Religious Allegory in
Goblin Market
Christina Rossetti was well known as a passionate children’s poet. Goblin Market is a poem full of imagery that is appealing to children for entertainment purposes but it is also embedded with important allegorical messages relating to religion. The most important message I found within the poem is Rossetti’s opinion on the destructive nature of sin and the importance of following Jesus Christ.
Lizzie establishes herself as a Christ-like figure early in the poem by telling Laura not to look at the goblin men. Lizzie says, “Their offers should not charm us, their evil gifts would harm us” (Rossetti, 65-66) just as the Lord said, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace” (2 Timothy 2:22). Both Lizzie and God give these instructions as a way of maintaining peace and keeping oneself free of sin.
Laura establishes herself as an unholy follower of Christ by going against Lizzie’s instructions and eating the forbidden fruit. “I ate and ate my fill, yet my mouth waters still” (165-166). Just as Eve ate from the tree of good and evil, sending everyone into a life of sin, Laura ate the fruit and sent herself into obsession, and self-destruction. “Day after day, night after night, Laura kept watch in vain in sullen silence of exceeding pain…Her hair grew thin and gray; she dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn to swift decay and burn her fire away” (269-171, 277-280). Before Laura ate the fruit, all she knew was happiness. She would spend the day doing chores with her loving sister and lived a peaceful life. After eating the fruit, she withered into a shadow of who she once was. This is very similar to Eve. Before eating the fruit everything was good because God made it so. After Eve ate the fruit from the tree she gained knowledge of things such as pain, hatred, disappointment, and self-awareness.
Jesus walked on earth with mortals but did not succumb to sin as they did. Lizzie reestablishes her God-like role as she hears the goblins crying but is not tempted. Jesus knew that no mortal could carry their sin alone and still make it to heaven. The goblins knew this too and act like the Devil, luring people to Hell. “Such fruits as these no man can carry” (375-376). Because of this, Jesus chose to put himself in the middle of earthly sin by dying on the cross to grant every sinner salvation. Lizzie follows this path by choosing to meet with the goblin men and eat their fruit so she could save her sister. As a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made, Christians often partake in communion. Drinking the cup reminds them of his blood and eating the bread reminds them of his body. Lizzie creates her own form of communion when she tells Laura, “Eat me, drink me, love me: for your sake I have braved the glen…” (471, 473).
We see Lizzie’s sacrifice in action when Laura’s lips begin to burn from the juices. Communion is often taken by people who have been baptized. Baptism is an act which washes all sin away from the body and makes you pure for God. The juice from the fruit represents the sin that once consumed Laura. When she consumed the juice from Laura’s mouth she was not sucking juice directly from the forbidden fruit but instead from the holy mouth of her sister. By doing this Lizzie assisted in riding Lizzie of the sin that once consumed her leading her to “loath[ed] the feast” (495). Although the pain was harsh, Lizzie had to do it to give her sister “life out of death” (524).
The Bible says that after baptism the holy spirit lives within you. This is a great explanation for why the sisters remain together “days, weeks, months, [and] years” after the incident (543). They turn into holy beings together, telling their sinful children stories instructing them how to behave if they wish to stay away from the pain of sin. This relates to the Victorian era that Rossetti grew up in. Families during the publication of this poem would often sit around the bible and read stories in the hope of educating themselves on how to avoid sin.
Lastly, in line 562 the line reads “for there is no friend like a sister”. A traditional hymn commonly sung in Christian churches was “there’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus.” This connection adds additional support to Lizzie’s role as the God-like figure.