Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market
Christina Rossetti, an English writer born in 1830, emphasizes the issue of gender, feminism, and the roles that women and men played in society during the Victorian era. In the poem “Goblin Market,” Rossetti suggests that women and men are great contributors to society and the market economy. However, through the Victorian era, men are seen and treated differently than women. “Goblin Market” seeks to define the power that men have in Victorian society, whereas women during the Victorian era were seen as weak, innocent and powerless human beings.Throughout the poem, however Rossetti characterizes women as strong, brave, hardworking and great contributors to society. In the poem “Goblin Market” Rossetti shows the gender imbalance between women …show more content…
Men on the other hand, also play a key role in the market economy and society as a whole, Rossetti argues that the goblin men were selling products that people can buy therefore they are great contributors to the market economy. However, men in “Goblin Market” were presented and treated differently than women. “Goblin Market” paints a clear picture of the gender imbalances, stereotype, and gender roles present in Victorian society, and compares females to pleasant and beautiful creatures in nature while men are compared with evil, wild, and fearful animals. Rossetti describes the evil goblin men as animals and evil creatures she argues that there are a dozen different goblins: “One had a cat 's face,One whisk 'd a tail,One tramp 'd at a rat 's pace,One crawl 'd like a snail,One like a wombat prowl 'd obtuse and furry, one like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry (Rossetti lines 71-76). By giving his readers all this characteristics that described the goblin men as animals Rossetti paint a clear picture of the gender imbalanced among women and men. Rossetti On the other hand Rossetti compares women to beautiful creatures in nature, she compares Laura and her sister Lizzie to “[T]wo pigeons in one nest” (Rossetti line 185). Rossetti uses these lines to compared women to beautiful and lovely creatures in
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