GM Quotes & Analysis

• Fairytales

  • Christina said it should not be marketed for children.
  • Morality tales were quite common.
  • Friend of Lewis Carroll ‘Alice in Wonderland’
  • Can be read as a fable for children in which Laura’s curiosity nearly caused her death.
• Evidence for Fairytale Interpretation

  • Goblin creates described in animalistic terms but are not frightening to begin with, like woodland animals.
  • Simple vocabulary
  • Balladesque narrative creates a story like quality.
  • Happy ending
• Interpretation: Sex & Sexuality

  ’Curious Laura’

  • Laura explores her sexuality with the goblin men, experiencing it with desire and lust yet her temptation to return for more threatens to destroy her.
  • Jeannie is the cautionary tale of a girl who experienced desire, leading her to her death. ‘Do you not remember Jeanie?’
  • Could be a comment on the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth.
• Interpretation: Sex & Sexuality

  ‘You should not peep at the Goblin men’ — Lizzie

  • Lizzie remains stoic and refuses to give into desire.
  • Although experiencing the Goblin’s fruit she does not enjoy it.
  • Represents the ideal virtuous Victorian woman (link to From the Antique)
• Interpretation: Sex & Sexuality

  ’push her fruits against her mouth’

  ’hug me, kiss me, suck my juices‘

  • Explores rape and masculinity
  • Goblins assault Lizzie
  • Homosexuality and incest between Laura and Lizzie
  • Ending: no difference between Laura and Lizzie.
  • Get married and have children (pinnacle of female success)
  • Could be a protest that fallen women shouldn’t be made to suffer for the rest of their lives.
• Evidence for Sex & Sexuality

  • Contrasting descriptions of Laura and Lizzie‘s Goblin experiences.
  • Rape of Lizzie
  • Happy ending
  • Contrast of the sister‘s actions
• Interpretations: Presentation of Masculinity

  • Goblin men are animalistic, vicious and controlling, they exert complete power over the men.
  • It is their calls that bring Laura in and they do not care if she is destroyed. (From the Antique)
  • Rossetti’s work at the woman’s refuge made her angry about the double standards for men and women.
  • They take Laura’s hair and money from Lizzie.
  • Might be a critique of the marriage rules, restricting property ownership.
• Interpretation: Critique of Victorian Commerce

  • The Goblins sell fruit, something rare and expensive in the era. They have an abundance of it.
  • Could be a critique of of the consumerism of the middle classes as a way of symbolising their wealth.
  • It brought Victorian’s into moral panic and concern about the close proximity of the huge population.
  • There was an influx in prostitutes, and criminals considered to be ‘the underclass’
  • Herbert Tuker suggested that the techniques used by the Goblin‘s to persuade the sisters were similar to complaints about the rise of advertising.
• Evidence for Victorian Commerce

  ’all ripe together’

  • Abundance of ripe fruit no matter the season. Farmers begin to manipulate growing times to suit demand.
  • Laura’s temptation
  • The exchanges
  • Chaotic, noisy listing of the fruit.
  • Sweetness of the Goblins may be a reference to the growth of sugar by slaves in America.
• Interpretation: Religious Salvation and Sacrifice

  Laura

  • Laura is an allegory for Eve’s sin committed by seeking out the fruit. (Tree of Knowledge)
  • Her sinfulness is shown by her lack of interest in life and loss of industry.
  • Christian work ethic that hard work is a way to praise God.
• Interpretation: Religious Salvation and Sacrifice

  Lizzie

  • Lizzie’s self sacrifice mirrors that of Christ.
  • When she returns to Laura she echoes the Eucharist sacrament of the Last Supper
  • Lizzie’s feeding of Laura is an allegory of this. (Song / Remember / A Birthday).
• Evidence for Religious Salvation & Sacrifice

  • Listing of the fruit links to the biblical fruit.
  • Lizzie’s return ‘suck my juices’
  • Self sacrificing language
  • Redemptive ending
• Interpretation: Womanhood and Power

  • Sandra Gilbet — fruit is access to the artistic world.
  • Sold by men and for women to enter they must give themselves up.
  • Laura wants to be a part of it but it destroys her femininity.
  • Laura is creative and free yet it destroys it and turns her into a responsible mother. (A Birthday)
  • The girls represent the two sides of women, vice and virtue.
  • Although forgiven a happy ending is them being wives and mothers.
  • Disappointing that after such a dark tale, the girls return to very stereotypical roles (Antique)
• Interpretation: Addiction

  • Laura’s reaction to the goblins is classic addiction, she grows pale and loses interest in anything else, focusing only on when she can find her next ‘fix’.
  • Dante Rossetti’s drug addition
  • Similarities between Laura’s state and withdrawal symptoms.
• Evidence for Addiction

  • Laura as pale and loss of interest in the world.
  • ’Juices functioning as methadone, used to wean addicts off drugs.
  • Jeanie’s destruction first through prostitution and then by overdose.
• Interpretation: Elements of the Gothic

  • Goblins are a typical monstrous character in gothic literature, used to explore the monstrous nature of mankind.
  • e.g., Supernatural voices Jane Eyre / Vampiric Dracula
  • Sisters could be seen as two sides of one person e.g., Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre.
• Repeated Imagery

  Roots and Shoots — searching for knowledge, the idea that fruit / knowledge reduces growth, fertility and happiness.

  Fruit — symbol of curiosity and knowledge / biblical fruit and temptation.

  Hair — cultural commodity, hair was kept as keepsakes. Seen as a woman’s weapon.

  Laura’s exchange of hair for fruit is metaphoric of prostitution.