Goblin Market And Carmilla Essay

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Recommended: Females in 20th century literature

In Christina Rosseti “Goblin Market” and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, both authors mythologize homosexuality and the structures which hinder the agency of homoeroticism within the sphere of homosocial women’s relations; and in doing this, Rossetti and Le Fanu symbolize representations of these structures and shed a light on their society’s attitudes towards feminine desire, longing, and, ultimately, lesbianism. Their use of symbolism allegorizes their respective stories so to comment, or illuminate/challenge the realities of the Hellenistic sisterhoods of the Victorian Era, the myth of the female orgasm, and the interior/exterior representations of the patriarchal influence on women’s sexuality; being that Le Fanu’s Carmilla projects a vampiric connotation on female sexuality to its readers perpetuating the patriarchal agenda of demonizing a women’s desire, while Rosetti’s Goblins, as representation of the …show more content…

However, despite it’s popularity female desire was so alien to men the very idea of lesbian sex seemed futile and benign. Ultimately, these attitudes towards feminine desire lead to the creation of Hellenistic relationships between women that was the framework of a thriving homoscoial society. These societies one could easily connect to the “exclusivity of the [vampire] species (Hughes 143),” which was much like a secret contract of romance between lovers. This category of bonds was made up of “sporadic relationships, of temporary and fluid alliances amongst those who travel” (Hughes 144), which according to Hughes very much fit the lifestyle of vampires; and coincidentally, Carmella was a traveler and so was the women, Virginia Wolfe’s, Ms. Dalloway shared a moonlight kiss

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