Rossetti tries to change women's predicament by showing that transgressing society's rules doesn't necessarily lead to an unhappy ending.

Laura certainly transgresses society's rules by gorging herself on the goblins' fruit. But despite being brought to the brink of death, Laura survives. She succumbed to temptation but lived to tell the tale.

One can see why such an outcome would've been so shocking to Victorian sensibilities. For the Victorians, any woman who challenged society's prevailing standards of conduct could expect, at the very least, reputational ruin and social ostracism.

But not Laura. Her transgressions involved pain, suffering, and near-death, but she lives on, an independent-minded woman capable of making her own decisions in life. In that sense, she stands as a kind of feminist before her time, and certainly, many feminist literary critics have interpreted her in such a light.

As for Lizzie, she's more conventional in terms of her femininity. A carer and a nurturer, she understands, as Laura does not, the dangers of male sexuality, as symbolized by the goblins' fruit. With that in mind, she warns Laura against consuming "their evil gifts," which she knows will be harmful.

When Laura ignores her sister's wise counsel and falls seriously ill, Lizzie springs into action, acting as a concerned mother ready to do anything to save poor Laura's life. It may not be fair that Laura should suffer for her transgressions, but Lizzie has no choice but to save her. And in keeping with the values of Victorian society, it requires a chaste Lizzie to save the sexually active Laura from herself and the consequences of her transgressions against traditional gender roles.