Goblin Market

[Stellafane]

I have wracked my brains for years -- read countless critiques -- and have made no headway at all. So in utter desperation and despair I turn to this forum and ask: What the hell is "Goblin Market (http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/authors/crossetti/gobmarket.html)" about?

I can usually delude myself into believing that I have some sort of vague handle on the central meaning or theme of a work of art. But "Goblin Market" completely eludes me. Can anyone help??

[grayman]

Sex.

[blobru]

I have wracked my brains for years -- read countless critiques -- and have made no headway at all. So in utter desperation and despair I turn to this forum and ask: What the hell is "Goblin Market (http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/victorian/authors/crossetti/gobmarket.html)" about?

I can usually delude myself into believing that I have some sort of vague handle on the central meaning or theme of a work of art. But "Goblin Market" completely eludes me. Can anyone help??


Hey Stellafane. Great poem, eh? The pace and rhythm fits and follows the mood right throughout, like reading a 'ballet', if that makes sense. Plus, as grayman mentioned, there's a lot of sex between the lines, fabulously altered and disguised eroticism ("...her neck which quaked like curd" my favorite).
I think the poem is [possibly] about Victorian notions of sex, sin, and soul. I haven't read any academic critiques -- you say they didn't help much anyway -- so what follows is total guesswork. As it seems a highly symbolic work, I'll approach it like a puzzle:

The maidens' names sort of make sense if you sound them out in French:

Jeanie --> génie (genius) mind
Laura --> loi (law) duty / moral resolve
Lizzie --> lycee (college) study: bible, faith

maidens --> virginity --> feminine virtue, strength --> "tree of life" --> immortality --> soul
fruit "men sell not such" --> symbol --> (new?) tree of knowledge (of right and wrong) --> sex (premarital?) --> pleasure --> sin
goblins --> night, dark --> masculine animal cunning --> passion

(Maidens' pasture = eden?) Once a maiden tastes passion's fruit = sin, (loses virginity, no longer a maiden), she can't see or hear the goblins (lost to spiritual matters? expelled from eden?); obsessed, melancholy, she withers and dies; for she is in mortal sin ("Her tree of life drooped from the root"); no longer immortal soul.

If the maidens are soul, composed of mind, duty, and faith, the implication is mind (Jeanie), rebellious of virtue's demands, is most vulnerable to error (mortal sin); mind fails and dies in barren earth, leaving duty and faith; if duty (Laura) is compromised and weakens, she may still be rescued by faith (Lizzie), which is best able to withstand temptation to sin.

The <ahem> climax: faith (Lizzie) covers herself in goblin fruit (passion and sin refused) and let's duty (Laura) taste again her sin transformed to virtue, which is bitter; the two flames (pleasure and virtue) vie within duty (Laura), who after pain of penance is forgiven and returns to life.

Of course, the end of the poem has both maidens married with children (virtuous sex -- hopefully not with Al Bundy), and Laura (duty) passes on the lesson that her sister Lizzie (faith) is a great friend in times of need.

Seems a profoundly Victorian moral, sexual repression = virtue, life [eternal] means refusing life [natural]; while of course to us moderns a century and a half later it's the 'sex' scenes in the poem that give it its magic and meaning -- a lot more fun than another damned ode to a cloud! Then again I may be missing the point completely; apologies to C. Rossetti for any spinning in her grave due to wild misinterpretation. :)

[Stellafane]

Hey Stellafane. Great poem, eh? The pace and rhythm fits and follows the mood right throughout, like reading a 'ballet', if that makes sense. Plus, as grayman mentioned, there's a lot of sex between the lines, fabulously altered and disguised eroticism ("...her neck which quaked like curd" my favorite).
I think the poem is [possibly] about Victorian notions of sex, sin, and soul. I haven't read any academic critiques -- you say they didn't help much anyway -- so what follows is total guesswork. As it seems a highly symbolic work, I'll approach it like a puzzle:

The maidens' names sort of make sense if you sound them out in French:

Jeanie --> génie (genius) mind
Laura --> loi (law) duty / moral resolve
Lizzie --> lycee (college) study: bible, faith

maidens --> virginity --> feminine virtue, strength --> "tree of life" --> immortality --> soul
fruit "men sell not such" --> symbol --> (new?) tree of knowledge (of right and wrong) --> sex (premarital?) --> pleasure --> sin
goblins --> night, dark --> masculine animal cunning --> passion

(Maidens' pasture = eden?) Once a maiden tastes passion's fruit = sin, (loses virginity, no longer a maiden), she can't see or hear the goblins (lost to spiritual matters? expelled from eden?); obsessed, melancholy, she withers and dies; for she is in mortal sin ("Her tree of life drooped from the root"); no longer immortal soul.

