Interpretations

In my most recent English lesson we continued to look at the interpretations in the poem. The class was split into five groups and each group was given an interpretation to look into with more detail. My group was given Marxist, which I thought was a weak interpretation at first until I wrote about it in the blog post below and my interest grew as well as the strength of my argument that it could be interpreted into the poem. However, due to the fact we were only given one interpretation to discuss within the group we were not very clear on how the other interpretation could fit into the poem which is why the class had a group discussion on the other interpretations that were involved such as; Feminist, Erotic, Redemption and Morality.


Morality is, in my opinion, a very important interpretation. Rossetti was very religious and this is shown in many of her poems, especially the Goblin Market, therefore morality can be interpreted strongly throughout the poem. When Lizzie suffers to save Laura this could represent an illusion of the Christian story when Jesus is crucified as she is sacrificing herself in order for Laura to survive. Also, it could be argued that the story of Adam and Eve links in with parts of the poem as the fruit could be the sin and the goblins could represent the serpent, therefore they may been seen as devil like. In addition, when it says “soul consuming care” the word “soul” shows that they believe in high power and that what you do affects your soul. Rossetti also puts forward the idea that you have to face to consequences of your actions by describing how Laura suffers after eating the fruit as she becomes physically ill and also experiences physiological consequences.


 Furthermore, after the discussion in class I discovered that there is an erotic side to the poem and that it does come across strongly as you analyse deeper into the poem. When Laura sells her "golden locks" this may suggest that she is selling her virginity and the fact that she cuts off a lock of her "precious" golden hair could be a representation of the cutting of her chastity belt which is very erotic. Moreover, when the goblins are attacking Lizzie you could argue that they are sexually abusing her as the goblins "held her hands and squeezed the fruit" - this could show them squeezing the virginity and innocence out of her.


Overall, I found that feminism was an interpretation that I believe it is the strongest of the five we discussed. The idea of women overruling men and appearing as good and beautiful in comparison to the grotesque appearance and aggressive manner of the goblins makes the reader believe that feminism is an argument that could be put forward when discussing what certain details of the poem symbolise and represent, such as the goblins. The goblins could represent Rossetti’s opinion of all men and because they act brutally towards the two sisters, who are the only women mentioned in the poem therefore they represent all women, shows that Rossetti has a negative view over how men acted towards women during the period of time when the poem was written. Furthermore, due to the fact Lizzie is the feminine hero in the poem as she saves her sisters life and in some ways sacrifices her own innocence and virginity in order to heal her sister, this makes us believe that Rossetti opinions of women over men are much more positive and good and she thinks of them as heroic, innocent and proper. Also when the goblins stamp upon Lizzie’s "tender" feet this shows abuse and, perhaps, sexual abuse which links into the erotic interpretation.