Author: stewamar

On page 16 of Goblin Market Christina Rossestti’s final words are “For there is no friend like a sister/In calm or stormy weather;/To cheer one on the tedious way,/To fetch one if one goes astray,/To lift one if one totters down,/To strengthen whilst one stands.” This line immediately stood out to me, as the oldest of three sisters whose very used to seeing inspirational quotes about sisters. Then upon rereading it, I realized it is a nice general sentiment about sister relationships, but it’s also a short recap of the poem thus far. This seems to be Rossestti’s way of saying only sisters can protect each other the way Laura and Lizzie do.

The first rhyme of this half of the stanza follows a questionable rhyme scheme. The first two words “sister” and “weather” can rhyme or not, depending on the pronunciation of the words. But assuming they do, the rhyme scheme is AABBCD.  I’m unsure if “down” and “stands” are supposed to rhyme, but they don’t, which ends the pattern. There no internal rhymes or other significant literary devices. But the word “one” is repeated in the same way a writer could say “when you.”

The main reason I fell in love with Goblin Market is because it gave me the same feeling I got when I watched Frozen for the first time as a kid; I love classic feeling fairytales about sisterly love. As much as some the underlying themes  of the poem are questionable, reading a lot like a commentary about the dangers of women being worldly, the positive message of sisterhood is largely what makes the story beautiful. I do think Rossestti’s choice to end her poem with this line is her way of  saying this was her message, like how in a lot of fables written for very young kids will end with the moral written out for them.

Rossestti also uses these last few lines as a way of recapping the story in a way that doesn’t feel tired. The line about calm or stormy weather refers to the sisters being there for each other before, after, and during the events of the poem. Obviously the line about being led astray refers to Laura being swept up in the market. And the last two lines about helping your sister come back from chaos refers to the previous stanzas of the sisters being reunited.

There have been plenty of children’s stories and fairytales with a final moral that’s simply “sisters are a gift.” That’s a fine moral for stories for children who can’t think much deeper than that. But Rossestti’s story is deeper than that. I think her choice to connect her recap of the story, with an emphasis on the importance of sisterhood, is her way of saying the true moral of this poem is that only a sister can save you from situations like the one Laura and Lizzie end up in.  “There is no friend like sister” and only that kind of friend can safe you from the Goblin Market.

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott is about a woman in a tower locked into an endless cycle of weaving. I’ve noticed that a lens of reading I have trouble putting away is that of a person with OCD. I think because OCD is such a misunderstood illness, as well as one that is so deeply ingrained in the person, many authors, especially from before the modern era, will describe a character with OCD tendencies without even meaning to. I believe the Lady of Shalott is one of these characters. The lines that made me think that come from the second stanza in part II which read, “A charmed web she weaves away. A curse is on her, if she stay Her weaving, either night or day, To look down to Camelot. She knows not what the curse may be; Therefore she weaveth steadily”(Tennyson).

I was diagnosed with OCD when I was sixteen, but am able to trace symptoms all the way back to when I was six. A phenomenon that’s been incredibly common for me, and other people with OCD is feeling an unknown force of something bad you cannot name. You know that something bad will happen when you don’t complete a compulsion, but you can’t always name what that bad thing is. The O in OCD obviously stands for obsessive which refers to an intrusive thought. The C stands for compulsive which is your response to the obsession. I believe the Lady of Shalott’s obsession is the curse, and her compulsion is not to stop weaving. As any therapist will tell you, most(if not all) obsessions about something bad happening don’t come true. But unfortunately, when the Lady of Shalott breaks the pattern, she dies, fulfilling the curse.

I don’t know enough about Tennyson or the year 1832 to say if this was intentional. But this is exactly what I mean by how OCD becomes such an ingrained part of the person. As always, one of our texts comes back to a woman who is in some way, mad, whether her particular madness is actually OCD, like I believe, another condition, or just general madness caused by being in the tower. I think the idea of this particular type of mad woman dying because she stops her compulsion should upset me in some way, but oddly, the part that sticks out to me is that I can relate to something written so long ago. I don’t think the madness of humanity has changed much, it’s just our reactions to it.

 

My favorite part of this class so far has been the discussions of madness, or what we now consider mental illness, within the texts. Lady Audley self-identifies herself as mad and ends up in a mental asylum, but this is largely off page. Sherlock Holmes shows clear signs of neurodivergence, but that is from a modern perspective. Dracula is the first novel from the course with a heavy focus on nineteenth century mental institutions. In chapter eight in a section of Dr. Seward’s diary he says “It looks like religious mania, and he will soon think that he himself is God. These infinitesimal distinctions distinctions between man and man are too paltry for an Omnipotent Being. How these madmen give themselves away! The real God taketh heed lest a sparrow fall; but the God created from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow. Oh, if men only knew!”(Stoker, 111). I believe this passage is foreshadowing the theme of Dracula’s immortality and God-like-ness, and is establishing a theme of the difference between the mad and the sane.