If the maidens are soul, composed of mind, duty, and faith, the implication is mind (Jeanie), rebellious of virtue's demands, is most vulnerable to error (mortal sin); mind fails and dies in barren earth, leaving duty and faith; if duty (Laura) is compromised and weakens, she may still be rescued by faith (Lizzie), which is best able to withstand temptation to sin.

The <ahem> climax: faith (Lizzie) covers herself in goblin fruit (passion and sin refused) and let's duty (Laura) taste again her sin transformed to virtue, which is bitter; the two flames (pleasure and virtue) vie within duty (Laura), who after pain of penance is forgiven and returns to life.

Of course, the end of the poem has both maidens married with children (virtuous sex -- hopefully not with Al Bundy), and Laura (duty) passes on the lesson that her sister Lizzie (faith) is a great friend in times of need.

Seems a profoundly Victorian moral, sexual repression = virtue, life [eternal] means refusing life [natural]; while of course to us moderns a century and a half later it's the 'sex' scenes in the poem that give it its magic and meaning -- a lot more fun than another damned ode to a cloud! Then again I may be missing the point completely; apologies to C. Rossetti for any spinning in her grave due to wild misinterpretation. :)

Thanks, blobru. Your analysis makes as much sense as any I've read (and a lot more than most). I still don't quite get the "climax" part, though: Lizzie confronts the goblins, who practically (symbolically?) rape her with their fruit, smashing bits of it all over her body and covering her with juice. Lizzie then rushes back to Laura and encourages her to lick the juice and pulp off her face and body -- which although bitter and burning, performs some sort of catharsis and eventually restores Laura back to good health. WTF? I feel like a 6 year old reading a novel about sex -- there's something here I'm not quite getting, but it feels like it's really important.

I agree that sex permeates the poem, although in precisely what form I couldn't say. My favorite passage in that regard is "She sucked and sucked and sucked the more...She sucked until her lips were sore." I know the objects in question are literally orchard fruits, but geez...

[blobru]

Thanks, blobru. Your analysis makes as much sense as any I've read (and a lot more than most). I still don't quite get the "climax" part, though: Lizzie confronts the goblins, who practically (symbolically?) rape her with their fruit, smashing bits of it all over her body and covering her with juice. Lizzie then rushes back to Laura and encourages her to lick the juice and pulp off her face and body -- which although bitter and burning, performs some sort of catharsis and eventually restores Laura back to good health. WTF? I feel like a 6 year old reading a novel about sex -- there's something here I'm not quite getting, but it feels like it's really important.

I agree that sex permeates the poem, although in precisely what form I couldn't say. My favorite passage in that regard is "She sucked and sucked and sucked the more...She sucked until her lips were sore." I know the objects in question are literally orchard fruits, but geez...


Yeah, the "climax" must make sense for the rest of the poem to make sense for sure.

I think the goblin [market] fruit entire is passion (passion fruit?) -- I would parse it that the goblins are male passion (lust) which their fruit transforms into female passion (sex): passion accepted (Laura) is sweet, pleasure, but it is sin, and fatal (to the soul); passion refused (Lizzie) is bitter, self-denial, but it is virtue, and vital (to the soul).

The 'rape' scene is just what it seems: masculine anger at feminine rejection. It's also described in erotic physical imagery to give the impression that Lizzie is rejecting the temptation of her own body, I think. She is faith triumphant over urgent nature (also associated with the goblins' animal forms). This is possible, she is able to fight off the goblins, because the women (soul) are bigger and stronger than the only males, the goblins, (nature) in the poem.

