Themes in Goblin Market Essay

GOBLIN MARKET

Goblin Market is one of the most popular poems by Christina Rossetti. It has many recurring themes within its context. Rossetti had a balanced mix of childrens ideas along with adult themes in Goblin Market. Its rich, complex, and suggestive language has caused the poem to be practically ignored as children's literature and instead regarded variously as an erotic exploration of Victorian womens desires, a commentary on capitalism and Victorian market economy, a feminist glorification of "sisterhood," and a Christian allegory about temptation and redemption. She opted for a story telling style as well as fantasy to explore a world from which the male could be excluded. She had chosen an alternative world to deal with the forbidden issues of Victorian era which otherwise were not allowed to discuss in open especially by women.

The title Goblin Market itself put forwards the presence of magical creatures with animal like resemblance who were involved in market economy. The term Goblin in the title is used for the mystical goblins. Men sell not such in any town also indicates the non-human quality of the goblins. In addition, the term Market in the title aims at the mercantile structure of the Victorian society. The language of the poem contains terms of commerce, economics, and exchange. The phrase come buy echoes throughout the poem. We come across many terms of commerce like buy, sell, merchant, money, coin, fee, etc. All these words serve as an invitation to the market. Such element of the poem demonstrates about capitalism and the Victorian economy. Women were untouched by the market and they did not have any material control. Rossetti as a woman poet could not write openly of womens economic transgressive space. Her use of an alternative world provides Laura and Lizzie an escape from real world to experience the tabooed issues of life. The goblin market is the fantasyland of the actual commercial market where women were regarded simply as commodities. Women were exploited by offering bait in form of the luscious fruits of mysterious soil. In the poem, Laura falls for the tempted fruits but she had no money to pay for them. Her golden locks were the only commodity she possesses that carries a market value. Lizzie attempts to pay for the fruit with money, which they refused. It shows that women were outside the market and the only possibility for them to enter the prohibited space was through the exchange of their body, which meant loss of their virginity.