Goblin Empire

One of our readings for Monday was The” Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti. In this reading I saw a number of passages that show a metaphorical relation the British Empire. To be more specific about this the passages describing the different fruits and the fact that they are sold in no town from here. Many of the fruits being described were not fruits that were grown in England and a few were not grown in Europe at all. The passage also says it is not known on what soil the fruit is grown, a metaphor for foreign lands.

                I think Rossetti used the goblins as a metaphor for the agents of the East India Company or other agents of empire who went forth to conquer far off lands and bring back the resources and goods from those places. I think if we look at the poem in relation to or as a commentary on the Empire we can see Rossetti taking a negative view of how things were going. Perhaps this may be a stretch but I could see her making something of a prophecy that would come true later. This prophecy would be the eventual turning on the empire by her colonies. The passage that best describes this is when Lizzie is beaten up by the goblin men for not wanting to partake of their wares but take them back to her sister showing that eventually one must pay for the actions that have been done, regardless of whether or not those in the position of power committed the crimes. The picture below has nothing to do with the story but I thought they were funny.