Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” published in 1862, stands as one of the most enigmatic and enduring narrative poems of the Victorian era. At first glance, it captivates readers with its seemingly simple, fairy-tale like narrative, lush imagery, and rhythmic verse. The poem tells the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie, who encounter a group of nefarious goblin merchants peddling their exotic, tempting fruits. This immediate accessibility, however, belies a profound complexity, as “Goblin Market” meticulously weaves together strands of moral allegory, spiritual parable, feminist critique, and psychological drama, inviting a multitude of interpretations that continue to fascinate scholars and general readers alike.

The poem’s rich tapestry of meaning is precisely what gives it its lasting power. Rossetti, a devout Anglican and prominent member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, infused her work with a distinctive blend of the naturalistic and the symbolic. “Goblin Market” operates on multiple levels simultaneously, allowing it to be read as a cautionary tale for children, a deeply religious allegory of temptation and redemption, a nuanced exploration of female sexuality and sisterly love, or even a critique of Victorian consumerism. Unpacking these layers reveals the poem’s remarkable depth, demonstrating its intricate craftsmanship and its resonant engagement with the prevailing social, moral, and spiritual concerns of its time.

The Surface Meaning: A Victorian Fairy Tale and Moral Fable

At its most immediate and accessible level, “Goblin Market” unfolds as a vivid and captivating narrative that shares many characteristics with a traditional fairy tale. The plot is straightforward: two innocent sisters, Laura and Lizzie, live by a brook. Each evening, grotesque goblin men appear, enticing passersby with their calls to buy their luscious, seemingly magical fruits – “Come buy, come buy!” Lizzie, ever cautious, warns Laura against listening to their entreaties, recalling the fate of Jeanie, another girl who succumbed to the goblins’ temptation and subsequently withered away and died.

Despite Lizzie’s warnings, Laura is drawn by an irresistible curiosity and the sheer beauty of the fruit. She cannot resist the allure, trading a lock of her golden hair for a taste of the forbidden delights. Rossetti’s description of Laura’s consumption of the fruit is intensely sensual: “She sucked their fruit globes fair or red: / Sucked and sucked and sucked the more / Her lips all dabbled with the froth / Of berries, pulpy, sweet and rare.” This act of consumption marks a turning point. Initially, Laura experiences profound pleasure, but the goblins refuse to sell her more fruit, vanishing with cruel smiles.

From that day forward, Laura longs for the fruit, but she can no longer hear the goblins’ cries, nor can she see them. She begins to waste away, her beauty fading, her hair turning grey, her life force ebbing. Lizzie, witnessing her sister’s tragic decline, resolves to save her. She bravely approaches the goblin men herself, intending to buy fruit for Laura. However, the goblins, realizing her intention, refuse to sell and instead try to force-feed her the fruit, pulling at her, tearing her clothes, and smearing their juices over her face. Lizzie steadfastly refuses to open her mouth, enduring their abuse with unwavering resolve: “They clawed her, pinched her, kicked her, / Tore her gown and soiled her stocking, / Twitched her hair out by the roots, / Stamped upon her tender feet, / Held her hands and squeezed her arm, / Trampled on her flowers, and lost her golden hair.”

Eventually, exhausted and defeated by Lizzie’s passive resistance, the goblins retreat, leaving Lizzie drenched in the sticky, sweet, and potent juices of their fruit. Lizzie, without tasting, rushes back to Laura, calling her to “Come and kiss me, kiss me, kiss me / For my sake and for your own.” Laura, though initially repulsed by the sight of her sister, eventually embraces her and is covered in the same potent fruit juices. The contact, however, is not pleasurable but agonizing; it acts as a powerful antidote, causing her to writhe in pain, experiencing a “fiery antidote” that purges the poison from her system. She falls into a deep sleep, awakening the next morning fully restored, her health and beauty returned. The poem concludes with Laura and Lizzie living long, happy lives, sharing their story with their children, teaching them the profound lesson that “There is no friend like a sister.”

