Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

We were supposed to wrap up this course today, and we were supposed to deal with two very different
poems, two very different poets as well, but both of them deal with the woman question in Victorian
literature or in the Victorian era as such in their own very different ways, but both poems can be, in
terms of their analysis, boil down to addressing the woman question as one of the dominant themes in
Victorian literature in general. Last week when I was introducing Victorian poetry I said that the greatest
deal of it, much of Victorian poetry is seen today as primarily post-Romantic continuing what was
actually was established in the period of Romanticism, and I tried to illustrate that through one
particular poem and couple of artists and painters from the so-called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
trying to sort of insist or highlight the ways in which Keats among other Romantic poets was a great
source of inspiration or original to be imitated in their art in general including painting and poetry as
well. I highlighted some of those aspects primarily when it comes to vivid colours, when it comes to
details in your paintings where we can actually find visual interpretations of what Keats did in his poetry,
in his literary opus. I also said at the very beginning of the class last time that Victorian poetry should
also be approached with a sense of some amount of originality, because obviously, like Victorian
literature in general, it did address certain themes that were primarily Victorian that cannot be really
describes as just romantic, and one of them obviously is the so-called woman question that we find
primarily discussed and developed in the novel period, again Emily Bronte and her Wuthering Heights
the way that Catherine Earnshaw is treated and as a Victorian woman between two extremes of her
education of her growing up. We also have George Eliot for instance even some more open and direct
examples are to be found in this other Bronte sisters like Charlotte Bront and her Jane Eyre for
instance. Jane Eyre is a typical Victorian woman supposed to suppress all her desires and keep them
hidden from the public and then it all explodes. This is really what Christina Rossetti does in her poem
Goblin Market and this is somewhat what Robert Browning also tries to do in his poem My Last
Duchess, and the most obvious difference here is that one poet is a lady Christina Rossetti and the
other is a gentleman and seemingly they obviously do have different ways of seeing what is the so-called
woman question. Their approaches are primarily founded upon that founding doctrine of Victorian
society, Victorian culture if you want, and also Victorian literature. That doctrine is actually summed up
by yet another Victorian poet with whom I planned to deal with in this class, but we are going to skip his
poem Ulysses to address this other poem the excerpt from his poem The Princess poem by Alfred
Lord Tennyson, because it is very telling in terms of what it meant to be a man according to not only him
but society in general, and what it meant to be a woman, and that doctrine is summed up in these lines.
This is what he says, and these words are even more significant since we know now that Alfred Lord
Tennyson was the official court poet, so he did in a way represent the official doctrine of the entire
society. This is what he says in one of his poems The Princess: Man for the field and woman for the
hearth: Man for the sword and for the needle she: Man with the head and woman with the heart: Man
to command and woman to obey;. That is the official doctrine of Victorian society the so-called
Doctrine of separate spheres. When there were obviously two different spheres meant to be occupied
by two sexes. One of them was the domestic sphere that was supposed to be occupied and taken care
of by women. This is why it says here woman for the hearth. Whereas man for the field the man was
to occupy the public sphere. This basic doctrine had a number of other implications that are addressed
both by Christina Rossetti and Robert Browning, and we are going to try and address some of the
nuances of that doctrine of separate spheres. It is not just about private vs public, but it has other binary
oppositions implied in there two poems. The whole doctrine of separate spheres as a number of other
binary oppositions that are present in it. By the end of the class I'm going to try and address as many as
possible of these binary oppositions to try and see to what extent the whole doctrine is founded upon
the power struggle between two sexes in which men are, in this particular context, understood and
approached as the more powerful sex man to command, and woman to obey which is yet another
confirmation of this power relation between the two sexes. Both poems do have this concern in their
essence, even though they treat the woman question or the doctrine of separate spheres in a pretty
indirect way, because when I'm talking about this whoever really knows what Goblin Market is really
about or whoever knows what My Last Duchess is about is asking this what is he really talking about
because how does this very simple tale of two sisters (Lizzie and Laura) address the woman question,
and how does is this very fairy-tale-like poem to be understood within this context. You are not the only
one because Christina Rossetti herself said at the very beginning when asked what the poem Goblin
Market was about, she said: It was really what it was about, what you can find in the poem. Two
sisters, one of them being seduced by goblin men who became addicted to goblin fruit, and the other
one who was a saviour, and this is pretty much what the poem is about. Nothing else to be found in it,
the only reason why she decided to create such colourful creatures like goblin men was to be
entertaining to children, because she found the poem to be primarily directed to them. When you take a
look at the very beginning of the poem you can very easily determine what is it that makes this poem
very much interesting and very much appealing to children and that target group. Take a look at the first
nineteen lines of the poem that pretty much tell you about the style, imagery, but also the very simple,
yet very dynamic rhyming pattern that propels you to move on. It really is a page-turner if you can
describe a poem like that, because you want to hear out what happens to the sisters by the end of the
poem, and how the two of them deal with this temptation that is presented to them at the very
beginning.

