Rossettis Goblin Market - Essay Example

 “Goblin Market” Response Essay In her article “Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market,’” Sabine Coelsch-Foisner investigates possible literary influences for Christina Rossi’s poem. She focuses specifically on the resemblance of “Goblin Market” to Robert Herrick’s “Cherry-ripe.” The two poems share a similar content in that they both concern fruit merchants hawking fruits in a suggestive manner. Though the article covers similarities in meter, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance, the most interesting comparison is the shared imagery in the two poems. Herrick’s poem celebrates the youth and the use of sweet sexuality, where Rossetti’s does the opposite, warning the youth about crossing the line with their sexuality. As I read “Goblin Market,” the negative sexual undertones and imagery of the poem caught my attention the most. I doubt that many readers could experience the poem without realizing that, at its heart, it concerns the nature of passion and sexual desire. I agree with Coelsch-Foisner that “there is something unsettling, even pathological, about desire” in “Goblin Market.” In her article, Coelsch-Foisner draws our attention to the manner in which Rossetti depicts desire. She contrasts Rossetti’s depiction of desire with that of Robert Herrick’s “Cherry-ripe” and concludes that the desire in “Goblin Market” is pathological and unsettling. However, she fails to develop how the desire is so unsettling. She makes references to incest and to the aggression of the desire, but the concept needs further clarification. The goblins themselves are the only males and represent the danger of male passion in its aggressive form. As Laura warns early in the poem, “’We must not look at goblin men’” (Rossetti 42). The goblin men are aggressive in the selling of their fruits. They constantly ask the girls to “Come buy” (46). I always heard in my head, “Come by,” a classic male pickup line. Additionally, the phrase is always a command. This aggression in the selling of the fruit is a mimicry of the catcalls that men utilize to aggressively pursue women. Additionally, the fruit itself reminded me of the passion of human sexuality. The danger of giving in to this sexuality is evident in the character of Laura. After hearing the nightly goblins’ cries, Laura acquiesces and buys some fruit; however, this fruit almost leads to her death. Further evidence of the aggression of the goblins is their treatment of Lizzie. When she goes to the goblins to get the antidote for Laura, they attack her. The negative sexual overtones of their attack are obvious as they attempt to “cram a mouthful in” (432). When Lizzie will not open her mouth for their gifts, the goblins pinch and bite her unmercifully. The reference to forced oral sex seems intended. I could not help but notice that the juices of the goblins were always on the girls’ faces. Overall, the goblins attempt to entice the girls, succeeding with Laura, and when that does not work with Lizzie, they attempt to rape. The “sensuous pleasure” of the fruits “has degenerated into aggressive male sexuality” (Coelsch-Foisner). The desire between the two girls is alarming in its presentation as well as it is incestuous and homosexual desire. While homosexuality is not disturbing, in the Victorian era of “Goblin Market,” homosexual desire was discouraged. As Coelsch-Foisner states in comparing “Goblin Market” to “Cherry-ripe,” Herrick’s poem is a “celebration of heterosexual love” and “patriarchal stance.” However, though this desire is disturbing to Victorians but not modern society, the idea of incest is very disturbing. Given modern advancements in DNA research, incest has become an even greater taboo. So, to address both the disturbing homosexual and incestuous desire in “Goblin Market,” we must look to Laura and Lizzie. There is obviously a homosexual and incestuous relationship between the two. The speaker describes them as lying “Cheek to cheek and breast to breast / Locked together in one nest” (Rossetti 197-8). I always had to remind myself while reading that they were sisters and not friends or lovers. Though women can be close friends, they do not often lie together in this type of overtly sexual position. Further evidence of their relationship is when Lizzie is able to get the antidote from the goblins. It is smeared on her face and Lizzie tells Laura to “Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices” (468). As Coelsch-Foisner states, this action “carries both erotic-incestuous and liturgical connotations.” The act of sucking juice off your sister’s face is sexual. The sisters could have collected the juice in a container or gathered it in their hands. The two simply cannot keep their desire in check. Laura licks her sister’s face and kisses her incessantly. The incestuous and homosexual relationship between the sisters is another desire that is “unsettling” both to the original audience of the poem and to modern audiences (Coelsch-Foisner). Lastly, I agree with Coelsch-Foisner that the desire presented in the poem is too aggressive. When Laura takes the fruit from the goblins, she sucks it “until her lips [are] sore” (Rossetti 136). There is no restraining her desire as she sucks fruit after fruit and discards their husks. If the fruits represent sexual actions, as they no doubt do in my reading, Laura is overly amorous. She is sucking the juice from the goblins until she cannot suck any more. Also, the story of Jeanie told by Lizzie is a story of what happens when you do not practice sexual restraint. Jeanie meets the goblins in the moonlight, a time associated with trysts, and cannot get enough of their fruits and offering. Having already established that the goblins are aggressively peddling their sexuality on the girls, the moral of Jeanie’s story is clear. Do not put yourself in a compromising situation with sexually aggressive men. But, the argument does not dissuade Laura. While Lizzie might seem the paragon of restraint and self-denial, she simply transfers her desire from the male to the female. When she returns with the antidote, she wants her sister to “Eat me, drink me, love me” (471). She wants her sister to suck her juices. Laura obliges by “kiss[ing], and kiss[ing] her with a hungry mouth” (492). Neither sister can withhold her emotions or sexual desire, and both suffer as a result. Laura suffers by her near death, and Lizzie suffers the brutal attack of the goblins. In the end, the poem presents a lesson against the type of unrestrained sexual desire shown by the goblin men and by the sisters. The only positive that comes from the ordeal Laura and Lizzie experience is that they can caution their daughters against the same kind of behavior. Their daughters can learn to resist the call of the goblin men, a call that dominates a majority of this poem. Additionally, the daughters can learn to restrain their sexual behavior with men so as to avoid the incestuous position in which their mothers found themselves. This positive is the main counterargument to reading the desire in the poem as unrestrained and aggressive. While the daughters and their mothers definitely learn a lesson about desire, the lesson is hard-won. To read the experience as positive, one would have to accept the near raping of Lizzie, the near death of Laura, and the almost incestuous relationship between the two as a positive because it taught their daughters a lesson. The argument would be of the type that the ways justify the means. However, I cannot accept that the type of desire presented in “Goblin Market” is acceptable simply because the girls learn a lesson. So, while Coelsch-Foisner only references pathological desire, the poem represents a heterosexual, homosexual, and incestuous desire that is overwhelming in its aggression and lack of any restraint. By looking at the poem more closely, the reader can get a better understanding of the destructive power of desire as depicted in “Goblin Market.” Works Cited Coelsch-Foisner, Sabine. "Rossetti's ‘Goblin Market’." Explicator 61.1 (2002): 28. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." The Poetry Foundation. Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2012. . Read More