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Quotes from literary critics about the collection of poems by Christina Rossetti
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  • Course
  • Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H472)
  • Institution
  • OCR
  • Book
  • Goblin Market and Other Poems

A collection of quotes from a range of literary critics about the collection of poems by Christina Rossetti, covering all the main themes. These are the critics I used to revise for my a-level, for which I got an A.

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  • July 22, 2021
  • 2
  • 2019/2020
  • Other
  • Unknown

Subjects

  • christina rossetti
  • critics
  • poetry critics
  • poetry
  • a level english literature
  • a level english literature ocr
  • a level english literature ocr poetry
  • a level english literature ocr poetry rossetti critics

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  • Written Presentation on Goblin Market (Part 1 of Presentation Package)
  • Goblin Market Presentation (Part 2 of Presentation Package)
  • Quotes from poems by Christina Rossetti
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  • Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H472)
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Rossetti - Critics

Ray Cluley
(Forbidden Fruits: Sex and religion in ‘Goblin Market’)

• We recognise there is something unnatural about this abundance ‘all ripe together’ and as the
poem develops this hurried ripening of fruits can be likened to a rush into sexual maturity.

• The two are bound together by their relationship, as the closeness of their lines indicate.

• Referred to as ‘goblins’ as early as the second line, they are creatures outside of nature.

• It’s a sexual metaphor of often utilised in literature, the women giving of her body via a lock of
hair.

• Rossetti also denied ‘Goblin Market’ was a religious allegory […] Yet comparisons to The Fall
abound and the poem contains a wealth of biblical symbolism. Most obvious is the ‘fruit
forbidden’, the list beginning signi cantly with an apple.

• She is a re-gendered Christ gure in su ering for her sister, standing against the goblins kicking
and mauling, refusing to ‘open lip from lip’, keeping her innocence intact.

• From a reader’s perspective the religious meaning is clear: Rossetti has used ‘Goblin Market’ to
retell the story of the Fall, depicting Laura as a redeemable Eve whilst goblin men embody the
serpent.

• Rossetti’s lasting message seems to be an appeal to support women who have succumbed to
such desires.

• Showing that, although men may be absent from the poem, the patriarchal system to which the
women belong is not.

Alice Kirby
(Christina Rossetti: Proto-Feminist Poet?)

• She may choose conventional forms […] but what she does with them is unusual, challenging
some of the givens of Victorian poetry and thought.

• The poem can be read as an allegory for a woman trying to transcend the boundaries placed
upon her by society. Laura is exploring her own identity beyond the domestic sphere. The
goblins, therefore, represent the perceived danger of a woman neglecting her responsibilities to
pursue other, forbidden, roles. Once Laura has tasted the Goblin fruits she “No more swept the
house // Tended the fowls or cows…”

• This could be read as a return to conventional Victorian values, a very ordinary ending to an
otherwise, arguably, subversive text. However, the continued absence of men […] may suggest
something di erent.


Suzanne Williams
(‘In The Round Tower At Jhansi’ June 8: A Postcolonial and Feminist Reading)

• Accounts suggest that all the Europeans at the siege surrendered, having been falsely assured
of their safety, and were then in fact brutally massacred.

• Rossetti creates a very conventional pairing. The husband is protector and the wife is
infantilised as women frequently, in fact usually, are in much Victorian literature. He is strong […]
and asserts ownership ‘no mine own’.





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