Any reference to religion is easy to connect back to the central vampiric plot. Vampires are typically immortal, which is a God-like trait, are often resurrected, which is an easy connection to Christianity, and religious items are typically harmful to vampires. So any reference to God can be connected back to Dracula, our main godly character.

What I find the most interesting about this passage is the comparison of the mad and the sane. I believe the line about eagles vs sparrows refers to mad and sane people. Here I think Dr. Steward is saying that someone as powerful as a God isn’t concerned with the minor differences between who human beings consider mad and sane. A few pages later in an entry of Dr. Seward’s diary in chapter ten he says “All men are mad in some way or the other.”(Stoker, 129). I believe the quote from page 111 this is the beginning of this idea on 129. I think Dr. Seward is trying to say that despite the differences in people’s brains that makes someone “mad” or “sane” we are all united under mortality, or not being Gods. This could also be applied to the other marginalized groups featured in the novel. Regardless of gender, class, or country of origin, we have a lot more in common just by being human.

These two themes connect because by saying that God does not care about a person’s madness, or lack there of, Dracula does not either. To Dracula humans are just humans to feed on regardless of if they are mad, sane, women, men, other genders, foreigners, natives to any country, poor, or rich, he will feed off or kill anyone. This indiscriminate violence is a large part of what makes him particularly monstrous.

“‘It must be a wild place.’

‘Yes, the setting is a worthy one. If the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.’

‘Then you are yourself inclining to the supernatural explanation.’

‘The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?’”(Doyle, 29). 

 

This quote is an interaction between Holmes and Watson who are discussing the layout of Baskerville Hall after talking to Dr. Mortimer. Watson is the speaker in the first and third lines, and Holmes is the speaker in the second and fourth lines. Watson calling Baskerville Hall “wild” refers to the fact that the house is surrounded by woods(page 28). There is no repetition in this specific quote, but these few pages use the words “supernatural explanation” many times, and the word “supernatural” even more. I think Doyle is trying to throw off the reader by doing this. The idea of an unnaturally massive dog makes the characters and reader jump to a supernatural conclusion, and I think the real answer will be “of flesh and blood” like Holmes says. One reason this quote matters is because I believe this to be foreshadowing for the novella’s final reveal. At least that’s what I think 29 pages in. This section also highlights Sherlock’s uniqueness through his linguistic choices. Both of his two quotes from this passage feel as if they’ve been ripped from the pages of Shakespeare. When reading dialogue from the other characters, it is clear this is from a different time, but they speak conversationally. In my experience with reading, the most flowery lines will come from description/narration instead of dialogue, but so far in The Hound of Baskervilles the flowery prose is entirely quotes from Sherlock. This also illustrates the stark differences between our two main characters. Watson is the narrator, so it makes sense that his quotes and narration maintain the same tone. If I hadn’t specified in the beginning which lines were said by which character, anyone who’s been exposed to these two characters could have guessed which speaker was which. I mentioned in class that nearly every version of Sherlock Holmes is categorized as being neurodivergent in some form. I think Doyle writing Holmes to speak much differently from his peers is one of his ways to emphasize that. I believe the second reason this quote is important is because it sets up Sherlock Holmes as a character, and what the reader should expect from him going forward. 

 

What I’m trying to say is that this quote from page 29 foreshadows that right now I believe the supernatural theories are a red herring, as well as that Doyles uses Sherlock’s dramatic way of speaking to show his difference from Watson, and his other peers. 

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of Baskervilles. 1902.

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

 

This is one of my favorite lines in the whole book so far. I loved it the first time I encountered it, and I love it even more now. I’ve always loved how creepy and atmospheric it is, but now I realize it sets up foreshadowing, to the murders going on in the countryside, which were alluded to(which I believe Lady Audley has something to do with). The double use of the word “times” shows repetition, as well as the double use of murder. The use of repetition shows how one character is correcting the other, by having her repeat his same words back to him. It also adds to the character of the house itself, by providing some potential backstory or foreshadowing for something to come, like a new murder that will happen in these times. It also makes you curious what Phoebe knows about the house to make her say this. She could also just be going off urban legends, which is another interesting question about the lore of the house before the novel began. I also love how easily I can see this playing out. Them being in some creepy old dark passage only lit by candles whispering ghost stories to each other. To me this line is just peak gothic literature, and I love it so much. 

 

What I’m trying to say here is that these lines are creepy and vibey which is everything an amazing piece of gothic fiction should be.