2.1: Symbolism and Archetypes Goblin's market.

2.1: Symbolism and Archetypes Goblin's Market.

1. Look up information about Christina Rossetti and "Goblin Market" on the web and tell us a little bit about her and the poem in your own words.
2. Write out the complete plot.
3. Discuss the patterns or types of symbols you found in the poem, what you think Rossetti wanted her readers to get from the symbols, and give relevant examples from the poem and indicate line numbers.
4. Identify and discuss any archetypes you find in the poem. What are they? What makes you think they are archetypes?  What do you think they mean?
5. Conclude with what you think the poem is "really about". This should be YOUR response to the poem.

     In literature, there are  many poets and writers.  One writer in particular is Christina Rossetti.  Christina Rossetti was born in December 1830 and died in December 1894, she was 64 years old.  She is an English poet known for writing poems.  She is most famous for the long, lengthy, and odd poem the Goblin Market.
     The Goblin Market, is about sibling love or more importantly, love between sisters.  In the poem, there are three girls mentioned, Laura, Lizzie, and Jeanie with Jeanie being deceased.  The poem starts off with Laura and Lizzie out near a brook.  Laura then gets lured with by the sound of goblin men selling fruit, her sister Lizzie, gives her warnings and to not deal or interact with them due to what happened to Jeanie.  Laura waves the warnings by, and goes to meet the goblins and is then poisoned by them.  Later in the poem Laura finds out that after tasting the fruit from the goblins, she can no longer hear them or see them.  Laura starts to long for the fruit from the goblins and starts to get weak.  It becomes apparent to Lizzie that her sister is getting sicker and sicker due to not being able to eat the goblin fruit.  Lizzie ends up saving her sister Laura by going to meet up with the goblins and eventually makes them mad and they start to throw food at her as well as beat her up.  She then runs home and tells Laura about it.  Lizzie tells her to lick all the juices fruit off of her, because she's soaked with it from when the goblins threw fruit at her.  Laura does and gets well again and they both live old enough to have kids of their own and to be able to tell tales of them.
      Some of the most common symbols in the Goblin Market are or were fruits, goblins, and maids.  Fruit(lines 5-29) usually symbolizes temptation and on another level can also symbolize infidelity as well as sin.  The fact that Laura had some fruit from the goblins goes to show that she wasn't able to hold back her temptation.  Goblins are usually depicted as green little men or women that usually have some kind of angle in any deal or transaction that they make.  The fact that they received payment from Laura with only a golden lock of hair(Line 125) and a tear that came down her face that is valued as a pearl (line 129) shows that they're willing to accept anything as payment.  Rossetti described Laura and Lizzie as maids, to me this would symbolize some kind of purity they are also both compared to flowers.  Rossetti also goes into detail about how they look and the bonds of sister hood that they have.
     The archetypes in the Goblin Market are Laura, Lizzie, and goblin men.  Since Laura gave in her temptation of having forbidden fruit, she can be identified with Eve.  She can also be identified as being a prostitute seeing as she'll sell parts of her body as well as being a child for giving into her foolish mistakes.. Lizzie ends up saving Laura, this in turn makes Lizzie a hero.  Lizzie also gave warnings to Laura about not getting involved with goblin men, she is viewed as a lot wiser than Laura is.  I'd view the goblin men as more of a trickster than anything else, they could be related to the snake in the story of Adam and Eve.
     I use to think that the goblin market was about a girl who was in love with her sister, but after hearing the audio version and reading it or following along with the reader, I came to another conclusion.  I think the poem more relates about sibling love or at least receiving attention from someone who you love, look up too or admire. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1753.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetypes