There are people in the world who think old books are boring. Well, clearly those people have never come across Christina Rossetti’s classic long poem “Goblin Market.” It is a scandalous and beautiful – more beautiful than scandalous – piece that can be described, according to one interpretation, as a poem of feminism and sisterhood, filled with lesbian and Christian overtones. Yes, it was obviously a very bold piece for the Victorian era it was written in (1859, to be exact) and, in fact, still continues to stir controversy in literature classes to this day.
In terms of plot, the poem follows two sisters – Laura and Lizzie – who are tempted to buy the delicious fruits that are being sold by a weird assortment of goblin men. This inclusion of goblins – mythical creatures from European folklore – is one of the reasons why the poem is often regarded as having been written for children, as the goblins give the poem a fairytale-like quality. But, understanding the prudishness of Victorian society, it is possible to see why Rossetti may have felt the need to layer the real pro-feminist, pro-homosexual leanings of her poem under a familiar trope from children’s poetry.
Laura succumbs to the temptation of the goblin and partakes, heartily eating their fruits, a scene that Rossetti describes in highly sexual imagery: “She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more / Fruits which that unknown orchard bore; / She suck’d until her lips were sore…” The goblins then disappear (perhaps Rossetti’s way of taking a jab at the very real scenario of men using women and then vanishing into the night), leaving Laura to crave and pine for the fruits until she begins to go grey and wither away.
Lizzie, deciding to save her sister’s life, tracks down the goblin men and tries to buy some of her fruits. The men attack Lizzie, clawing at her and trying to force their forbidden fruits into her mouth – the scene can be regarded as a sexual assault on the woman (the goblins “Tore her gown and soil’d her stockings… Stamp’d upon her tender feet / Held her hands and squeezed their fruits / Against her mouth to make her eat”) and at the same time, the passage also has some overtones of the Biblical scene where Jesus, carrying the cross, is attacked by the crowd. Rossetti makes sure that Lizzie, the sister in the poem who does not succumb to temptation, is seen to be pure – almost as much as Jesus himself.
When she returns home, Lizzie is dripping from the fruit juices of the goblins’ attack and she offers herself up to her sister, encouraging her to take the rejuvenating juices so that she may feel well again: “Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices / Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you, / Goblin pulp and goblin dew. / Eat me, drink me, love…” It is in lines such as these where we see Rossetti comparing the relationship of the two sisters in words that do bring to mind lesbian, sexual imagery. Rossetti, in my opinion, uses such scenes to subtly advocate on behalf of lesbian relationships, implying in her poem that lesbianism and lesbian love is similar to the purity of both sisterhood and Christianity.