I must admit that it took several times to read through Rosetti's "Goblin Market" to read into the story beyond a Fairy Tale or Biblical allegory. Let's face it, by now women should learn to NOT accept fruit from strangers. It never goes well. The story draws similarities to Eve, Mary Magdalene, Hansel and Gretel, etc. We covered most of this in Monday's class.
The element of the story that I found difficult to parallel to any other text but the idea of Lizzie making Laura eat the fruit from her flesh. It has been considered feminist and even homoerotic. While Laura is the fallen woman that is easily swayed and becomes the victim of addiction, Lizzie personifies the light, or good, qualities of a person, manifesting the archetypes ranging from the Christlike martyr to the virgin that survives a slasher movie. They seem to be yin and yang, as portrayed by the way they sleep in each others' arms as if in the womb, meshed together as if one person. While I can see how it is a feminist text due to a woman saving another woman rather than a Prince Charming or Jesus Christ coming in to save them from their sins, I think it reflects the battling sides of a person such as the darkness that is susceptible to greed, temptation, and addiction. But on the flip side, that darkness is conquered by resistance and conviction and the light and dark must battle and feed off each other to be a whole person.
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