{"id":378,"date":"2015-03-05T02:53:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T02:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=378"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:51:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:51:37","slug":"collective-or-individual-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/05\/collective-or-individual-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Collective or Individual Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Christina Rossetti\u2019s <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Goblin Market<\/span>, sisters Lizzie and Laura have two very different experiences with the \u201cgoblin men\u201d selling fruit. These goblins are described in very animalistic terms, often having tails, fur or claws. They are dark, and don\u2019t walk, but tramp or scurry. In most ways they are different from the two sisters. However, the relationship the goblins have with each other is oddly similar to the relationship of the sisters. On page 474, the goblins are described separately \u201cOne had a cat\u2019s face\/ One whisked a tail\/ One tramped at a rat\u2019s pace\/ One crawled like a snail\u201d etc. However, when the goblins act they do so \u201call together\u201d (474). This contrast of multiplicity and oneness is repeated with the recurrence of the phrase they [action] all together. Laura and Lizzie, while they often behave very differently, are described as together or somehow linked. When they sleep they are \u201cLike two blossoms on one stem\/ Like two flakes of new fall\u2019n snow\/ Like two wands of ivory\u201d(478). While I don\u2019t think the relationship the goblins have is comparable to the relationship of Lizzie and Laura, I think it\u2019s interesting how the relationships that people or beings have with each other is used to define the individual. Because of their larger identity goblin or girl, their more individual identities- Laura, Lizzie, snail, cat- are erased. In the last stanza of the poem most of the, for lack of a better word, characters are identified by their larger identity: \u201cfruit-merchant men\u201d, and \u201cwives\u201d or \u201csister,\u201d except for Laura (488). Is she identified because she has become the new Jeanie\u2014the warning to stay within your prescribed roles? But what if instead Laura has her identity because she ate the goblins\u2019 fruit? Is there something about her journey \u2018through\u2019 the fruit and back to life that allows her to claim herself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Christina Rossetti\u2019s Goblin Market, sisters Lizzie and Laura have two very different experiences with the \u201cgoblin men\u201d selling fruit. These goblins are described in very animalistic terms, often having tails, fur or claws. They are dark, and don\u2019t walk, but tramp or scurry. In most ways they are different from the two sisters. However, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/05\/collective-or-individual-identity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Collective or Individual Identity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}