CORINNENOTES

Deconstructing Eve:

Christina Rossetti’s re-evaluation of the Eve-Myth in “Goblin Market”.

James Ashcroft Noble was able to emphatically state that “Goblin Market” was “a little spiritual drama of love’s vicarious redemption”. D. M. R. Bentley shares the view that the poem is one marked by good and evil, and that the central issue of the poem is the triumph of Lizzie’s “moral sense” over Laura’s , and the goblins’, “subverted…materialistic erotics” until, finally “good can be brought out of evil”. This view would suggest that Rossetti’s poetry is compliant with the patriarchy of religion and the myth of women in the Bible, particularly in regard to Eve, who, like Laura, succumbs to the temptation of forbidden fruit. Such an interpretation is, however, misleading and highly simplistic, serving only to undermine the complexity of “Goblin Market” in an attempt to reconcile it with religion, and in particular, Rossetti’s religion. For while Rossetti does not reverse religious ideology to the extent which Emily Bronte does in Wuthering Heights, she does challenge the nature and interpretation of the fall of Eve, and thereby questions the role of women, and indeed men, in the bible.

The opening stanza of “Goblin Market” establishes the lure of temptation. We are greeted by “Plump unpecked cherries” and “Bloom-down-cheeked peaches” and yet, as in Tennyson’s “The Lotus Eaters” the power of such sensation is undermined. Rossetti presents the fruits of goblin market in a repetitive, if not tedious, list. The sensual pleasure which Rossetti presents us with may not be as satisfying as it first appears. The use of adjectives such as “unpecked” also highlight that we are about to be introduced to “Maids” – virginal and innocent. Both of the maids in Rossetti’s poem are tempted by the goblin’s fruit but react very differently. Lizzie, in a show of traditional feminine innocence reacts by “blush[ing]” while Laura reacts by “bow[ing] her head to hear”. Here “Curious Laura” is a direct parallel to Eve, who also “desired to make one wise”. Initially Laura states that “We must not look at goblin men/ We must not buy their fruits” just as Eve initially states that “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it”. However when Laura sees the “luscious” fruit and Eve sees that the tree is “pleasant to the eyes” both forget their initial reticence. Unlike Eve, however, Laura has a fellow “Maid” in the form of her sister Lizzie, who urges her to resist temptation, and who is, in Bentley’s simplified interpretation, the goodness that finally defeats the evil of temptation. Lizzie’s reaction to the goblins however is to “shut [her] eyes and [run]” as she fears that the “evil” of the goblins will harm her. If Lizzie really is “good” and the fruits of the goblins “evil” it is questionable as to why she effectively abandons her sister, leaving her to eat the forbidden fruit. In order to eat the fruit however Laura must give the goblin men a lock of her “golden” hair. This exchange has a double significance. Firstly this giving of a lock of hair mirrors the practice in Victorian society of the giving of a lock of hair in marriage, with gold representing purity and virginity. Secondly “golden” has financial implications – as Bentley states “Laura accedes to a process of dehumanisation and commercialisation whereby she becomes simultaneously a buyer and a seller, a consumer and a commodity”. Finally Laura tastes the fruit which is “Sweeter” and “stronger” than anything which she has ever experienced before. That she has never experienced anything equivalent to this before means that the comparisons which are attempted stand on the verge of failure. Like Eve, Laura exchanges her innocence for fruit and for knowledge and thus, in the eyes of a patriarchal society, becomes a fallen woman.

 While Eve is banished from Eden, Laura’s punishment for her loss of innocence is to become “sick”. In this respect Rossetti parallels Laura’s downfall with that of Jeanie – who too “ate their [the goblins] fruits”, “pinned” and eventually died. Noticeably Jeanie “should have been a bride”. Once she has experienced the incomparable fruit of the goblins and lost her innocence, she can no longer be the “blush[ing]” maid and therefore can no longer be a “bride”. At first it appears that Laura may experience the same fate. Her hair, which had been so symbolically potent in the early part of the poem, is now “grey”, innocence has been lost and Laura must now “decay”. Like Eve who’s “sorrow” is “greatly multipl[ied]” Laura is forced to “knock…at Death’s door”. In this respect Rossetti does not so much challenge as accept the biblical account, and evaluation, of the fall of Eve. Laura yields to temptation and is therefore punished.

Rossetti’s first deviation from the biblical evaluation of Eve (and women) is her presentation of Lizzie. Lizzie’s role is essentially that of Adam – but unlike Adam who eats the “fruit forbidden” and then blames “The woman [who] gave me of the tree”, Lizzie is joined with Laura. In this respect Bentley is correct in stating that “as members of a community of women, they are also part of one another”. Adam is as much responsible for the fall of man but chooses to judge Eve, but Lizzie not only resists temptation but also refuses to condemn Laura to her fall and indeed risks her own innocence at the hands of the “evil” goblin men in order to save Laura. Unlike Laura, Lizzie has a “penny” and therefore attempts to take part in an actual financial transaction with the goblin men. However they refuse to sell Lizzie the fruit, revealing the exclusion of women from business. To give Lizzie fruit the goblin men must literally have a piece of her, they must own her and, to use Gubar and Gilbert’s phrase, “rape” her of her hair. Lizzie, unlike Laura, does not yield and the goblin men react with anger. Where they formally “purred” they now “snarl” and begin to physically assault her. Yet Lizzie still has the inner strength to resist this temptation and takes on an almost iconic status:

                  “White and golden Lizzie stood,

                  Like a lily in a flood, -

                  Like a rock of blue-veined stone

                  …Like a royal virgin town”.

