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Christina Rossetti Goblin Market

A resource on the interpretation of addiction in Christina Rossetti`s poem Goblin Market

Date : 12/11/2020

Author Information

Amelia

Uploaded by : Amelia
Uploaded on : 12/11/2020
Subject : English

Goblin Market and Addiction Interpretation

Context

In the Victiorian era there was a growing awareness of the addiction of laudanum and opium although they were considered miracle cures for illnesses. Laudanum was often sold in markets alongside produce to all.

There was no moral condemnation of the use of opiates and their use was not regarded as addiction but rather as a habit in the Victorian period.

The 1868 Pharmacy Act created rules for examining and registering pharmacists, which until this time, had been able to practice without any type of regulation. It also created a list of 15 poisons and a Poison Registry for each pharmacy.

Rossetti s sister-in-law died of a laudanum overdose in 1862, the same year the poem was published, therefore Rossetti saw first hand the effects of addiction.

Evidence in poem

Curious Laura

Rossetti characterises Laura as having traits of an addict alongside a childlike sense of curiosity.

How far the vine must grow whose grapes are so luscious how warm the wind must blow through those fruit bushes

Laura romanticizes the fruits even before she obtains them.

`"No," said Lizzie, "No, no, no, /Their offers should not charm us.`

Lizzie takes the attitude of the time and how the government was taking control of drugs.

While to this day no grass will grow/Where she lies low

The reference to Jeanie s death acts as a warning to Laura but simultaneously shows the long term inescapable effects of addiction.

I ate and ate my fill/ Yet my mouth waters still

Once Laura tries the fruits she becomes addicted and in turn wants to fulfill her cravings.

Her lips began to scorch...she loathed the feast

Suggests Laura begins to realise her actions and in turn become disgusted witt herself.

Her hair grew thin and gray/She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn/ To swift decay and burn/Her fire away

Her physical appearance is affected by the fruits contrasting the earlier fanciful view.

Laura awoke from a dream

Liminal descri ptions describe Laura s experience eating the fruits is similar to the dream like effects of drugs.

Critical Interpretations

Critic, Mclean, interprets the fruits as a symbol of the addictive elements of drugs, and the inability to fully recover after one has fallen as a result of the temptation of the unknown.

Simon Humphries argues that the fruits which had once poisoned Laura now cure her. Which links to the idea that addicts are often rehabilitated and weaned off of the substances to which they are addicted in the same way.

Diane d Amico explores addiction with religion: if we read these lines with Rossetti s Christian faith in mind, they point not to the pleasure to be experienced in satisfying any of the sensual appetites, but rather to the impossibility of ever finding full satisfaction by attempting to satisfy the body.

This resource was uploaded by: Amelia