It's interesting how little is said in the poem about the first sister, Jeanie (mind). The others seem barely to remember her, accept as a warning. The implication may be that once mind succumbs to pleasure and sin, she's a lost cause; having begun to question and stray from virtue, there is nothing faith or duty can do to bring her back.

But Laura (duty) is another matter: one can be reminded of one's duty by faith (which meant reading the bible to the literate Victorians). Lizzie's risking her own salvation by visiting the goblins is an act of self-sacrifice of course, and her flesh covered in juice and pulp may recall the Anglican eucharist and the transmogrification of wine into the blood of Christ. By the time Laura tastes it from Lizzie, it is as bitter, and curative, as medicine.

The key passage for me is Lizzie's request to Laura upon returning from the goblin wood: "Eat me, drink me, love me; Laura, make much of me". This would seem to echo Christ at the last supper: "the bread... 'this is my body'; the wine... 'this is my blood'". It is the maidens' passionate reprisal of the ritual of communion which is the key to Laura's cure: duty returned to faith (ritual, going to church). Of course the scenes between the maidens and with the goblins are also erotic, and I think one might also interpret it as a commentary on female sexuality during that era (women were typically placed on a pedestal which it was the cunning male's job to knock them off).

As this poem was written in 1865, and the goblins are described as beings half-men, half-animal, I wouldn't be surprised if this were also a warning against Darwin -- Origin of Species pub. 1859 -- and the danger of too much reason (mind) as well. I suspect Rossetti is associating our animal origins with sin in writing a 'fairy tale' for the children of this new knowledge. The half-evolved goblins offering the fruit of their theory (evolution as the seed of a new Tree of Knowledge) and imperiling soul (the immortality consonant with "Her tree of life drooped from the root", describing Laura's illness).

It's impossible to know but fun to speculate how much if any of this symbolism was the author's intent or even makes sense. I believe all great works of art are partially unconscious creations, where the artist's 'dream-mind' races ahead of her reasoning, and the artist transcribes what she can of her phantasy (who understands their own dreams after all?) So there's probably a lot more going on here than Rossetti intended; more than we'll ever know; all to the good for any work of art. :)

[Stellafane]

Yeah, the "climax" must make sense for the rest of the poem to make sense for sure.

I think the goblin [market] fruit entire is passion (passion fruit?) -- I would parse it that the goblins are male passion (lust) which their fruit transforms into female passion (sex): passion accepted (Laura) is sweet, pleasure, but it is sin, and fatal (to the soul); passion refused (Lizzie) is bitter, self-denial, but it is virtue, and vital (to the soul).

The 'rape' scene is just what it seems: masculine anger at feminine rejection. It's also described in erotic physical imagery to give the impression that Lizzie is rejecting the temptation of her own body, I think. She is faith triumphant over urgent nature (also associated with the goblins' animal forms). This is possible, she is able to fight off the goblins, because the women (soul) are bigger and stronger than the only males, the goblins, (nature) in the poem.

It's interesting how little is said in the poem about the first sister, Jeanie (mind). The others seem barely to remember her, accept as a warning. The implication may be that once mind succumbs to pleasure and sin, she's a lost cause; having begun to question and stray from virtue, there is nothing faith or duty can do to bring her back.

But Laura (duty) is another matter: one can be reminded of one's duty by faith (which meant reading the bible to the literate Victorians). Lizzie's risking her own salvation by visiting the goblins is an act of self-sacrifice of course, and her flesh covered in juice and pulp may recall the Anglican eucharist and the transmogrification of wine into the blood of Christ. By the time Laura tastes it from Lizzie, it is as bitter, and curative, as medicine.

The key passage for me is Lizzie's request to Laura upon returning from the goblin wood: "Eat me, drink me, love me; Laura, make much of me". This would seem to echo Christ at the last supper: "the bread... 'this is my body'; the wine... 'this is my blood'". It is the maidens' passionate reprisal of the ritual of communion which is the key to Laura's cure: duty returned to faith (ritual, going to church). Of course the scenes between the maidens and with the goblins are also erotic, and I think one might also interpret it as a commentary on female sexuality during that era (women were typically placed on a pedestal which it was the cunning male's job to knock them off).

