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Presentation of Gender and Desire in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market
The Goblin Market is a poem that takes the form of narration about two girls who
probably happen to be sisters and are presented in a way that they ought to endure carnal desire
for them to embrace the most significant and most pure realm of sexuality which is marriage.
Brought out as a story of the formal rejection of marriage, it does not deny the body and its
desires since the body, and its desires are fundamental requirements in embracing the spiritual
nature of the soul. From this, the protagonists in the poem, Lizzie and Laura, are forced to
embrace both spiritual and earthly natures in traditional Victorian marriage. This essay will argue
that women during Victorian era were subjugated in society based on based on Christina
Rossetti, in “The Goblin Market” and Shallotte Parking in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
Christina successfully acknowledges female sexuality and desire in her poem “Goblin
Market," which is less a reflection of the presentation of women in Victorian society. The
Victorian society exhibited many gender inequalities where men had a lot of freedom and
opportunity to express themselves sexually, unlike their female counterparts. It was expected of
women to remain sexually innocent or face severe repercussions if they failed. Christina uses her

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poem to deconstruct the social constructs that unfairly treat women and put them at a
disadvantageous position. She challenges these social constructs by allowing the character Laura
to come out as a victor at the end of the story despite the transgressions she puts herself in.
Sexual desire spreads throughout the story as elaborated, "Lizzie veiled her blushes: Crouching
close together/ in the cooling weather/ with clasping arms and cautioning lips/ with tingling
cheeks and fingertips. (Rossetti 35-39). The behavior of Lizzie is a clear indication of a person
who is sexually aroused, an indicator of how the two girls early in the poem had already had
encounters with some touch of sexual desire. Laura cannot take control of her desires. Hence, she
lets them escalate to a point where she enters a wild realm that the goblins inhabit. At the point
of her entry, many differences can be seen between her and Lizzie as she had stopped denying
her sexual desires, unlike before when they met the Goblin men. She gives herself to the men
and pays them with her precious lock, a precise indicator that the interaction was sexual. Further
look into the encounter at the Goblin’s habitat, Rossetti’s description of the events that occurred
is explicitly sensual. “She sucked and sucked and sucked the more, fruits which unknown
orchard bore, she sucked until her lips were sore" (Rossetti 134-136). Laura cannot control her
desire and appetite; hence, she purchases the Goblin's fruits with the lock of her hair, an act that
can be alluded to as prostitution. As a result of women's ignorance about their sexuality, they are
left vulnerable to preying men who use flattery charms on them and end up trashing them just
like the goblin men did to Jeanie, a friend of Lizzie. Lizzie is fully aware of the risks that will be
incurred should one associate with the goblin men. She explains to Laura that they should not
partake of the goblin men's fruits, and from that, she cautions her sister using the story of Jeanie,
who ended up withering after eating the Goblin's fruits. Unlike Laura, Lizzie knows the effects
of eating the goblin fruits; thus, she attains protection from the temptation of innocently eating

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the fruits. Besides presenting women as innocent and easily susceptible to temptation, Rossetti
also explores the differences in punishment across gender. She presents the woman- folk as the
most vulnerable to punishment that comes after falling into sexual temptation. She strongly
criticizes the unfair treatment of society's double standards that tend to punish women for
engaging in sexual activities before marriage severely. All the women in the story suffer some
ordeal due to sexual seduction from the goblin men. Laura is at the point of dying before her
sister saves her; Lizzie also comes across challenges when she is forced to partake of the fruit
when she had gone to purchase the fruit that would help cure Laura, lastly Jeanie withers and
dies as a result of the goblin fruit. On the other hand, the goblin men do not pay for their brutal
and harsh treatment of the three girls. The only way to go is for women to look out for each other
since the Victorian culture does not protect them in any way.
The narrator in the short story ‘The Yellow Paper is a woman who takes us through her
journey of life through a journal. She first introduces us to the house that her husband John took
for them to spend summer vacation. The house is an aristocratic estate, but the narrator believes
that the house is haunted. She has many questions running in her mind regarding the nature of
that house as it has been empty for so long a time. This weird feeling about the house leads to her
depression that later escalates to madness. The author is establishing credibility by addressing
issues that were affecting women at the time of her writing. The setting in terms of time is
during the first –wave of feminism, a time when women were denied the right to vote. The
author's effectiveness in her work can be seen because she is questioning why women should be
subjugated, especially in marriage
Charlotte Perkins has followed a similar trajectory in her poem "The Yellow Wallpaper.
Both narratives are by women exploring women's position and the role they play amid men