As Bentley notes the “lily” is an “emblem of both purity and sacrifice”. This is given extra emphasis by the use of “white” and “golden” which represent virginal innocence. That Lizzie is able to endure this, not for her own benefit but for that of her sister is one of the most positive aspects of the poem. Unlike the portrayal of women in Genesis through Eve Rossetti shows that not only are women capable of resisting temptation they are also capable of saving others through their own self sacrifice. Gubar and Gilbert even suggest that the poem presents the idea that “men hurt while women redeem”. The most startling aspect of this is when Lizzie states “Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices…Eat me, drink me, love me”. By this point Rossetti has made Lizzie a female Christ. Just as Christ offered his body and blood as bread and wine in order to save mankind, Lizzie offers her body in order to save Laura. In this respect “Goblin Market” is highly subversive – it blames the fall of mankind on men (all be it goblin ones, but they are repeatedly referred to as “goblin men” which allows this comparison to be drawn) and the redemption as the result of a woman.

To emphasise the difference between this interpretation of the role of women and that of the Bible it is interesting to compare Rossetti’s version of femininity with that of Gerard Manley Hopkins in “The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe”. Like Lizzie, Hopkins’s Mary is a maiden who “bloom[s]”. Mary’s role, and the reason that she is “blessed” is because of the fact that she is a “mother” to a “son”. Indeed the poem appears trapped between a male “God” and a male “Christ”, and Hopkins does not even allow Mary to give her name to the poem, the title of which is instead an assertion of her ‘purity’. Mary is important only as a means to an end – the method by which Christ will be produced. Rossetti dispenses of the masculine within “Goblin Market” and allows her “maidens” to take the central role. Unlike the masculine God who speaks to Adam and Eve, no such voice is present within the poem, Lizzie and Laura are responsible for their own moral policing.

Yet if we regard Lizzie as being Christ it intensifies the issue of Rossetti’s opinion of Eve and whether Laura’s fall is actually a descent into evil. For all Bentley would like to portray “Goblin Market” as a poem polarised by good and evil a close reading of the text does not support this. While it is true that Rossetti does present differences between the two sisters, from their reactions to the goblin men to the fact one likes “bright day” whilst the other longs for the “night” Rossetti also states many similarities between the sisters, suggesting that the poem is not merely the redemption of another fallen Eve. The passage on Lizzie’s iconic status, which I have previously quoted, is actually an echo of an earlier passage which describes Laura:

                   “Like a rush-imbedded swan,

                    Like a lily from the beck,

                    Like a moonlit poplar branch

                    Like a vessel at the launch”.

Crucially this passage occurs after Laura’s “last restraint is gone” whilst the equivalent passage for Lizzie occurs when she resists the temptation of the “fruit forbidden”. If Lizzie’s restraint is “good” and Laura’s yielding to temptation “evil” how is it possible that both can be considered to be a “lily”? Equally after each of the sisters encounters with the goblins the line “Knew not was it night or day” is repeated. This serves to emphasise the similarities between the two encounters, despite their apparently opposite outcomes. Rossetti also makes clear the connections between Laura and Lizzie in the passage following Laura’s return from the goblins:

                    “Golden head by golden head,

                     Like two pigeons in one nest

                     …Like two blossoms on one stem,

                     Like two flakes of new-fallen snow,

                     Like two wands of ivory”.

In this description there is no difference between the ‘fallen’ Laura and the innocent Lizzie, they are identical and inseparable. Bentley attempts to explain this by claiming that it simply reveals that “innocence and experience can indeed associate with each other”. However in labelling one sister as being innocent and the other as experienced Bentley is creating a division which simply isn’t present in this passage of the poem. It is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the idea of the fallen Laura (and consequently the fallen Eve) with the imagery of purity, from the “snow” to the “ivory”, in this passage. Indeed it may just be possible, that ultimately there is little, if any, difference between supposed good and supposed evil, it is simply a matter of perception.

The final passage of the poem, however, complicates the interpretation of the Eve-Myth. Laura can now laugh “in the innocent old way” and becomes a mother (though, unlike Hopkins’s Mary, not through immaculate conception and, noticeably, to daughters rather than sons). However she misses the “pleasant days long gone” and appears to be enshrined in domesticity, still barred from Goblin market and its temptations. There is the positive assertion that “there is no friend like a sister”, with the word “sister” having both literal and metaphorical significance but the ending of the poem is conservative rather than revolutionary.

Ultimately Rossetti appears in conflict as to how she should regard Eve and Laura. She deconstructs the image of Eve and questions the role of men within the downfall of mankind only to draw back into the traditional patriarchal boundaries and we are left unsure as to the true role of Eve and her “fall”.

Bibliography:

Christina Rossetti: The Complete Poems, Penguin Classics (2001)

The Bible in English, ed. Noah Webster.

The Achievement of Christina Rossetti, ed. David A. Kent.

The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar.