Rossetti’s poem, “Goblin Market” demonstrates the danger of overindulgence of sexuality. The Goblins’ fruit is representative of sex or sexual activity in some way, which can be clearly seen through the various ways the fruit is treated, one being Laura’s orgasmic reaction to eating it. Once Laura has eaten the fruit she is totally consumed by it as demonstrated by how she pledges to return the next night to buy some more. She says, “I ate and ate my fill, yet my mouth waters still.” Laura craves the fruit, and in other words she craves sex. It is the only thing that can occupy her mind, yet it is killing her. The fact that her mouth continuously waters for the fruit shows a fear of overindulgence. Laura becomes all consumed with the fruit, which leads to her literally becoming blinded. I think this shows how the Victorians were in some way afraid of sexuality because they believed that it would unleash something within a self. Sex is so taboo, that there seems to be a fear that once someone experiences it, they will turn into a sex crazed person.
After Laura eats the fruit she literally can do nothing else, “She no more swept the house, tended the fowls or cows, fetch’d honey, kneaded cakes of wheat…and would not eat.” It is as if once Laura has this experience she cannot be a good domestic woman. She stops her household chores and her hunger seems to be totally satiated for she ate no more. She only regenerates when she is repulsed by the fruit, “Swift fire spread through her veins, knocked at her heart, met the fire smoldering there and overbore its lesser flames.” It’s almost as if Laura is being exorcised. Her disgust for the fruit overpowers the passion she has for the fruit. And only when she fully recognizes her disgust, is when she regenerates. Rossetti ends the poem by restoring Victorian ideals.