This surface narrative functions powerfully as a cautionary tale, particularly for young Victorian women. It warns against succumbing to temptation, particularly from unknown or untrustworthy sources, and highlights the dangers of curiosity and illicit pleasures that promise immediate gratification but lead to spiritual and physical decay. The goblins embody dangerous, predatory forces, while Laura represents the innocent susceptible to corruption. Lizzie, the embodiment of sisterly devotion and self-sacrifice, offers a clear moral pathway: unwavering virtue and steadfast love can overcome even the direst consequences of transgression. The vivid, almost over-the-top sensory details of the fruit—its colors, smells, and tastes—serve to emphasize the overwhelming nature of temptation and the allure of forbidden experiences, making the moral lesson all the more impactful.

Deeper Meanings: A Multifaceted Allegory

Beyond its immediate narrative, “Goblin Market” blossoms into a complex tapestry of allegorical and symbolic meanings, reflecting Rossetti’s profound engagement with the spiritual, social, and psychological anxieties of her era.

Religious and Allegorical Interpretation

One of the most prominent and widely accepted interpretations views “Goblin Market” as a powerful Christian allegory, deeply rooted in Rossetti’s devout Anglican faith.

  • Temptation and the Fall: Laura’s encounter with the goblin fruit is strongly evocative of the biblical story of Eve and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The goblin men, with their deceptive smiles and enticing wares, function as serpentine tempters, luring Laura into a state of sin. Like Eve, Laura succumbs to a desire for forbidden knowledge and pleasure, resulting in a fall from grace. Her subsequent wasting away, inability to hear the goblins, and loss of vitality can be seen as a spiritual death, a consequence of sin that separates her from life and divine grace. The “poison” of the fruit is thus not merely physical but spiritual, representing the corrosive effect of sin on the soul.
  • Redemption and Sacrifice: Lizzie emerges as a Christ-like figure, embodying selfless love and vicarious atonement. Her willingness to face the goblins, endure their abuse, and be smeared with the very “poison” that afflicted her sister, without succumbing to temptation herself, mirrors Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The description of Lizzie, “her gleaming locks all soiled with glue / Of goblin fruits that for you knew,” evokes images of Christ’s suffering and the shedding of his blood for the redemption of humanity. The juices on Lizzie’s face become a symbol of atonement, and when Laura kisses her, she partakes not of sin, but of redemption, suffering a painful but ultimately purgative experience that restores her. This act resonates with the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, where the believer partakes in Christ’s body and blood for spiritual nourishment and forgiveness of sins. Lizzie’s enduring suffering purifies Laura, transforming the poisoned fruit into a life-giving remedy through an act of selfless love.
  • Original Sin and Grace: Laura’s initial state of innocence, her fall, and subsequent redemption reflect the Christian narrative of humanity’s original sin and the possibility of grace through divine intercession. The poem suggests that while individuals may succumb to temptation, redemption is possible through faith and the self-sacrificing love of another.

Feminist and Gender Interpretation

“Goblin Market” offers a compelling lens through which to examine Victorian gender roles, female agency, and the dangers faced by women in a patriarchal society.

  • Sisterhood and Female Solidarity: The bond between Laura and Lizzie is central to the poem’s message. Their deep, almost exclusive affection (“Golden head by golden head, / Like two blossoms on one stem”) is portrayed as a sanctuary against the external world. The poem champions the power of female solidarity and mutual support, presenting it as a vital force for survival and redemption. In a society that often pitted women against each other or relegated them to subservient roles, Rossetti emphasizes sisterly love as a powerful, transformative force, capable of overcoming adversity where individual efforts might fail. This challenges the traditional narrative of female competition.
  • Female Vulnerability and Predation: The goblin men, with their animalistic features and aggressive tactics, can be interpreted as symbolic of predatory male figures or the dangers that Victorian women faced from exploitative societal forces. The fruit itself could symbolize various forms of forbidden or dangerous “pleasures” available to women, particularly illicit sexuality. Laura’s temptation and subsequent “fall” echo the plight of the “fallen woman” in Victorian society—a woman who transgressed sexual norms and was consequently ostracized, often left to wither and die both socially and physically, much like Jeanie and Laura before her redemption. The poem critiques the double standard that punished women for sexual transgressions while often absolving men.
  • Sexual Allegory: Many critics interpret the goblin fruit as a metaphor for sexual experience, particularly illicit or non-sanctioned sexuality. Laura’s intense craving and subsequent physical decline could represent the societal condemnation and personal devastation that followed for women who lost their “innocence” outside of marriage. The act of eating the fruit, described with such vivid sensuality, can be seen as a symbolic defloration or the taking of forbidden pleasure. Lizzie’s resolute refusal to consume the fruit, even under duress, signifies her preservation of virtue and her rejection of the predatory advances, positioning her as a figure of purity and strength. Her subsequent “sacrifice” and the “fiery antidote” could represent the painful but necessary process of purging societal shame and reclaiming one’s body and soul. Some even suggest a lesbian subtext, where the exclusive bond between the sisters, intensified by Laura’s transgression, reasserts a non-heteronormative love as the ultimate healing power, with the goblins representing the intrusive and destructive forces of conventional male-female relations.