Goblin Market

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpeckd cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheekd peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;

All ripe together

In summer weather,

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Notice the irregularity of lines, obviously she was not really concerned by that like Alexander Pope
would be, yet still we have a number of couplets in this case by, fly; together, weather; strawberries,
blackberries. Sometimes the rhyming pattern is not a couplet. It is very irregular in terms of the rhyming
pattern, in terms of the feet, the meter, but because of that irregularity it propels you to reflect the
mood of the poem as such. So there she was another Romantic if you want, not really too concerned
with the form, but primarily with content and telling a story as well. The poem really creates this
atmosphere of the very beginning of a typical fairy tale and we can actually go back to Christabel, one of
the best examples of fairy-tale-like poems in Romanticism where we have this binary between homes
and non-home inside and outside. Christabel is supposed to stay at home with her father where as she
decides to go out and pray in the forest, and this is where she gets exposed to all the trouble called
Geraldine. So this is a typical motif in fairy tales like the Little Red Riding Hood might be another
example of that home-not home dichotomy, and this is what Christina Rossetti creates at the very
beginning of this poem. We have two sisters living alone, they are maids, so there is the question where
their parents are is never really asked or answered in this case, and there seems to be irrelevant
because it is not the real world of Victorian society. The poem doesn't try to be realistic, but tries to
create this story that would be primarily appealing to children without too many questions asked what
is real and what is not. They are called Lizzie and Laura, those are two sisters, and they get tempted by
the fruit that is listed here. The significance of this fruit has received a great deal of critical attention,
and a great deal of confusion as well. One thing is sure the poem is so simple that you are never happy
when it comes to getting ready for the exam with possible meanings that are there. It is so simple that
you always thing of some sort of a catch behind the simplicity of the poem, behind the narrative of the
poem, while getting ready for the exam you have a number of questions as to what am I missing, am I
getting everything right, can it be so simple. This is why you have so many articles written about possible
meanings of the sisters, their relationship, fruits as well, their symbolism, goblins or goblin men, and
what actually happens behind the story here. Again, we may think of this poem as a typical allegory that
hides another meaning behind it, but is is also like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner there are a
number of symbols where there is not one meaning behind the symbol but multiple meanings that may
be implied. The fruit in this particular case may signify what it actually signified in our discussion in the
Eve of st Agnes if you recall Porphyro coming out of that closet and bring in the fruit for Madeline and
treat her, it may imply passion and sexual energy, sexual joy this is what fruit may be, on the one hand,
but we may go as far as the original biblical story where the tree of knowledge is the tree from which
Eve tastes the fruit, and Adam tries the fruit so fruit may symbolize knowledge as such. How is that
relevant to us in this case? The girls are supposed to stay home in the private sphere, in the domestic
sphere of the Victorian society and they get tempted by the world outside, like Adam and Eve were
tempted by Satan to taste what is not really allowed. So, in this particular case fruit may be a symbol of
the public sphere in general tasting the public sphere, consuming what the public sphere has to offer.
The public sphere as you can see in this instance it is very interesting that she doesn't call them goblins
only, but calls them also goblin MEN later in the poem. It is very clear that goblins represent the
masculine that they are men whereas the maids are innocent women, virgins, pure women as well get
tempted by those men from the public sphere. They were not supposed to taste the fruit, yet one of
them does taste the fruit. What is the problem with this private sphere, public sphere, what is this act of
temptation so bad? It is not just about tasting the forbidden fruit in the biblical sense, but according to
Christina Rossetti there is something else in this case that really reflects society in general and that is
that when once you get out in the public sphere you have to possess means of transaction, financial
means to buy the fruit. The problem that Victorian woman at that time have was the absence of such
means or absence of any opportunity to earn such means, because career wise the choices and
opportunities for women were very limited. There were four-five things that a woman could become at
the time. One of them was a wife, you can also become a governess, you can become a mistress, a
prostitute. That was the greatest feature of the public sphere, if a woman gets tempted by all the
appealing fruit of the public sphere if she gets out if she leaves the private sphere the domestic sphere
in which she belongs a number of things can happen to her, but the worst one would be to become a
fallen woman. The one who actually doesnt have the money to actually buy this fruit would actually
offer her body to be able to complete this transaction. This is why one of the sisters acts like that, and
this is why one of the sisters is the one who actually transgresses the boundaries between the domestic
sphere and the public sphere. She gets out, she wants to buy the fruit, she succumbs to temptation, but
she doesn't have the money to pay for it. She says that:

But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:

Good folk, I have no coin;

To take were to purloin:

I have no copper in my purse,

I have no silver either,

And all my gold is on the furze

That shakes in windy weather

Above the rusty heather.

You have much gold upon your head,

They answerd all together:

Buy from us with a golden curl.

