Category: 2023 Blog Post

Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market to stress the importance of women sticking together, which helped them avoid the social mishaps of the mid 1800’s. Throughout the poem, Lizzie continuously tries to protect her sister Laura from the enticing goblin men. As the sisters were collecting water from the brook, Lizzie did everything in her best effort to warn her sister not to fall weak to the temptations. When Laura ate the fruit, Lizzie could have returned home, away from her sister and the goblin men. Instead, she decided to fall asleep that night cradling her sister in her arms. “Cheek to cheek and breast to breast Lock’d together in one nest” (Rossetti). Even after Laura disobeyed Lizzie, the two continue to profess their love for each other. I believe Rossetti’s purpose of writing was to illustrate that women were already at a disadvantage due to double standards, and unjust social expectations. Mistakes are unavoidable, but that should not diminish the sisterhood between all of the women. Rossetti wanted to get the message across to her female readers that a strong bond was necessary to keep them safe and free from all temptations during this time period. 

At the end of the poem, Lizzie sacrifices her own free will to help Laura escape from the ravenish temptations. “They trod and hustled her, Elbow’d and jostled her, Claw’d with their nails, Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking, Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking, Twitch’d her hair out by the roots, Stamp’d upon her tender feet, Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits Against her mouth to make her eat” (Rossetti). Lizzie went to retrieve fruit to save her sister despite knowing the danger it brought. Her selflessness strengthened their sisterhood. Women sticking together during 1800, rural England was very important. Rossetti believed in feminine individuality and fighting gender discrimination. She wrote Goblin Market so female readers would see the hardships and temptations of society were inevitable, but sacrificial love for one another will always protect their sanctuary. 

In her poem, “Goblin Market,” Christina Rossetti describes the titular goblins as various types of animals. In the context of the poem, it is clear that these goblins are not actually animals like rats, cats, and wombats, but are indeed small, human like creatures that simply have the traits of those animals. Rossetti, for example, describes these goblins with phrases like “one tramped at a rat’s pace; once crawled like a snail”(3). The use of simile and metaphor in these descriptions leads the reader to believe that these goblins are not indeed rats and snails, but are instead goblins that have physical and behavioral characteristics that are similar to such animals.

It is important to make the distinction between the goblins as animals and the goblins as animal-like because this small clarification wholly alters the reader’s understanding and interpretation of the poem. When Dante Gabriel Rossetti decided to portray the goblins as nothing more than actual animals, he turned the poem into a children’s story. In this portrayal, the goblins are simply strange creatures, and the story turns into a sort of Grimm-esque tale of stranger danger and the risks of going out alone at night.

When the goblins are interpreted as men with animal features, however, the story’s meaning changes. In this version, the goblin men are representative of actual, human men– such as those in Christina Rossetti’s life, especially those that have excluded her from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Rossetti’s meaning here is clear: men are animals whose treatment of women lacks any sort of human respect or dignity. This animalistic nature allows men to get along with one another harmoniously, but they choose to treat women as wholly different because they do not possess these animal features and, therefore, do not belong.

Whether or not Dante Gabriel Rossetti purposely obscured this gender critique is unimportant. If he consciously decided to mask his sister’s meaning by turning the goblins into animals and advertising the poem as a children’s tale, then Christina Rossetti’s observations about men and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood likely had some merit if they struck so close to home for her brother. If Dante Gabriel Rossetti genuinely misinterpreted his sister’s story and did not realize the metaphor of the goblin men, then Christina Rossetti’s point still has merit since it is then clear that men of the time did not view the world (and “Goblin Market”) in the same way as women.

