Female Sexuality, Societal Ostracization, and Goblin Market Nancy Canevari College

Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market deals with issues of sex and rape, in spite of the fact that as a Victorian-era poem, it cannot talk explicitly about any of those things. Instead, Rossetti creates an extended metaphor of monstrous goblins selling fruit, through which she reveals the harm that can come to women through sex, whether that is consensual sex or rape. She reveals how women experience ruin through sex, while men do not, but she also reveals how for women, the act of being offered sex can be a violent act, because regardless of the outcome (refusal or acceptance), terrible consequences can follow. Through the use of poetic strategies such as metaphor, imagery, and allusions, Rossetti argues that for Victorian women, sex has the power to damage regardless of consent, but beyond that, the damaging nature of sex for Victorian women means that society traps them in a bind reminiscent of a magical trance.

Rossetti establishes a contrast between those who have sex and those who don’t by creating opposing images of purity and ruination, which she does through the imagery and similes she uses to describe physical appearance. When Lizzie refuses to buy the goblin’s fruit, Rossetti describes her as “white and golden… like a...