Author: Thérèse

I recently read an interpretation of Goblin Market as a short story called Goblin Fruit by Laini Taylor. In this version Lizzie is the grandmother of the Kizzy who lives in a community that believes in myths of supernatural. Lizzie talks about Laura and how she grew up to be an amazing woman who after she was saved by the Goblin Men. Kizzy identifies with her Laura as wilding and ‘wanting’ girl. It is interesting to see the change in the sexual focus. Kizzy meets a boy at school who wants to seduce her and later is revealed to be the Goblin Men in disguise. Goblin Market has many sexualized language between Lizzie and the men “hugged and kissed her: squeezed and caressed her” (10)  but then moves to the sexualized language of Lizzie and Laura “hug me, kiss me, suck my juices”(13). In Goblin Fruit the only sexual encounter is with Kizzie and the Jack, the Goblin men in disguise. Kizzie kisses Jack and sucks the goblin fruit from his lips just like Laura and Lizzie but there is more implied sexual intention between Kizzie and Jack. Though Laura “Kissed and kissed and kiss’ it was to get the juice that she lusted and it does not seem intentionally for not her sister. Kizzie want to kiss Jack because of her sexual desires for him. She knows that he is covered in the juice that will kill her but kisses Jack anyway for sexual reasons. Even though both stories have theme of sexuality and kissing as a vehicle for it Goblin Fruit seems to be more explicit in implying sexual experiences whereas Goblin Market has sexuality that is more sub text (though there is much sexual language). This could be because of a taboo couple (sister/lesbians) vs a more accepted couple (heterosexual).

In the novel there are many instances of sexuality as an indicator of deviance. As both Lucy and Mina become more vampires they also transform into sexual being, a taboo for women in Victorian times. There is a strong implication to uncivilized which would be even more clear to a Victorian audience that prizes propriety. The very movements of Lucy are languorous and carless. More words show uncivilized characteristics is the way she is referred to as, “diabolically, cold-bloodedness, unclean”. These seem to imply a wicked evil in a sexual powerful woman.

An example of sexual taboo is when Lucy is a vampire and calls to her husband. The way she is described is wrought with sexual language like “voluptuous, wanton, hungry”. Not only is she sexual but she is also sexually aggressive. She is the one calling for him by saying, “Come to me, Arthur… My arms are hungry for you”. This is very atypical of a Victorian woman who is sexually demure and at the power of men. This could reflect a fear of the changing culture that woman may become sexually aggressive and therefore a threat to men. These men are men, like Arthur, who cannot resist the call of his wife even though she attends to kill him. There could be an anxiety about how women be an unpreserved danger to husbands and men who are at women’s power and also the devils and animals within the skin of woman.

(Quotes from chapter 16, page 191 in Barnes and Noble edition)

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, sexuality plays a key role in both the horror genre and the readers fascination. In the line, “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear”, deadly fear and lust or longing are present at the same time. This combination of emotion itself is scandalous and may explain the intrigue of vampire in modern and Victorian times. The ways in which pain and lust are is also show to be simultaneous is when the bite is referenced as a kiss. Jonathan says “I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.” It is a compelling idea that what he desires may be what ends him. Jonathan waiting for this kiss is also described as “in an agony of delightful anticipation”. There is a clear binary here of lust (anticipation, longing, desire) and fear or pain (agony, fear, wicked).

There is heavy seductive body language like “on her knees”, “bent over me”, “arched her neck”, “licked her lips”, and “red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth”. The vampire body and ways are made to be alluring, as to lure people to their death. These phrase emphasize the sexuality of the woman in a way that could be read as not only scandalous in Victorian times, but also scandalous now, due the fact the sex can be deadly. The art of seduction is also the art of killing.

 

 

“Hence forth you must seem to me no longer a woman; a guilty woman with a heart which in is worse wickedness has yes some latent power to suffer and feel; I look upon you henceforth as the demoniac incarnation of some evil principle.” (Page 340)

In this passage Robert is accusing to Lady Audley and saying she is no longer a woman. For all Robert’s hatred of women (Page 208), his largest insult is that she is no longer a woman. Later on the same page Lady Audley says, she is a madwoman. This seems to imply that she is separate and different from other woman. Lady Audley is deceitful in her guise as a woman. Her beautiful face, golden hair, and childlike disposition is all veiling who she really is. Lady Audley is set up to be a perfect woman, a loving wife and the center of societal attention, only to later be revealed as a madwoman.

“When the lovely fairy of the ball-room re-enters her dressing-room after the nights long revelry, and throws aside her voluminous Burnous and her faded bouquet, and drops her mask; and like another Cinderella loses the glass-slipper, by whose glitter she has been distinguished, and falls back into her rags and dirt,” (Page 331). Roberts frustrations with woman could be centered around this false for front. Womanly perfection is only a disguised to be taken off in the private of later. This seems to echo Victorian times. At the time, England was ruled by a queen who created rules about propriety that symbolized womanly strength. In this constricting time, everyone was were not as they were, and were not the face they put on in society. The image of woman that the Victorian times created like a mask to be worn on the outside but always needing to be taken off. Lady Audley is a good example of this society pressure and her character shows the ways in which someone could hide.

“I’ve heard tell of a murder that was done here in old times.” “There is murder enough in these times, as to that Luke,” (32)

The word murder is repeated between the two character, Phoebe and Luke, as they walk through the mansion. The double mention of this seem a strong foreshadowing of what is to come and also sets the setting as the mansion as a place to be haunted and even feared. The secret chambers that were talked about would a perfect place for a murder.

Phoebe’s retort bring up the possibility of a murder being abounding in the present or could imply that she knew of someone recently murdered. She is described as pale and ghost like herself, which seems to add to her character’s paranormal quality. Perhaps she could even be a ghost haunting the mansion.

Luke’s line of “a murder in the old times” could referring a murder in the past that is relevant. One suspected murder could be Sir Audley. He 56 and Luke is 23 making it possible for him to have murdered someone before Luke and Phoebe even being born. Sir Audley already carries corpses of hope within himself that could be more than just a metaphor. If he had grown up in the house or it had even been passed down in his family, it would be entirely possible for him to the know the secret rooms to hide a body, perhaps the body of his last wife.