Goblin Market (Essay Sample)

Name Course Professor Date Goblin Market In the article by Lesa Scholl on Goblin Market, she talks of the biblical aspects discussed in Christina Rossetti's poem. Christina Rossetti references the biblical story of the Fall and the conventional discussion of the forbidden fruit. She accomplishes this to refute the distinctly patriarchal view of women in Victorian culture concerning sexuality, learning, and the workforce and rebuild the Christian notion of redemption. Lesa Scholl attempts to answer the query of how female desire ought to be viewed, which depends on what or who prohibits fruit intake, regardless of whether it's a patriarchal society lived by Rossetti. The poem's ambiguity demonstrates that Rossetti was aware of how difficult it would be to find a solution under her time's social, cultural, and ideological constraints. In Rossetti's era, female sexuality and literacy were inextricable, though ironically linked; thus, it appears logical to believe that in "Goblin Market," she contemplates both difficulties. As many critics have noted, the barred fruit unquestionably alludes to feminine sexuality, but it can also imply female intelligence and education. Rossetti's concern is not that the poem explores various forms of feminine desire, not only intellectual or sexual. (Scholl 8). Overall, Rossetti avoids the bold move of associating female sexuality and wickedness. Given that Victorian women were disallowed to involve in sexual activity. After all, they were considered "too pure and sacred to share in the disgusting lusts that afflicted men" because they were the passionless angels in the home. A twin bondage of sexuality and intellect was placed on women, who have been not to receive the same education as men because it was believed that their sexual systems would be damaged by too much mental activity. By contrasting the positive associations between Eve and the Virgin Mary in Petrarch's Laura, Armstrong examines the "angel" idea of a woman being "an island of perfection in a dark world." The virginity allegory produced the concept of the "whole," a female body with an intact hymen held by an innocent person, "integrity," or even a sense of wholeness even before Fall. Armstrong talks about how virginity may be rebellious, which resists the assumption that a woman requires a man to be complete. She develops an addiction-like hankering for the fruit, and because she cannot satisfy it, she becomes helpless (Scholl 6). The fruits from the Forbidden tree and the fruit from the Tree of Life form Rossetti somewhat blur a line. In the Genesis story of the Fall, Adam and Eve are punished by being denied access to the Tree of Life after eating the forbidden fruit. The fruit Laura cannot consume any longer, though, is the same formerly off-limits to her in Rossetti's poem. It does not seem plausible that Rossetti establishes a simple binary of abstinence as virtuous and consumption as immoral with this decision. She often alludes to the postponed hope in her writing; therefore, this is more of a depiction of that. At the St. Mary Magdalene charity house in Highgate, Rossetti volunteered his time at a shelter meant for battered women from 1859 to 1870, where the connection between spiritual life and social change was plain to see (Scholl 9). As a result, the poem should be viewed as merely conveying a redemption message because doing so should imply that Laura believed she committed a mortal sin by obtaining the fruit in the first place. Her recovery is essential for her social reintegration rather than her spiritual atonement. If Lizzie is a redemptive Christ figure, there must be an interactive ...