goblin market Essay -- essays research papers

It is difficult to cull a grateful thematic interpretation from Christina Rossettis "Goblin Market." Obvious themes might be "that unity should be careful of temptation," or "that little girls should not talk to alien men." One might even go on to the end of the rime and decide the theme is "that sisters should love one another." These are rather old-hat ideas, however, and while the poem definitely supports them (and they are easily defended with quotations from the text), a much careful look at "Goblin Market" reveals that the poem is evenhandedly complex, and able to support a more revolutionary reading than the ones vomit forth above. Rather than saying that "Goblin Market" has a limited theme, I would put forth the notion that it attempts to deal with certain problems Rossetti acknowledge within the canon of slope literature, and specifically with the problem of how to construct a female hero.There are no signifecant fe male heros in English literature up to the time of Rossetti. Female protagonists exist, of course, like Elizabeth in Austens congratulate and Prejudice, but they have no outlet for heroic action. They are confine by the gender-roles into which a male-dominated society has placed them. Elizabeth must spend a good deal of her energy waiting for Darcy to take action she herself is hobbled by the cords of decorum.In "Goblin Market," Rossetti creates a rudimentary framework of behavior in wh...