Goblin Market, Christina Georgina Rossetti | Marian Shalkhauser (essay date 1956)
Marian Shalkhauser (essay date 1956)
SOURCE: "The Feminine Christ," in The Victorian Newsletter, No. 10, Autumn, 1956, pp. 19-20.
[In the following essay, Shalkhauser examines "Goblin Market" as a "Christian fairy tale" in which Lizzie represents Christ and Laura signifies sinful humanity.]
Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" is a unique Christian fairy tale in which a feminine cast of characters is substituted for the masculine cast of the Biblical sin-redemption sequence. Lizzie, the pure sister, is the symbol of Christ; Laura represents Adam-Eve and consequently all of sinful mankind.
The basic symbolic pattern begins immediately: "Morning and evening / Maids heard the goblins cry." Throughout their lives sin beckons to God's creatures. Notice that only maidens are mentioned as hearing the cry of sin, and that they are innocent until corrupted by the animalistic masculine goblins. The cry of these goblins is that of the...
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