Psychoanalytic Interpretation

From a psychoanalytic perspective, “Goblin Market” can be read as an exploration of desire, repression, and the unconscious mind.

  • Oral Fixation and Desire: The overwhelming focus on the act of eating and the intense, almost orgasmic descriptions of Laura consuming the fruit can be interpreted through the lens of an oral fixation or the primal nature of desire. The fruit represents an unbridled impulse of the “id,” a forbidden pleasure that Laura cannot resist. Her subsequent withdrawal symptoms and longing speak to the addictive nature of unfulfilled desires.
  • Trauma and Healing: Laura’s experience with the goblins and her subsequent decline can be seen as a form of psychological trauma. Lizzie’s intervention, involving a forceful yet loving confrontation with the source of the trauma (the fruit juices), facilitates a cathartic release. The “fiery antidote” and Laura’s subsequent deep sleep represent a process of working through the trauma, purging the negative experience, and achieving psychological restoration.
  • The Shadow Self: The goblin men themselves could be viewed as manifestations of the shadow self, representing repressed desires or the darker, untamed aspects of the psyche that lure individuals away from societal norms or conscious control.

Social and Economic Critique

Beyond the more common interpretations, “Goblin Market” can also be read as a subtle critique of Victorian society’s burgeoning consumerism and its inherent dangers.

  • Predatory Capitalism: The goblin men, with their “cries of ‘Come buy, come buy,’” operate much like unscrupulous vendors in an unregulated market. They offer tantalizing goods but at a hidden, devastating cost. The fruit is beautiful but ultimately poison, symbolizing deceptive marketing practices and the inherent dangers of unchecked commercialism, where profit motive overrides ethical considerations. Laura becomes a victim of a predatory economic exchange.
  • Addiction and Exploitation: The poem’s depiction of Laura’s craving and withdrawal symptoms powerfully mirrors the effects of drug addiction, a growing social concern in the Victorian era. The goblins could be seen as drug pushers, and the fruit as a narcotic that offers immediate euphoria but leads to dependency and ruin. This allegory extends beyond mere substances to any form of social or economic exploitation that ensnares individuals in a cycle of desire and dependency.

Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is far more than a simple children’s story or a straightforward moral allegory. Its surface charm, rooted in the familiar tropes of a fairy tale, draws the reader into a world of vibrant imagery and compelling narrative. However, beneath this accessible facade lies a profound and complex exploration of themes that resonate deeply with human experience.

The poem’s enduring power lies in its masterful intertwining of diverse symbolic layers. It functions simultaneously as a poignant Christian allegory of temptation, sin, and the redemptive power of vicarious sacrifice; a powerful feminist statement on sisterhood, female vulnerability, and agency in a restrictive patriarchal society; and a nuanced psychological study of desire, repression, and healing. Furthermore, it subtly critiques the emerging dangers of unchecked consumerism and the perils of addiction. Rossetti’s genius lies in her ability to imbue every detail—from the lusciousness of the forbidden fruit to the grotesque features of the goblin men—with multiple, resonant meanings, allowing the poem to speak to different readers and different eras with equal force. This multilayered richness ensures “Goblin Market” remains a captivating and significant work, reflecting the anxieties and aspirations of the Victorian era while offering timeless insights into the human condition, the nature of good and evil, and the transformative strength of love.