Word and Image in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market

Abstract

The verbal-visual aesthetic of Rossetti‘s Goblin Market is traced here. Chapter one briefly discusses the life of Christina Rossetti, showing how her experiences are attributed to her poetic works. The chapter not only acts as biography to Rossetti, but to Goblin Market as well, tracking the poem‘s publication history, highlighting artworks inspired by and produced for the poem. Chapter two explores the religious influence within Goblin Market, showing how the poem is both a Eucharistic and Christ-like allegory, which is deeply rooted in Christina‘s religious life and beliefs. In chapter three, language and imagery are explored,reflecting how and why the sexual suggestiveness of Goblin Market is a major theme of scholarly debate. Chapter four focuses on selective works by the seven artists discussed above and are analyzed based on the divine and secular readings of the poem discussed in chapters two and three. Though the verbal-visual aesthetic was begun under the influence of the PRB, which focused more on the visual than the verbal, Christina Rossetti‘s Goblin Market took the idea to a new level, making it last for generation after generation of writers and artists.