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Posted May 2, 2014 at 2:40 PM via web

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How does Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market go against the sexuality norms during the time of restoration
period?

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theyellowbookworm (/people/theyellowbookworm) | College Teacher |
(Level 1) Assistant Educator
Posted May 4, 2014 at 8:13 PM (Answer #1)

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Goblin Market can be traditionally read as a cautionary tale that warns young women against the dangers of
unchecked desire. When viewing Rossettis poem from this angle, it is helpful to foreground Rita Felskis
connection between consumerism and desire. Felski suggests that the discourse of consumerism during the fin
de siecle is to a large extent the discourse of female desire (65). Located in consumer discourse, the objective
of female desire is to purchase goods. Superficially, female desire appears innocuous. However, Felski notes
the dangerous potential that once awakened, this appetite [desire] would have disturbing and unforeseeable
effects, reaching out to subvert the social fabric and to undermine masculinist authority within the family (65).
By applying Felskis claims to Rossettis poem, the allegorical tale appears to warn against desire as a threat to
masculinist stability.
Not only was female desire a danger to masculine discourse, but desire was also thought to prey on passive
femininity by seducing the female customer with a glittering phantasmagoria of goods (62). The relationship
between desire and seduction is useful in exploring Lauras encounter with the goblin men in the poem. Passing
by the spectacle, Laura admires the glittering phantasmagoria of the goblin market, stating, How fair the
vine must grow / Whose grapes are so luscious; / How warm the wind must blow / Through those fruit bushes:
(ll.60-63). Although Laura rationally knows that purchasing goblin fruit is immoral, she cannot contain her
desire. The maid further succumbs when, having no money, she compromises her body and purchases goblin
fruit with a golden curl (ll. 125). In this exchange, Rossetti warns readers against falling victim to the
seduction of the marketplace. In the poem, Lauras seduction results in insatiable desire; the maiden sucked
their fruit globes fair or red / She sucked and sucked and sucked the more / Fruits which that unknown
orchard bore; / She sucked into her lips were sore (ll.128, 134-136). The sucking portrayed in this scene
illustrates Lauras insatiable thirst, which is not quenched from the single encounter. The desire produced by the
fruit possesses Laura, transfixing her into an obsessive, drug-like state. Thinking only of her limitless appetite,
Laura asserts,
I ate and ate my fill,
Yet my mouth waters still;
Tomorrow night I will
Buy more. (ll. 166-168).
The sporadic, rushed feeling of these lines illustrates Lauras thirst. This is particularly evident in the
enjambment occurring at the end of line 167, which expresses the desire to buy more. Symbolically, Lauras
thirst symbolizes an awakened feminine desire, implying both economic consumption and erotic
consummation, producing the anxiety of an unleashed female sexuality (Felski 76). Thus, Lauras insatiable
desire threatens the social fabric of masculine discourse because it unleashes the unrestrained female desire.

Sources:
http://www.enotes.com/topics/goblin-market (http://www.enotes.com/topics/goblin-market)

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