She clippd a precious golden lock,

She droppd a tear more rare than pearl,

Then suckd their fruit globes fair or red:

Sweeter than honey from the rock,

Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

The gold on her head is her golden blonde hair, and we have another so simple, stereotypical innocence,
symbol of femininity as well long, golden curls. Again if we go back to William Blake and Chimney
Sweepers, you remember how Tom's hair gets shaved by men so he loses his innocence, but gets
comforted by his friends your hair will not get dirty now it is shaved. So this is the idea not of only
losing, but selling her femininity, one of symbols of femininity a woman's hair, her own identity, part of
her body in fact that gets sold to make this transaction, to make her taste the fruit. Lizzie on the other
hand manages to sort of resist, she stays home, but Laura, in this case, because of her sweet-tooth gets
out and sells a part of her body/her body in general to receive the fruit. That was one of the obvious
options according to Victorians in general for a woman once she left the private sphere/domestic sphere
of her home. This is one point where we get something more from the poem than we are meant, even
according to Christina Rosseti. She said it doesn't mean a thing, it is supposed to entertain children, it
is supposed to give you colourful pictures with colourful creatures, there are wonderful illustrations
made by Dante Gabriel Rossetti that contribute to the visual aspect of the poem. Poetry and painting
was a big thing with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but you know fairy tales are not just there to be
just that, fairy tales are never meant to be just enjoyed by children for the sake of their happiness and
joy. The images that are painted in those tales are not just meant to entertain children, but they are also
supposed to instruct them as well. This is why A Little Pretty Pocket-Book which was the first
collection of fairy tales written in English represented a new direction in the world of children's books
that was meant to be entertaining as well as to instruct. That was the idea in general. The overall
purpose was clear, to make Tommy a good boy and Polly a good girl. In this particular case the poem
creates a very serious warning, if you want to create a very serious Victorian warning in terms of what it
means to be a good Victorian girl, and how one remains a good Victorian girl by staying home. Polly a
good girl and Lizzy and Laura good Victorian ladies. Once Laura takes the fruit and makes this
transaction, she becomes addicted, it is never enough to taste the fruit once, she needs more, so
obviously she doesn't have to means to go on. You can go on selling your body forever, but in her case
she needs protection from her sister, she needs protection from the one that she can count on, there
are no parents in the poem as I've said, so the only person that she has is Lizzie, her sister to protect her.
She has transgressed, she has broken the rule, and in this particular case she is a bad girl. Polly, or Laura
in this case is a bad girl, and what makes her bad is very significant. Addicted, hungry for the fruit, she
pawns for another shot, she can't get it obviously, but this is how she gets affected:

While with sunk eyes and faded mouth

She dreamd of melons, as a traveller sees

False waves in desert drouth

With shade of leaf-crownd trees,

And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze.

She no more swept the house,

Tended the fowls or cows,

Fetchd honey, kneaded cakes of wheat,

Brought water from the brook:

But sat down listless in the chimney-nook

And would not eat.

She actually stopped being a woman, because to go back to Tennyson's quote Woman for the hearth,
and in this case Laura is no longer capable of taking care of the hearth, of taking care of her domestic
duties, and this lock of her golden hair is truly a symbol of her Victorian femininity as well, because by
selling her hair she sells her Victorian femininity. This is not the only poem, this is not the only piece of
literature written about this same topic, because prior to discussing Goblin Market, prior to getting to
know Goblin Market, you were familiar with another famous Victorian piece that also sets out a warning
about taking care of who you are as a Victorian girl. The piece has very recently become even more
interesting, even trendier because of this new film adaptation called Alice in Wonderland. I'm just going
to quote from the so-called Victorian appetite in pieces like Alice in Wonderland starting from here the
quote is going to go on: Victorian consumer culture, both produced objects of desire and dictated that
little Alices must learn to control their desires. Imagine the contrast to women of the dark continents,
and prostitutes on the dark streets in their own cities. Those were women who couldn't really control
their appetite, as was believed. This is why they ended up being what they are prostitutes. These are
women like Laura who could not really control their appetite for the forbidden fruit and this is why they
ended up the way they did. The quote continues: When Alice falls down the rabbit-hole, she behaves,
as Nancy Armstrong has pointed out, like a typical shopper picking out and then putting back a jar of
orange marmalade from the shelves of the rabbit-hole. Later, she discovers that objects in Wonderland
tend to come inscribed with such unsubtle advertising ploys as eat me or drink me. Noting that all
Alice's troubles seem to begin and end with her mouth, Armstrong relates Alice's dilemma to a new
moment in the history of desire, a moment when the burgeoning consumer culture based on British
imperialism changed the nature of middle-class English femininity.

Where there was obviously a chance to get more, to buy more, there were a means to get that, as a
mother you would have the means to go out and buy things, but it was to be and to remain in control of
the public, and that was the allegorical message that Christina Rossetti sent out through Goblin Market.
Given that fact that Christina Rossetti was pretty conservative she may be seen as a promoter of these
values stay at home, do what you are supposed to do where as men do whatever is done in the public
domain. Given the fact that she was public, that she was an artist, the poem might be seen as an ironic
commentary upon the doctrine of separate spheres, and gender roles.