Goblin Market + Erotic Interpretation

Goblin Market by Chistina Rossetti can be interpreted in many different ways. Some of these interpretations are strong and some are weak, depending on the amount of evidence that can be found to back up the interpretation. The interpretations that we looked at were: Erotic, Feminist, Marxist, Moral and Redemptive.

The group I was in looked at the erotic interpretation. We found that the fruit could be representative of the body, and partaking in the delights of eating the fruit could also be delights of the body. Fruit could also represent sperm, or "fruit of the loins", showing that Rossetti was trying to tell us that the goblin men want to spread the fruit of their loins, or tempt the girls into having sex. One of the descriptions of the fruit is"Unpecked cherries" which could represent virginity (unbroken hymen). Thus the eating of the fruit could represent the loss of virginity, and because Laura later eats the fruit, this could mean that she is losing her virginity. Laura's hair is golden and could represent innocence, but when she clips off a "golden lock" she is giving up her innocence to the goblin men, which could represent her succumbing to temptation. Also, the way she uses her hair as payment could be a reference to prostitution, as it is like her selling part of herself away in order to eat the fruit, or in other words have sex.

Also the goblin men are represented as very animalistic, they are shown only to have base desires such as mating and getting food. Rossetti shows this by showing only their desire to sell their fruit, which if interpreted in an erotic way could mean their desire for sex, or spreading their sperm. We also get an idea of Rossetti's thoughts on sex. Laura becomes very ill after eating the fruit, showing that it was a bad thing to do. This could represent Rossetti's thoughts which are sex is a sin, which is why Laura falls ill.

Throughout the poem there are various lines which could be interpreted to be implying sexual meaning such as "fruit globes" and "sucked and sucked". In my opinion, this interpretation of Goblin Market is not the strongest because there is only scattered examples throughout the poem, whereas with the Feminist interpretation, you can find eveidence for the poem as a whole but also smaller examples throughout the poem.