Christina Rossetti was a poet born in London in 1830. Most of her work's are in children's literature and she is best known for Goblin Market. She comes from Italian descent and most of her family were poets and artists as well. Her writings may be considered in a feminist perspective which have been speculated.
In the poem Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti, is a narrative about a woman who is somehow lured by evil and which ends up ruining her. The story mention two maids who are walking by a goblin market in which the goblins are selling fruit. The fruit look very appealing and the goblins do their best to sell them to the maids. One maid named Laura separates from her sister, Lizzie, and she ends up selling a lock of her hair in order to taste the goblins fruit. Her sister Lizzie warns her that she should not eat the fruit and explains to her what happened to another maid who did. Laura ignores her sister and becomes deaf and blind (line 259). Essentially, Laura lost her spirit and felt nothing but heartache growing old and gray. She became somewhat worthless and wishes she could taste the same fruit again. Her sister Lizzie still heard the goblin's calls and tried to go buy some fruit to possibly heal her sister's heart. The goblin's did the same in trying to lure Lizzie as they did Laura, except Lizzie resisted when offered to sit and eat with them. The goblin's got angry from her resistance and ended up attacking her trying to force the fruit down her throat. Lizzie stood firm against them and showed great restraint. In the end Lizzie saved her sister and was very brave in facing the goblins on her own. This story is shows how one person cannot stand against temptation and another who resists. It also shows what people will do when then they love someone dearly.
Some of the symbolism in this story get repeated very much like the abundance of fruit (line 3-28). Fruit may have to do with sexuality, being sweet, deceiving, and/or forbidden. The maids (line 2) make me think of virgins and goblins (line 2) make me think of mythical, evil trolls, and magic. Some of the goblins exhibit a cat's face (line 71) which makes me think of something sneaky, evil, malicious, and/or nocturnal. It also mentions a snail in line 74 which makes me think of something sluggish, slimy, and gross. And according to http://www.teleflora.com/, a lily (line 83) can represent many things depending on the color; such as chastity and virtue, friendship and devotion, wealth and prosperity, and humility and devotion. One of the most interesting symbolism I found about lilies which was also on the Teleflora website was that "...most often associated with funerals, lilies symbolize that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death" which seems to make sense in this poem completely as well as the other symbols for it that I mentioned. Some other symbols that stood out to me was "vessel" which makes me think of a womb and golden locks (line 126) which reminds me of something angelic and pure. Another finding is the symbol for pearl (line 127) in which, according to the website: http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/P/pearl.html, "The pearl is a symbol of perfection and incorruptibility; it is a symbol of long life and fertility ...represents hidden knowledge and it is highly feminine."
The archetypes in this poem seem very obvious. My references for my archetype findings come from: http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm. There seem to be many archetypes for each character depending on what roles you see them in. Laura, definitely can be seen as the maiden which she actually is. This can mean purity and desire for the particular archetype which makes sense in Goblin Market. Her sister Lizzie can be seen as the hero and the wise old man. She can be seen as the hero for obvious reasons like saving the day, as well as the wise old man for trying to point her sister in the right direction. The goblins can be viewed as 3 archetypes: the magician, witch, and trickster. These all can be considered mysterious, tempting, evil, and magical in which they seem to be.
This poem reminds me of the story of Creation in the Bible and original sin. It brings "Forbidden Fruit" and the goblins remind me of the "Serpent" in trying to tempt the women in doing his bidding. I feel that it shows much innocence in the woman, and that once the fruit was touched, that was taken away from them. It also reminds me of some kind of heartache a woman might go through after being hurt by a lover. Laura did not care to do her daily duties in the house and did not care to take care of herself either because her spirit was broken. I think it also has to do with a sister's love and what one would do to save another because of it.
Sources:
http://www.teleflora.com/about-flowers/lily.asp
http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/P/pearl.html
http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti
As only one person in my group has posted so far I am commenting on your post. Reading your post was very informative and it is concise and to the point. You posted on time and as directed in the assignment. Your writing is very good and gets your point across. There was critical reading and thinking involved in analysis of the poem and it showed through in the text. You should have included a little bio about the author and the poem but overall great analysis of the poem.
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