Christina Rossetti grew up in a family of accomplished writers and artists whose muses dealt with contemporary life and past studies, but were strictly evangelical Christians. Christina Rossetti strictly followed the expectations of this ideal (Everett). There has been much speculation that she lived a self-repressed life in which she revealed her passions for certain men through her poetic works since they did not share similar religious values, and lived vicariously through her less repressed brother and his friends (Gilbert & Gubar 874) . The implications of these incompatible and conflicting dynamics can be read through his poetry, particularly "Goblin Market", published in 1862 (RPO). "Goblin Market" uses imagery, symbolism, and erotic characterization of sisters Laura and Lizzie to symbolically discuss how women's relationships with men undermine women's worth and worth, and that women can only realize their full potential through relationships with other women. While these relationships are not limited to sexual or romantic ones, the relationship between the sisters is eroticized to starkly emphasize how women can draw beauty and greatness from other women, while men's degradation tends to only wear women down.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The fruits in this poem are described in a sexual way through the words “free-born wild cranberries,” “sweet to the tongue,” and “delicious,” and the way Lizzie describes them as “evil gifts” (lines 11, 30, 61 and 66). The fruits also come from various locations around the world and are fresh at different times of the year, but they are all part of the goblin market, which suggests some preternatural or supernatural aspect of these goblin men, and also is enough to make the fruits both more coveted and more forbidden. The goblins who sell the fruit are inherently deceptive; Laura and Lizzie's attempts to resist their offers demonstrate that they are chaste and would like to avoid giving in to such tricks that might make them "[grow] down and [grow] away", and "drink and [turn] grey", like their friend Jeanie who gave in (lines 154, 156). However, Laura is slightly more receptive and curious to their forbidden offers, which is bad for her. This could have been equally dangerous for a woman in the second half of 19th century England, especially if she had focused on her strict Anglican lifestyle. This danger is evident when the Goblins sneak up on Laura and exchange sly glances, signifying their licentious plot (lines 95-96). The golden curl they ask of Laura indicates a change; since she cried when he handed it to her, it is remarkably precious to her in a personal way, and she grapples with her emotions in submitting to providing her with his Goldilock. However, since it is a payment to the goblin men, this shows that they value her hair as a commodity, but also since hair can represent female beauty, they are taking away some of her beauty in exchange for "fruits" that come to represent brief pleasure sensual and then decay. This is interesting when placed in the late 1800s, a time when marriage was based more on mutual love than dowry or social advancement (Yalom 180). Social conventions and the conception of women at this time went hand in hand with new marital ideals as, focusing on love, women sought to attract such love by being "as physically attractive as possible" (Yalom 183). This part of the poem suggests that beauty andthe youth of women are their only importance to men and that once taken away from women, their life begins to fade away, they are no longer desired and are left to waste away after brief moments. of pleasure. Eating the fruit can be equated to Laura (and previously Jeanie) losing her virginity. However, it can be seen as giving up one's beauty or vitality to a man in a more general sense; for example, a woman's primary roles at this time were "to obey and satisfy her husband [through] keeping her children physically and morally healthy and maintaining the family", and these could be seen as ways in which she " she was selling" only herself. to be exploited and exhausted, but never actually realized (Yalom 180). The fruits had an intoxicating effect on her as she “sucked their pale or red fruit globes,” until “her lips were sore,” but she left without knowing what time of day it was (lines 127, 136). Laura is greatly altered, and her bond with her sister is somewhat severed due to the bond with the goblin men and their fruits that have replaced it. Interestingly, this overt sexuality when Laura eats the fruit is replaced with a more natural and innate kind of sexuality that Rossetti refers to when he describes the two sisters - now inevitably distinct from each other - as "Bent each other in each other's wings", "Cheek to cheek and breast to breast, Locked together in a nest" (line 186 and line 197-98). While this is not as blatantly eroticized as Laura's goblin encounter, particular attention is paid to their closeness and the way their bodies delicately touch each other. Laura's anxieties when she realizes that she no longer hears the goblins but her sister does, resemble the thoughts a woman may have once she has wasted the first years of her youth and happiness by giving too much of herself to a man, in lines "Should she no longer find such succulent pasture, grown deaf and blind her tree of life fallen from the root" (lines 257-60). This anxiety is once again contrasted with the potential gratification she might feel through the relationship with her sister, like the night before, but rather she is struck by a "passionate desire", which is similar to a sort of malaise. The subsequent yearning, worry and palpable emptiness that follows his brief abduction are significant compared to his previous serenity of mind. The encounter with her eating the fruit and the frenzied obsession she had afterwards even represent an intoxicated ecstasy that blinds a woman to the sobering light of day, much like the way Laura's hair becomes " thin and gray" and the rapid progression of time "burns" ed.] her fire went out" when "noon became bright" (276-280). The Goblin men did not literally drive Laura to decay, but they played an important role in persuading her to make the choice that she did. The Goblin men represent destructive sexuality, which is demonstrated in how they initially sexualize Laura and she begins to decay, but more explicitly when they "hugged and kissed [Lizzie] : they squeezed and caressed her,” but then violently “torn her dress and dirtied her stocking” when she refuses to eat the fruit (348-49 and 403). The once romanticized notion of forbidden men with their forbidden fruit transforms into a terrifying and violent reality that they shamelessly enact, and denies the possibility of Laura succumbing to their deception before appearing beautiful or vibrantly sexual; instead, it shows that these goblin men have intentions that they do everything they can to carry out, which involve taking advantage of women and using force. Sexuality," (559, 562).