Analyzing The Poem 'Goblin Market'

How does “Goblin Market” literalize or enact the pressures put on women’s chaste bodies in the marriage market and in separate spheres of morality more generally?

In this poem, the “Goblin Market” is the marriage market. The goblin men who run this market offer exquisite and fantastical fruit to the young women who lust for them. Interestingly, they are goblins which are viewed as gross creatures and opposed to some other creature like a fair elf. Additionally, all of these goblins are compared to animals like rats, cats, snails which in this sense are dirty, sneaky, or slow animals This implies that the men in the marriage market are not necessarily sought after for their personal qualities but merely for the “goods” that they offer. These

After she does this, she is no longer wanted by them. I think this represents a woman who is known to have had sex no longer being wanted because she is “impure.” During the time that this poem was written, chastity and moral reputation was highly valued.

The two spheres, public and private, are also symbolized in this poem. The private sphere is the home that Laura and Lizzy live in and smoothly run. At the end of the poem when the two girls are married and have children is also part of this private sphere. The public sphere would again be the goblin market. In that sphere, there are many temptations that should be resisted by someone in the private sphere. Lizzy successfully resists the temptations and returns to maintain her private sphere while Laura cannot. This essentially ruins her and could be a cautionary tale about what happens to a woman when she enters the immoral public sphere.

Additionally, what was the purpose of mentioning Jeanie? Does this potentially add to the possible homosexual implications of the