Criticism of Rossetti

Christina Rossetti's poems are all together ambiguous, so are open to many different interpretations. Although on the whole her poems are widely and positively received, inevitably there are still critical viewpoints.

The critic Jan Marsh believes Rossetti is ambivalent towards the position of women during the Victorian era – this is demonstrated in ‘Goblin Market’ where Rossetti implies a feminist viewpoint, yet in real life she was against the movement of the Suffragettes.Rossetti was greatly opposed the sexual exploitation of young girls, which can be depicted in ‘Goblin Market’ where the men are portrayed as yearning, nasty goblins attempting to seduce the young girls into sex. The girls give over a lock of their hair, which can be metaphorically transcribed as virginity, showing Rossetti’s clear dislike for women being forced by some cruel men into handing over their precious virginity so young.

I believe Marsh’s opinion is partially skewed, because I don’t believe Rossetti was ambivalent in the way of her feminist views. She does demonstrate in many of her poems that she is a strong supportive of women even if they have succumbed to the desire of premarital sex. Specifically in ‘Goblin Market’ she tells us “there is no friend like a sister” even if they have fallen in the eyes of a judgmental society. So, I do not believe that Rossetti was a fickle feminist, because it was also demonstrated in the reality of her life where she volunteered at High Penitentiary for Fallen Women for numerous years.

Ray Cluley explains how Christina Rossetti’s narrative poem for children conceals a morality tale for female sexuality. On the whole, I agree that ‘Goblin Market’ is a metaphor for pressurisation into sex, yet on some part I disagree with Cluley. I agree with Cluley in the way that the poem can have the interpretation of sex, virginity and the pressures on young girls, because there are many obvious metaphors for sexuality, “she sucked until her lips were sore,” “her pitcher dripping all the way,” and “hug me, kiss me, suck my juices,” for example. These can clearly be taken as crude metaphors for arousal and sexual intimacies.
However I disagree with the outlook of Cluley where all men have been “excused” by Rossetti. Rossetti differentiates the goblins from men with, “men sell not such in any town” and “troop’d the goblin,” but I still believe Rossetti’s intention was to label some men as goblins who coerce women into sex. The use of separate descriptions of men and goblins leads me to be certain that she is simply separating the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ men. She even describes the goblins as “little men,” and the “merchant man” which I think shows she is implying the goblins are the men who are sexually pressurising to girls and women.