In Dracula by Bram Stokers, there is a heavy emphasis on death and mortality that happens throughout the whole novel but I believe there is also a fear of the mortality that the characters experiences and how it correlates to the Victorian’s attitude of the time. To be more specific, within the Mina’s journal when she wakes up and find her deceased mother, we get several motifs to indicate that death is around the corner.  ” Somewhere near, a passing bell was tolling; the dogs all round the neighborhood were howling; and in our shrubbery, seemingly just outside, a nightingale was singing”(Chapter 11).  It is interesting to see how Bram Stoker decided to structure this sentence to be similar to poetry with the rhythms “tolling” , “howling”, “singing”. As a matter of fact, all of the actions mentioned above indicate death. The passing bell, tolling to announce a death, symbolizes the closeness and inevitability of mortality. The howling dogs and the wind rushing through the broken window evoke a sense of suspense and the uncertainty that Mina’s feeling with her mother’s body and what’s to come. Even the nightingale’s song that brings her comfort is reminiscent of her deceased mother’s voice. “but the sound of the nightingale seemed like the voice of my dead mother come back to comfort me”(chapter11). All of these accumulate and accurately describes how distressed and vulnerable Mina is at the moment. Mina’s distress is further intensifies as she discovers her maids unconscious on the floor, having been drugged with laudanum. Laudanum being used here is interesting as it was a potent opiate commonly used during the Victorian era and it also  highlights the prevalent fear of pain, suffering, and the need for sedation in the face of illness or death. One quote from this ties up Mina’s dread of isolation and mortality that could be linked to how the Victorian’s attitude with mortality ” Alone with the dead!”(Chapter11).The fear of death is evident in this passage and can be connected to the Victorian era’s views and anxieties surrounding mortality. Death was a prevalent and looming aspect of Victorian life, with high mortality rates due to various diseases and the limited medical advancements of the time. In addition, the fear of death in the Victorian era was often intertwined with the fear of the unknown, the supernatural, and the loss of control. Mina’s refusal to leave her deceased mother’s side and her reluctance to remove the flowers from her body reflects how the Victorians also emphasize on taking care of the dead. Overall, the passage highlights the psychological impact that Mina’s goes through with her mother’s death and how it is linked to the sense of vulnerability and isolation that can accompany the contemplation of mortality.

Throughout our various readings of Victorian literature, we have continued to see themes surrounding love, sexuality, desire, and ambition; these themes largely manifesting in stories about women. One pattern, that is important to note, is that of the varied means in which these women place their goals and desires and how they manifest in their respective stories. One example can be seen in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Lady of Shalott”. The poem of “The Lady of Shalott”, follows a woman who is entrapped in a castle during what seems to be Arthurian times, deriving from the legend of Camelot, in which the Lady is forced to weave, isolated from the rest of the world, under the threat of a curse in which she does not know the full consequences of. She is further punished by being prevented from even looking through her window to see life outside of her tower, and is compelled to quell her curiosity for the outside world by looking at a mirror near her loom; only seeing the reflections of those outside of her tower rather than as they truly are. Within the second part of this poem, the Lady notes, “[There] Came two young lovers lately wed; ‘I am half sick of shadows,’ said The Lady of Shalott” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Part II). In this moment, we see one of the primary “dreams” of the Lady revealed. She has no knight to “save her”, no person to love, and whether she craves a relationship, that being romantic or platonic, she wants kinship of some kind. The fact that we do not know why the Lady of Shalott is imprisoned adds to the tragedy of this story, as this plot element left unexplained makes it all the more applicable to a myriad of situations, and therefore, all the more relatable to a reader who may feel entrapped in their life in some capacity. 

I am further reminded of this suffocating theme in Christina Rosetti’s poem, “A Pause of Thought”. One stanza reads, “I looked for that which is not, nor can be, And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth: But years must pass before a hope of youth – Is resigned utterly” (Rosetti, 32). A lack of choice, or a wish or dream going unfulfilled, are understandable fears that plague almost, if not, everybody. The concept of complicated desires, goals, and ambitions, is inherently human, and, as emphasized through these two poems, often forgotten when understanding women’s roles in Victorian society. I am reminded of a scene from the 2019 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women, in which Jo proclaims, “Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it… But I’m so lonely.” Jo’s frustration, similar to the frustration expressed in both Tennyson and Rossetti’s poems, manifests from a fear not only of one’s dreams going unfulfilled, but that a choice must be made in order to make those dreams more simple, or attainable in some capacity. The Victorian attributions of simplicity, obedience, and a promotion of binaries, becomes this inherently limiting feature of daily life, and while men may have felt this burden too, Victorian women bore it like no other. 

Throughout Dracula people are getting bitten and turning into Vampires. It is a constant unending chain, that seemingly can’t be stopped. Then, at the end of the novel the chain is broken when they kill Dracula. In the process Morris is killed, in turn, he is remembered through Mina and Johnathan’s’ baby whom they named Quincey, who also happened to be born on the same day Morris was killed. This represents the theme of rebirth in the novel. This can be most clearly seen in Jonathan Harker’s final note at the end of the novel. 

Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy’s birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend’s spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together; but we call him Quincey. In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out(Stoker 402). 

