Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market shows the intense fear of female sexuality that was present in Victorian England. The two protagonists of the poem are both young girls, clearly meant to represent the epitome of purity in Victorian culture. Meanwhile, the goblins and their fruit are quite obviously meant to be a representation of unsavory men, and the ruin that their ‘forbidden fruit’ will bring to all those whom they tempt. Furthermore, Laura paid for her fruit by giving a lock of hair to the goblins. Though this holds little to no symbolic meaning in our time, in Victorian times, men would often carry around a lock of hair belonging to their lovers, showing that Laura has been taken as a lover out of wedlock by the goblins. In addition to hair, Laura pays for the fruit with a tear, which, in my opinion, shows that she is unwilling to go through with the transaction, but is so overcome with lust for the forbidden fruit that she feels that she must either eat the fruit or die trying. Just as the Victorians feared a woman engaging in sexual acts outside of wedlock would do, Laura “suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more” until the fruit was completely gone, but even then did not feel fulfilled. She took the seed of the fruit and planted it, but even watering it with her tears proved to be fruitless. She was thus left with a deep desire that consumed her, wanting again to taste the forbidden fruit which she had been told always to avoid, thus leading to her untimely death, showing Victorian fears about female sexuality.