This A level Exemplar essay on 'Explore the ways in which temptation is presented in The World and in one other poem' (featuring Goblin Market as the other poem) is perfect for revising Christina Rossetti.
Explore the ways in which temptation is presented in The World and in one other poem.
You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.
In her cautionary poems, “The World” and “Goblin Market”, Christina Rossetti presents
temptation using natural imagery and consistent biblical allusions. Within both poems, it is
clear that instant gratification (especially that of sexual nature) cannot justify the terrible
consequences that follow it. By exploring the consequences of succumbing to temptation,
Rossetti is able to convey a powerful religious warning to her readership of the importance of
resisting the temptation posed by temporal delights.
The opening stanza of “Goblin Market”, Goblins selling fruit “cry: Come by our orchid fruits,
/Come buy, come buy”. Rossetti repeats this rhyming refrain throughout the poem, with the
verb “buy” continually betraying the transactional nature of temptation. In this way, Rossetti
may have intended to criticise and warn against the rising consumerism accompanying the
Industrial Revolution at the time of her writing the poem in 1859. Temptation then takes the
form of asyndetic listing of exotic fruit intended to tempt two sisters. Rossetti describes
“plump unpeck’d cherries” potentially to convey that it is virginial innocence of the sisters
that is at stake. The hurried listing of fruit “all ripe together/ In summer weather” suggests an
unnatural abundance and may convey a thoughtless rush to sexual maturity.
In “Goblin Market”, Rossetti presents consequences of surrendering to temptation through
the peripheral character, “Jeanie”, who “fell with the first snow” and on who’s grave “no grass
will grow”. Here, the mournful tone and Rossetti’s use of the verb “fell” implies that “Jeanie”
is a fallen woman who indulged in premarital sex. Rossetti reiterates this by alludes to her
being infertile with the mention that “no grass will grow” and suggests that Jeanie “fell sick
and died” as a result of contracting a sexual disease. At the time of writing “Goblin Market”,
sexual diseases were a severe problem that resulted in enforcement of the “Contagious
Diseases Acts”, that Rossetti campaigned against. Consequently, Laura’s subsequent decline
as she “no more swept the house” and fails in her domestic duties is all the more dire and
Lizzie’s wise warning against temptation are extended to the readership.
Within “The World”, the seductress who “woos” and tempts the first-person narrator is
described by Rossetti as being “soft, exceeding fair” but at night “the moon changeth she;/
Loathsome and foul with hideous leprosy”. It is significant that “she” is afflicted by “leprosy”,
as the original readership would have recognised the disease as the biblical punishment for
sin. Therefore, the sensual temptation presented in the poem is clearly associated with sin
the penance of hell. This is reiterated by the final quatrain that ends with the narrator
contemplating, “Is this friend indeed: that I should sell /my soul to her, give her my life and
youth, /Till my feet, cloven too, take hold on hell?”. The satanic imagery of “cloven” feet and
the triadic structure of the potential loss of the narrator’s “soul”, “life” and “youth” emphasise
the terrible consequences of yielding to temptation. It is likely that this allegorical warning
would have had more impact on the original readership who - like Rossetti herself as a devout
high Anglican – wholeheartedly believed that the punishment for sin was an eternity in hell.
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