, thirteen-year-old Nepali girl, Lakshmi, is forced to take a job to help support her family. Involuntarily, she ends up in prostitution via the Happiness House; this sex trafficking battle forces Lakshmi to envision her future and possibility of never returning home. The very first vignette of the novel speaks of a tin roof that her family desperately needs, especially for monsoon season. At the brothel, Lakshmi works to pay off her debt to the head mistress, Mumtaz, but cannot seem to get any sort of financial gain in her time there. Both the tin roof and the debt symbolize unforeseen and improbable ambitions, yet she finds the power within herself to believe. How does Lakshmi believe in herself despite her unfathomable living conditions and occupation?
Goblin Market” was considered to be a fairy tale however the poem had various erotic exploration of sexual fantasy, commentary on capitalism and the Victorian market economy. It is also interpreted about temptation, yearnings and atonement. On the other hand, “The Rape of the Lock” commented on human vanity and the custom of romance as Pope inspected the abused position of women. He’d pointed out that society recognized the upper class in a serious manner however they are in a frivolous manner. He’d used the poem to mock the noble and their lifestyles. “Goblin Market” and “The Rape of the Lock” related to each other as both poems have a significance of victimhood and hair being cut off.
"Goblin Market" centers around one girl who has a love for the wonderful, but does not realize that the wondrous is often disguised as the wonderful. While these two terms seem the same, wonderful is rooted in naivety and wondrous exposes the ways of the real world in a cruel way. Laura falls prey to the disguise that the wondrous puts on, and at the end of the poem, her entire belief system has been altered for good. Laura's ideas were based on the songs and stories she would have heard when she was younger, which places the goblins in a sense of the wonderful, though they are incredibly dangerous. The reader can see Laura shift from innocence to distrust and brokenness through the similes scattered throughout the poem as she starts out as something out of a romantic tale to a broken shell of a woman. Fairy tales that seem wonderful in the sense of gaiety, like how the goblins seemed at first, are reflected in the fourth stanza, while after the goblins have become more of the wondrousness of monsters, the simile in the third to last stanza shows how Laura has changed from the naive to being harshly reminded of the real world, no matter how fantastic it seems.
In “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti and “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” by H.G. Wells, the main characters, Lizzie and George, of each story are faced with troubling situations that force them to take action before they lose everything they love. If they don’t then their whole world could end, whether it’s figuratively or literally. This causes them to make sacrifices for the cause of redemption. Although Rossetti’s and Wells’ stories seem unrelated, there are corresponding factors such as the symbolism and theme of the two stories as well as the idea of isolationism within the stories.
In the short stories, “Goblin Market” by Christina Rosetti and “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” by H.G. Wells the themes have both similar and different aspects. In both the Goblin Market and The Man Who Could Work Miracles, the same theme can be interpreted. The authors, Rosetti and Wells both presented a moral in their stories for the audience to be taught. The theme in which the two short stories share is “that one should be careful with temptation”, but they both have different aspects of this theme.
The chanting of the goblin merchants has a hypnotic quality to it that attempts to mesmerize Lizzie, as well as the reader. It is supposed to be difficult to resist the temptations for the goblin merchants. They are like the snake in the Garden of Eden, and those who have not given into temptation, yet, are like Eve. The temptation to sin is alluring and the means of tempting that the goblins use are seductive – until they become assaulting.
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Instructor’s comment: This student’s essay performs the admirable trick of being both intensely personal and intelligently literary. While using children’s literature to reflect on what she lost in growing up, she shows in the grace of her language that she has gained something as well: an intelligent understanding of what in childhood is worth reclaiming. We all should make the effort to find our inner child
When he asks what she gives it to him for, she replies, “A—souvenir.” Then she hands it to him, almost as if to show him that he had shattered her unique beauty. This incident changed her in the way that a piece of her innocence that made her so different is now gone. She is still beautiful and fragile like the menagerie, but just as she gives a piece of her collection to Jim, she also gives him a piece of her heart that she would never be able to regain. Laura and her menagerie are both at risk of being crushed when exposed to the uncaring reality of the world.
Innocence ripped away and replaced by premature struggling through life is what outlines Sold by Patricia McCormick. This historical fiction novel follows the story of Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl living in Nepal. Desperately poor, Lakshmi can only enjoy simple pleasures, such as raising her speckled goat named Tali, and having her mother Ama brush and braid her hair. When the violent Himalayan rains tear away all that remains of their cucumber crops, Lakshmi’s maimed stepfather says she must take up a job, for he cannot get work. Lakshmi is introduced to the charming Bajai Sita who promises her a job as a maid in a wealthy area of India. Excited and full of hope to help her family, Lakshmi endures the long trek to India where her journey ends at the “Happiness House.” Soon she learns the frightening truth: she has been sold into prostitution. She is betrayed, broken, and yet still manages to come through her ordeal with her soul intact. Sold depicts a story meant to teach and inspire, making the novel a piece that is highly important for all to see and read.
In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" and Toni Morrison's "Recitatif," materialism and the desire to be envied are vital ingredients in the themes of the stories. Both authors enhance their themes through the manipulation of plot and the use of women as their central characters. Maupassant and Morrison prove the notion that women are effective characters in depicting themes that deal with the social issue of craving material wealth.
...aking of virginity than how would you figure that drinking the fruit juice off of her sister’s face would make everything better? This notion does not make sense when you take it a level further. Sex is a misconstrued theme in this poem and is just a misinterpreted fairy tale. Strictly speaking, it is not intelligent to assume that eating fruit at the Goblins Market is the equivalence to having sex with the goblin men. The impression of a "Goblin Market" is a woman’s perspective of their ideal type of world. In the poem we never get acquainted with any “real” men in the tale and the only accusation that a real man does exist in the work is in the end when it says that Laura and Lizzie become “wives” (Line 544). That is the only instance that we hear of a man’s existence in the poem. This poem shows how literature can compose of a fantasy for women directly from men.
Janwillem Van De Wetering says, “Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.” Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” tells of Mrs. Mathilde Loisel’s longings for the finer things in life. Her desires are so intense she risks her husband’s affections, the friendship of an old chum, and even her mediocre lifestyle to pursue these cravings. One small decision based on an ill-placed desire causes a slow drawn out death of the spirit, body and relationships.