As this poem was written in 1865, and the goblins are described as beings half-men, half-animal, I wouldn't be surprised if this were also a warning against Darwin -- Origin of Species pub. 1859 -- and the danger of too much reason (mind) as well. I suspect Rossetti is associating our animal origins with sin in writing a 'fairy tale' for the children of this new knowledge. The half-evolved goblins offering the fruit of their theory (evolution as the seed of a new Tree of Knowledge) and imperiling soul (the immortality consonant with "Her tree of life drooped from the root", describing Laura's illness).

It's impossible to know but fun to speculate how much if any of this symbolism was the author's intent or even makes sense. I believe all great works of art are partially unconscious creations, where the artist's 'dream-mind' races ahead of her reasoning, and the artist transcribes what she can of her phantasy (who understands their own dreams after all?) So there's probably a lot more going on here than Rossetti intended; more than we'll ever know; all to the good for any work of art. :)


I think you've come to a far deeper understanding of the poem than I ever could on my own; thank you so much for taking the time to explain your ideas to me. Obviously a lot appears to be going on (on multiple levels) so it's no wonder that its many meanings have eluded my grasp all these years.

The thing is, I've always loved the poem. The opening lines are so haunting that they seem to demand I work as hard as I can to understand the remaining, less accessible portion of the piece. But despite many re-readings, I always come away with the feeling I've just experienced a half-remembered, slightly nightmarish dream. The images are vivid and powerful, but the themes that connect them seem tangled and elusive. (A possible Darwinian connection? I never thought of that.) Your analysis helps -- I can now sleep a little better at night!

[grayman]

Reading this thread brings me back to my University days and the classes in Romance Literature. I miss those days. Lucky we have this forum else I would lose touch with scholarly matters.

The literature most people read here where I reside, is comprised of spy novels, westerns, Field & Stream, and Maxim. Poetry is limited to the walls of the toilet stalls.

[Scott Haley]

Why do you assume that the poem is code for something else?

[blobru]

Why do you assume that the poem is code for something else?


Well, because the story on the face of it doesn't make much sense. Three sisters working on a farm all day. Every night goblins show up in the woods and try to sell them fruit. The fruit is delicious, but you can only eat it once. Afterwards, you can't see the goblins anymore. So you waste away and die because you can't eat any more delicious fruit.

This may be just a fairy tale sure, but even fairy tale characters need motives: greed, pride, lust, cruelty, etc. What motivates the goblins? What benefit do they as merchants get from selling maidens fruit once that makes the goblins invisible to the customer and the customer get sick and die? It's a very poor business plan: one sale, vanish, consumer hooked, dead.

Ok, maybe they're just crazy, like slasher film villains? But even Jason and Freddy have reasons for what they do, some horrible trauma or demonic possession or whatever that are revealed in the story. Evil needs a reason to exist. Rossetti doesn't reveal anything in her bare story details. Three sisters, goblins, fruit, death, that's it -- you have to figure it out. You read about what happens, it's up to you to ask why. If she's a good writer, she'll have left lots of clues to what the story's really about. So that's why you assume the story is "code" and symbol, to make deeper sense of something that doesn't on the surface.

Most good writers like to pack as much meaning as they can into a story, so if you're reading a classic it's a safe bet it means more than it seems to. It's very easy to go overboard with this sort of analysis, and come up with pet theories that have nothing to do with the text (it's a sort of cottage industry for some lit academics). But I think "Goblin Market" is a deliberate allegory, an invitation to the reader to dig deeper and amplify the text, to know it better by questioning his own experience of it. To me that's real art, something that you the reader help to create. :idea:

[HawaiiBigSis]

One thing I've learned -- in college, in my career as a writer and editor -- is that writing sparely requires real effort: each word must carry the maximum meaning. A rambling letter to a friend is easy; condensing it down to a pithy essay requires more effort; distilling it further is truly art. Poetry is distilled words at their most effective (if done well). Christina Rosetti does it well.

[blobru]

... Poetry is distilled words at their most effective (if done well). Christina Rosetti does it well.

Well put. I think it's only slight exaggeration to say in poetry done well: $$meaning \propto \frac{1}{words}$$

Also if anyone has any enigmatic poetry they want to post for discussion, this would be a good thread for it. :)