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during the Victorian era. Both Perkins and Rossetti seek to address the plight of women using
their literary works. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story where the woman character allows us
to follow her life journey through a journal she writes. The female characters in “ Yellow
Wallpaper” have been denied the opportunity to explore their sexuality and are required to
remain sexually innocent and ignorant until they get married, the female character in The Yellow
Wallpaper has been denied the opportunity to explore writing yet she is a born writer. This denial
leads to their hysterical tendencies that lead to insanity in "The Yellow Wallpaper".This denial of
exposure in both texts leads to grave consequences at the end of both narrations. In both
narrations, women go through unfortunate occurrences that ruin their lives, and they both try to
find some way out. Laura is fortunate enough to have Lizzie, her sister, who is aware of the
consequences of eating the goblin fruit and therefore cautions her against eating it. Even after
eating, she seeks a cure, and by good luck, Laura regains her health. Unlike Laura, who has a
happy ending, the character in "The Yellow Wallpaper seeks to exonerate herself through the
keen analysis of the woman in the yellow wallpaper who seems to be behind bars. She crawls out
of the seeming bars, and at that point, her husband finds her crawling on the floor (Cabra P1).
Unfortunately, she does not get a happy ending since she ends up being mad due to her
encounters in the so-called haunted house. Both authors establish their credibility by addressing
the issues that affect women during the Victorian era. The subjugation of women and severe
punishment are issues that are primarily explored, especially in the context of marriage. This is
an exposé of the struggles that women go through in the quest to deliberate themselves from the
shackles that social constructs entangle them in regarding marital affairs. Women are not allowed
to make decisions even in matters about their health. This aspect is equivalent to the harsh
punishment that womenfolk receive due to their irrational sexual desires. Both works are credible

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in the sense that they seek to exonerate women from the labyrinth of subjugation that
encompasses their lives and inaccessibility to explore their sexual desires without punishment,
just like the menfolk. Lastly, unlike Perkins, who does not use the protagonist's sister-in-law to
help her quest for self-identity, Rossetti chooses to create an ideal community comprised of
women and excludes men in the context of sisterhood (Galligani 63-78). This was achieved by
intentionally failing to mention any man specifically but instead identified Lizzie, Laura, and
Jeanie.
In conclusion, both Rossetti and Perkins explore the role of women during the Victorian
era. The two have addressed the grave issue of the lack of freedom and opportunity to explore
and express themselves sexually. Women have been portrayed as weak and easily susceptible to
temptations presented to them through the lens of Laura and Janie. Through a dues ex machine,
Lizzie comes up Like a Christ redeemer and helps tarnish the claims that women are weak
through her knowledge of the consequences of eating the metaphorical goblin fruit and helping
her sister in regaining her health.

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Works Cited
Cabra, Carrie. Understanding The Yellow Paper: Summary and Analysis. PrepScholar. (2019).
P1.Retrieved from: https://blog.prepscholar.com/the-yellow-wallpaper-summary-analysis
Casey, Janet Galligani. “The Potential of Sisterhood: Christina Rossetti's ‘Goblin Market.’” Victorian
Poetry, vol. 29, no. 1, 1991 pp. 63–78. JSTOR, Retrieved from:
www.jstor.org/stable/40002055
Rossetti, Christina G, and Martin Ware. Goblin Market. London: V. Gollancz. (1980). P134-
136. Retrieved from:
https://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/lgarber/courses/eng67F10texts/RossettiGoblinMarket