Summary notes on the critical essay The Potential of Sisterhood by Janet Galligani explaining the main arguments the author has on Rossetti's magnum opus, Goblin Market.
● In Christianity, the male is the Redeemer; Church hierarchy, male suffrage, and other
patriarchal practices carried this religious tradition of male power into the cultural
realm. Females are relegated to the supporting role of Mary/Martha (fulfilling the
secondary function of nurturing the male, the Christ figure) or as Eve (archetypal
“fallen woman”, embodiment of spiritual love and associated with carnal love). Both
these roles are inferior to the roles of men.
● Carnal love: physical, sexual love
● Victorian female = egoless, domestic “angel” in service of the male, who possess all
social and political power.
● Diametrically opposed to this “ideal” of womanhood is the “fallen” woman, whose sins
are of a sexual nature.
● Concept of a “female Christ” was not uncommon among Victorian female writers.
● “Sisterhood” can also be interpreted as a sexual identification as much as a biological
kinship.
● Christina Rossetti’s writings demonstrate how she sees a connection between the
“male” and “female” roles that are traditionally mutually exclusive.
● At the end of GM, Rossetti posits not a world without men, but a world in which all
people are allowed to play all parts, to embrace wholeness that is only possible with
the dissolution of the traditional male/female dichotomy.
● Sisterhood = interdependence
● Traditional female role of nurturing = traditional roles of men.
● Rossetti was heavily influenced by Florence Nightingale, whose brave service in
Crimea made her an atypical Victorian female and whose outspoken views on the
role of women, especially in her essay Cassandra, have clear affinities with GM.
● In GM, Rossetti has created a world in which women embody the “strong”, male side
of life as well as the “weak”, female side.
● Achieved through subverting the Biblical stories of Eve and Christ.
● Undercuts the idea that the redeemer/ spiritual superior (Lizzie) is better or above the
redeemed/ erotic (Laura).
● Goblins do not represent the nature of human males. Both Lizzie and Laura seem
contentedly married at end of the poem: this would be inappropriate if the goblins
were intended to represent all members of the male sex.
● Two girls represent two halves of one personality, which becomes “divided” after
Laura’s “fall” and must reintegrate.
● Two distinct individuals who are equally incomplete. Neither sister is superior over
the other.
● Even though Laura succumbs to the temptation of the fruit, neither Lizzie nor the
narrator offer an explicit negative judgement.
● Closeness of the girls is emphasised immediately after the temptation occurs, further
stresses the equality of the girls.
● The molestation allowed Lizzie to confront and defeat her own fear of sensuality.
Lizzie is the one who then initiates the erotic scene.
● Laura’s lesson = be prudent and that erotic love is empty without emotional
commitment.
● Lizzie’s lesson = bold action is okay and that physical love is both beautiful and
integral to the human experience.
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