The passage starts off with the line, “Seven years ago we all went through the flames.” This is already the first representation of the theme of rebirth in this passage. Flames are often associated with rebirth because of the Phoenix, who at the end of its life sets itself on fire so a young Phoenix can rise from its ashes. For them to have this child they all needed to go through the flames, meaning they needed to suffer. The next line shows how this suffering gave them a rebirth, “and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured.” This shows that through the suffering or ‘flames’ they were able to gain rebirth which is a new life that is free of Dracula. The next line states that Mina and Jonathan’s child was born on the same day as the day Morris died. Suggesting that Quincy, their kid, might even be a reincarnation of Morris, this is the most literal example of rebirth in this quote. The end of the quote goes like this, “In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out. The castle stood as before, reared high above a waste of desolation.” Jonathan and Mina went back to Transylvania and revisited all the places they had been. Why would they go back and be reminded of such terrible memories? The answer probably lies in the human desire to see a place they associate with chaos and evil rebirth as a place set free from that evil, or rebirth. In the next sentence Jonathan writes, “It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out.”  Even though this place is associated in their minds with the place their best friend had been murdered, he acknowledges that despite that experience it felt as if nothing had happened there, “Every trace of all that had been was blotted out.” This shows us that even the most terrible things can experience a rebirth.  

It is also important to take note of what Bram Stoker is saying about rebirth. For most of the novel rebirth is shown in an evil light, vampires live long past regular humans and they spread their misfortune to others who then are rebirthed as vampires. Yet, at the end rebirth is portrayed in a positive light through Jonathan and Mina’s child, Quincey. This could be a comment by Stoker on the obsession with death in the Victorian era and the desire to live longer, which caused some people to seek out unnatural methods to elongate their life. By showing that when you allow life to take its course there is rebirth but in a much more metaphorical and spiritual way, and that is the next generation.  

In Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, Laura becomes entranced by the goblin men’s “Plump unpeck’d cherries, / Melons and raspberries,” to the point where she has to have them, despite having no money to buy them. She tells them that “all my gold is on the furze,” meaning she is so poor that the only thing close enough to gold in her household is the yellow flowers that grow in her yard. But the goblin men seem only more excited by this statement, and insist that she “buy… with a golden curl” from her head.

The reason why becomes clear when considering historical context. The Victorians were rather obsessed with the concept of the state of someones body reflecting their morality: somebody with a whole, undamaged body was pure and of good character, while one with missing limbs or scars was not. Through this lens, Laura giving away a strand of her hair to buy fruit destroys her purity and corrupts her character.

Furthermore, the text of Laura trading a piece of her body in return for the fruits of the goblin men is rife with sexual innuendo. It is said that Laura “suck’d until her lips were sore” at the fruit. If the fruits are the penises of the goblin men, and Laura is trading her body to suck the fruit, then this poem is intrinsically a story about prostitution. By performing these acts, Laura is no longer within the lines of society and social norms. She, an unmarried woman, has solicited sex with multiple men. Has bought sex with her body. One only needs to look at the fate of Jeanie, a former buyer from the goblin market, who slowly wasted away without the fruits of the goblin men until she died. Even worse, by eating the fruits, Jeanie is so unpure that no flowers will grow on her grave. This is the fate Laura narrowly avoids.

Goblin Market is a poem about the dangers of sex outside of marriage. The goblins take a piece of the girl and likely use it to grow their “Plump unpeck’d cherries, / Melons and raspberries,” all metaphors for desirable, virginal parts of a woman, and the cycle begins again while the previous girl wastes away.

In Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” the scene where Lucy is saved by transfusions of multiple men’s blood is laden with symbolism and themes characteristic of the Victorian era.

Lucy Westenra’s affliction with vampirism represents more than just a physical condition; it’s metaphorical for the societal and gender norms prevalent in Victorian England.

“I want it done tonight. Van Helsing, you and I will stay and guard the coffin; Morris and Arthur will go back to rest…” These lines also indicate the gravity of the situation and the immediacy with which they need to act to safeguard Lucy. The need for Lucy to be saved by men’s blood reflects several intertwined themes such as

The contrast between Lucy’s salvation in “Dracula,” where she relies on male blood for her rescue, and the narrative in “Goblin Market,” where a woman saves her sister, is a striking exploration of gender roles and female agency in Victorian literature. In the male-dominated rescue in “Dracula,” where men’s blood saves Lucy, in “Goblin Market,” it’s Lizzie’s love, resilience, and sisterly sacrifice that saves Laura.

“Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices

Squeezed from goblin fruits for you,

Goblin pulp and goblin dew.

Eat me, drink me, love me;

Laura, make much of me.”

These lines portray Lizzie’s willingness to endure the suffering and humiliation imposed by the goblin men to bring back the miraculous and life-saving fruit for her sister, Laura. This act of self-sacrifice and love contrasts sharply with the theme of male intervention and dominance seen in “Dracula.” Lucy’s transformation into a vampire also ties into the Victorian obsession with purity and innocence in women. Her illness and subsequent need for male blood juxtapose the idealized image of the pure, chaste Victorian woman. Lucy’s reliance on male blood for her salvation in “Dracula” speaks volumes about the Victorian societal constructs of gender, power dynamics, and the challenges faced by women within that era. It symbolizes the complex and often restrictive roles women were expected to adhere to, while also hinting at the underlying fears and desires of the society concerning female independence and sexuality.

The Lady of Shalott is a lyrical ballad about a woman living alone in a tower on the secluded Ise of Shalott that is upriver from the great kingdom of Camelot. The poem pulls from many different stories in legends. Camelot, where it takes place, sleeping beauty from the tower and spindle, Arachne, and Penolpe (Odyessiouse’s wife) with the weaving. The Lady of Shallot is not allowed to look down at Camelot; she is forced to look through the reflection of her mirror or else be cursed.

The relationship between beauty and death in The Lady of Shalott is looked at through the lens of nature. “waterlilly, daffodilly, and water chilly” is the soft, flowy language used at the beginning of the poem. This is supplemented by the alliteration found at the end of each stanza. As the poem gets darker, the reaper is introduced, foreshadowing the wilting and eventual death of The Lady of Shalott. “I am half sick of shadows,” says the Lady of Shalott, looking longingly down at Camelot. The straw that breaks the camel’s back is when she glimpses Sir Lancelot. So desperate for connection, she watches him and hears his song. This delusion causes her to look out at him, and her mirror cracks. Like most women in Victorian literature, her life is ruined by a man. As she floats down to Camelot, she morphs into this creature. “…steady stony glance…bold seer in a trance…Mute, with glassy countenance.” this reminded me of Dracula and Lucy’s transformation into this sultry evil woman. As Lady Shalott dies, she is compared to a dying swan, which symbolizes the death of her innocence. Her features sharpen as she sings her death song, and people fear her. It is only when Sir Lancelot redeems her is she finally accepted.

“Really, Watson, you excel yourself,” said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. “I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.”

Oh geez, where to even start. First of all I do think Holmes is genuinely trying to give Watson a compliment because he seems to like him enough to keep him around for his investigations. They’re like Shaggy and Scoob, but with more than two brain cells that aren’t constantly battling each other. Anyways, they’re partners, you get it. The combination of praise and subtle criticism is exactly the formula for a backhanded compliment. Right off the bat Holmes gives off this “cool guy” demeanor, by leaning back in his chair and lighting up a dart. These two things are by no means “cool”, but in fact very dangerous. I mean, Holmes is an intelligent guy, and he thinks that leaning back in a chair is a good idea? Yeah, okay. And second, lighting a cigarette, he is really living on the edge here isn’t he!

Anyways, let’s digest this backhanded compliment for what it really is. Holmes begins with initial praise, “Really, Watson, you excel yourself”, it’s really kind coming from such an intellect. Immediately followed by his kind words, Holmes mentions that Watson underestimates his own abilities in comparison to that of what Holmes has achieved. Which, I don’t know why Holmes describes his achievements as “small”…he has literally solved murder cases. THEN, he uses a metaphor to continue his poetic compliment saying Watson is a “conductor of light”. Oh, how I would just be swoon if some guy had told me I am not luminous, but a conductor of light (0_o) . (Sorry I’m getting too sarcastic) . Anyways, Holmes claims that Watson doesn’t possess any genius himself, but instead has the ability to spark brilliance in others. The way I interpreted this was that Watson’s talents are more about facilitating Holme’s genius. The final expression of appreciation, Holmes “confesses” he is in Watson’s debt, which sets a tone of hesitation in acknowledging Watson’s good work before. I think Holmes is genuine in his praise, but he has poor choice of words, too many words, and doesn’t give Watson enough credit on the daily. That’s how you give someone a compliment without sounding like you’re giving them a compliment.

What I really think Holmes is trying to say here is, “Good job Watson, we work well together”.