Goblin Market..Role of Lizzie Essay Example
Goblin Market has many recurring themes within its context. Perhaps one of the most prominent ones is that of sisterly comradery and love. From the beginning of the poem, it is evident that Lizzie and Laura’s relationship is close. Laura looks up to Lizzie, and Lizzie is very protective of her younger sister. The relationship they share is reflective of the friendships shared between women during Christina Rossetti’s lifetime.
Lizzie, being the wiser, older sister knows already the wiles of the worldly goblins, which represent the men of Rosetti’s life, perhaps even her brother’s company themselves. As Lizzie warns her sister, “Their offers should not charm us / their evil gifts would harm us” (65-66). Clearly Lizzie believes the goblins enticements to be no more than lures to seduce the naïve and eager Laura.
As most younger siblings do, Laura does not listen to her sister. Instead she listened to goblin men “cooing all together” and followed their song. Much like Little Red Riding-Hood, Laura falls in with the wrong crowd. Rossetti makes sure to portray Laura as the completely innocent child who longed to know what she was not supposed to yet know. She was “like a rush-imbedded swan, / Like a Lily from the beck, / Like a moonlit popular branch, / Like a vessel at the launch / When its last restraint is gone” (82-86). And when that last restraint, perhaps referring to Lizzie, Laura succumbs to the goblin men’s seductions. She has no money so instead she sells the only thing she has, her virginity, to get the fruit she craves.
Laura could be compared to the first woman, Eve. Just like Laura desired the fruit offered to her by the Goblin men, Eve craved the fruit from the one tree she was forbidden to eat from. Laura was warned by Lizzie not to eat the fruit just like Eve was warned by God not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Hill 2 the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And just like Eve, Laura wanted what she was told she could not have. Perhaps it was the
Lizzie, being the wiser, older sister knows already the wiles of the worldly goblins, which represent the men of Rosetti’s life, perhaps even her brother’s company themselves. As Lizzie warns her sister, “Their offers should not charm us / their evil gifts would harm us” (65-66). Clearly Lizzie believes the goblins enticements to be no more than lures to seduce the naïve and eager Laura.
As most younger siblings do, Laura does not listen to her sister. Instead she listened to goblin men “cooing all together” and followed their song. Much like Little Red Riding-Hood, Laura falls in with the wrong crowd. Rossetti makes sure to portray Laura as the completely innocent child who longed to know what she was not supposed to yet know. She was “like a rush-imbedded swan, / Like a Lily from the beck, / Like a moonlit popular branch, / Like a vessel at the launch / When its last restraint is gone” (82-86). And when that last restraint, perhaps referring to Lizzie, Laura succumbs to the goblin men’s seductions. She has no money so instead she sells the only thing she has, her virginity, to get the fruit she craves.
Laura could be compared to the first woman, Eve. Just like Laura desired the fruit offered to her by the Goblin men, Eve craved the fruit from the one tree she was forbidden to eat from. Laura was warned by Lizzie not to eat the fruit just like Eve was warned by God not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Hill 2 the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And just like Eve, Laura wanted what she was told she could not have. Perhaps it was the