Randy Salarax

IB English

Goblin Market Analysis        Word Count: 1,206

         “Goblin Market” is a narrative poem that is told from a third person perspective. Rossetti uses rudimentary sequences to create a framework that consists of twenty eight stanzas. In this poem, there are three characters consisting of Laura who is portrayed as an innocent girl in the beginning of the poem. Nevertheless, as she is intertwined by the goblin men as a result of their malicious acts, her life is tainted and is destroyed by transforming into a meaningless soul.  Lizzie is another character who is depicted as Laura’s loving sister whom sacrifices herself in order to maintain her sister content even if it torments her to watch Laura’s reaction to the temptation of the fruits the goblin men offer.  These goblins are seen as manipulative foul men who take pride in selling their fruits and observing the girls who take the fruits and eventually desire more and more making the girls slowly wither down.

The poem Goblin Market written by Christina Rossetti involves two close sisters, named Laura and Lizzie, the goblin men, and a character named Jeanie who is referenced but not actually present for any of the events in the content.

         Laura and Lizzie are accustomed to gather water each evening near a stream, and each night hear the calls from the Goblin Merchants, who sell fruits in mystical abundance and variety. At the start of the poem, Laura stays behind at the stream after her sister has left, and having no money, trades a lock of her hair for fruit, shedding a tear “more rare than pearl” as she does so. After consuming the fruit in a sort of delirious manner, she comes to her senses and after picking up one of the seeds returns home. Lizzie, “full of wise upbraidings,” reminds her about Jeanie, who had some of the goblin men’s fruits the year previous and died after suffering from isolation and deterioration. Laura fantasizes about her next encounter with the goblin market while she and Lizzie go about the routines of their work the next day. While near the stream waiting for the goblins in the evening, she discovers that Lizzie can hear the voices of the Goblins, although Laura herself cannot. She falls into a long period of physical deterioration and depression, during which time she does no household work as the winter approaches. She one day recalls the seed and plants it, but it bears nothing.

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         Lizzie observes in very late autumn that Laura seems to be on the verge of death, and resolves to visit the goblin men to buy some of their fruits, which she believes will help soothe some of Laura’s pain. Having brought money with her, she is greeted by the goblins at the stream. However, their arguably friendly attitudes turn malicious, when she informs them that she wishes to pay with coin, and to take their fruits with her. They then physically assault her in an unsuccessful attempt to make her consume the fruits, in the process coating her with fruit ...

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