Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

In “Goblin Market,” Christina Rossetti discusses three main characters involved in the poem and the different experiences they encounter with these Goblin Men. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the different experiences, while describing what message Christina Rossetti is trying to formulate from these different experiences. I will also describe some similarities that this story has with our first story we read “How to Be a Victorian.” Each character has a unique encounter with the Goblin men that has many different meanings to them and different messages being sent by the Author. Laura is known as the young, naïve maid that is not very knowledgeable. Lizzie is known as the older knowledgeable sister of Laura, and Jeanie is used …show more content…
Lizzie knows right away what these men are capable of and tries to warn Laura not to even look at these Men. She states that these Men are here to contaminate are land, infect it, make it dirty and use their evil against women. As Laura gets intrigued by the Goblin men’s offers, Lizzie tells Laura these should not charm us, we need to avoid these fruits the men are offering. Laura then gave in and after Laura returned from eating the fruit Lizzie met her and told her you cannot be out at moonlight, reminding her of Jeanie as a warning to try and get her to stay in. Lizzie is serving as the voice of reason to Laura while Laura becomes sick and addicted. Laura comes back telling Lizzie how good the fruit is, tells her to try it, but Lizzie is content and won’t budge. Laura becomes really sick after not hearing the Goblin cry any longer and Lizzie cannot bear to watch any more. She realizes she must do something to help her sister out. She puts a silver penny in her purse with the intent of going to buy her sister some of the goblin Men’s fruit to save her sister from dwindling away. For the first time Lizzie geos out to listen and look for these Goblin Men in desperate need of some fruit for her dying sister. She meets the Goblin men in hopes they will give her a lot of their fruit. Lizzie tosses them her penny and tells them …show more content…
Also some aspects correspond with the Victorian Culture as well. In the Victorian era they always liked to keep things very neat, clean, and well organized, with the fear of things getting dirty. In the “Goblin Market” there are the Goblin Men who come into this land to try and contaminate it, infect it, and ruin it. In other words they are dirtying it up by being there and Lizzie fears that will happen just like in Victorian Era. Another similiarity in the “Goblin Market” and “How to be a Victorian” is the maids in each story. In Victorian era they had maids who cleaned, did the dirty work, and the basic everyday household chores. Victorians in their Era also had many exotic foods for consumers to purchase for their families. In a way this is similar to “Goblin Market.” In the Victorian Era they would sell pretty much any food whether it was made accurately or very cheap, just as long as they sold it. These Goblin men are doing a similar thing, they are selling these women the fruit even though it is not good for them to have it. They did not care as long as they were able to sell their product to a