goblin market

Question 1

alternative interpretations

Answer 1

religion - Laura Eve, Goblins Serphant

gender and sexuality

cautionary tale of female desire

Question 2

form

Answer 2

is experimental

it never conforms to a set rhyme scheme or metrical pattern

Question 3

written

Answer 3

1860s, when Rossetti was volunteering at ‘St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary for Fallen Women’ at Highgate

critics have argued that the themes of temptation and sexual desire are influenced by this

Question 4

imported fruit

Answer 4

grapes, pomegranates, dates ….

could be a warning of the changing commercial marketplace

Question 5

“come buy, come buy”

Answer 5

imperatives - insistent voices of men

Question 6

feminism

Answer 6

although Rossetti was not generally perceived as a feminist in her own day, various critics have applied the term to her

her writing often seems to suggest and promote the belief that women are equal to men - Lisa Scholl

Question 7

“curious Laura chose to linger”

Answer 7

struggle between the consequences of pursuing lust and the need to explore human desires

Question 8

victorian women

Answer 8

were seen as passionless angels in the home, but Karen Armstrong believes that in this poem, Rossetti is challenging this

Question 9

in victorian society

Answer 9

a woman’s loss of virginity was meant to mark her transition from youth to adulthood and motherhood

Question 10

“my mouth waters still”

Answer 10

challenges victorian ideal that women didn’t feel passion

Question 11

Laura is “like a leaping flame”

Answer 11

her passion is shown to be unhealthy and dangerous

Question 12

an alternative reading

Answer 12

a drug addiction or alcoholism - “listless”, “sunk eyes”

Question 13

loss of innocence

Answer 13

“must she then buy no more”

Question 14

references to buying and selling

Answer 14

if women in Victorian england failed to meet the standards of ordinary conduct, it would deplete their worth on the marriage market

Question 15

language of sexual violence

Answer 15

“tore her gown”

“squeezed their fruits against her mouth”

Question 16

penny

Answer 16

“flung back her penny” - perhaps link to “silver penny”, an Elizabethan word for female genitalia

held onto her virginity

Question 17

in the end

Answer 17

they both conform to their expected role as “both were wives”

Question 18

in this poem

Answer 18

there is an absence of a patriarchal figure

Question 19

Rossetti’s attitude

Answer 19

towards unconventionality and social outcasts is significant, as she seems to encourage an ideology of acceptance rather than judgement

Question 20

Rossetti addresses

Answer 20

the restrictions placed on women - she pulls down the ideological boundaries of femininity - Lesa Scholl

Question 21

in Rossetti’s account

Answer 21

Laura’s fall is markedly different from the usual (male) Victorian version

Question 22

polarized sisters

Answer 22

“Laura bowed her head to hear, / Lizzie veiled her blushes”

Lizzie’s blush implies she knows what enticement is

Question 23

historical anticipation

Answer 23

Lizzie does not eat Goblin fruit even though they “squeezed their fruits / Against her mouth to make her eat”

the struggle for female suffrage at the end of the century led to the forced feeding of women who had gone on hunger strike

Question 24

poems last word

Answer 24

“stands” - Laura who is standing

Lizzie “stood like a lily in a flood” which has enabled Laura to stand

Question 25

Grimm’s fairytale Rumpelstiltskin

Answer 25

goblins disappear as soon as the are defeated, just as they “vanished” when Lizzie resisted them

Question 26

untypical of folk stories

Answer 26

due to its richly abundant description - much more like a Pre-Raphaelite painting

Question 27

Jeanie died before experiencing

Answer 27

the “joys brides hope to have” - status of a wife, control of her own home and the pleasures of motherhood

all of which, Nora sacrifices in order to gain independence

Question 28

in English writing

Answer 28

fruit was often used in descriptions of sexual pleasure - the goblins language can be read as arousing sexual longing - “taste them and try” - invitation to sexual indulgence

Question 29

rather than saying this poem means this

Answer 29

use : “shows a concern for” or “touches on”

it’s an allegory, fable, parable

Question 30

conceived as

Answer 30

a moral tale to be read aloud in the penitentiary

Question 31

her brother’s alcoholism

Answer 31

is reflected in the poem’s themes of the dangers of excess and of unbridled appetite

self-destruction by a means of self-indulgence