"Two Faces"
Christina Rossetti was born in London,on December 5, 1830 and died December 29, 1894. Rossetti was one of four children of Italian parents. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti, her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti a painter, and she also had an older sister who was an Anglican nun. Rossetti was a devout member of Evangelical Church. She was twice sought after in marriage, but each time, because of religious reasons, she refused her suitors. In addition, she was a volunteer at the St. Mary Magdalene "House of Charity” a refuge for former prostitutes. Most of her poetry reflected topics such as death, unhappy love, religion, loss and grief. “Goblin Market”, was published in 1862.
To begin with,the plot of the narrative poem “Goblin Market” is of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. The poem begins with them strolling though the glen, and were being mocked by goblin merchant men with animal faces to “come buy, come buy” their luscious and tantalizing fruits. Lizzie is able to resist the enticement and runs home. However, Laura is weak and succumbs to the fruits; she pays with a lock of her golden hair and a pearl tear. Laura gorges herself on the temptations but her hunger increases, instead of being satisfied. The next day, while doing her chores, her mind wanders to the goblin men and the temping fruits, thus, she hurries to end her duties. Then, Laura sets off to seek the goblins and their exotic fruits. Except, Laura can no longer hear their cry of “come buy, come buy”; and from that day forward never hears that call again. Laura starts to have withdrawal symptoms just like a drug addict does when he is taken off narcotics, you can say the fruits was her drug. Every day that passes, she grows more and more lethargic, because she refuses to eat. Laura starts to age premature and Lizzie begins to fear the worst for her sister. So, Lizzie decides to purchase the “antidote” from the goblins. However, the men refused to sell her the fruits because she did not intend to eat it herself. The evil like goblins throw her money back at her and verbally and physically “rape” her, they smear the juice and pulp of their fruit on her face. Lizzie runs home feeling used from the ordeal but hopeful. When Lizzie gets home she tells Laura to suck the juices from her face and body and says the words “Eat me, drink me, and love me”. The antidote works. Laura and Lizzie both become wives and mothers and live happily ever after.
I believe Rossetti wanted her readers to see the sacrifice that is similar to Christ's redemption of humanity's sins with Lizze being the Christ-like figure.” Eat me, drink me, love me” / Laura, make much of me” (471-72). Eat me refers to the host (body of Christ). Drink me is the the wine (blood of Christ). Furthermore, the goblins' fruit symbolizes temptations of Adam and Eve from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fruit is detailed and is described as luscious and tempting. (5-30), the goblin is the serpent (Satan) that convinced Eve to eat from the forbidden tree. It is known that Satan has many faces just like the goblins (71-76).
At first I did not “see” the archetypes, but when I read the poem again, all of a sudden they were there... I think that Lizzie was pure and innocent, she had the most because at different parts of the poem she would act like: the virgin, exorcist, angel, guide, heroine, Samaritan, martyr, Jesus the savoir and of course the healer. The goblin men had the archetypes of many evil faces, such as, the devil, saboteur, trickster, the villain and death. Whereas Laura had the archetypes of the weak, for example: the addict, prostitute, victim, materialist (gluttony) and the shadow.
Additionally, the poem has many ideas and many different directions which made it difficult to come up with one opinion. For instance, the poem had many sexual overtones and exchanges of goods and money; which lead me to believe that Rossetti has written about prostitution (she was a volunteer in the “House of Charity” a refuge for prostitutes). Also,the poem had the biblical tale of Adam and Eve‘s temptations of the forbidden fruits (Rossetti was a devoted member of Evangelical Church).
Conversely, after reading the poem again for the third time and then taking a break from the “Goblin Market”. I went to my other studies; it just so happens that I have an exam on Developmental Psychology this week. As I was reading about Sigmund Freud, it dawned on me that the poem “Goblin Market” is about the id, ego and superego.
For instance, the characters Lizzie and Laura are one person (184-198 and 202). Laura is the Id. The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which Freud calls them instincts, sex drives and also wishes. The id is the devil on our shoulder. (the bad, in all of us). Lizzie is the Superego. The superego is the conscience of inner feelings like pride, shame, guilt, punishments and warnings. The superego is the angel on our shoulder (the goody, goody in all of us). The ego, unlike the id and superego functions on the reality principle. According to Freud, in a healthy person the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id and also the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every situation. But, if the id gets too strong, sexual impulses and self pleasure take over the person's life.
Finally, the entire poem seemed like struggle between id sexual urges and the superego Christ-like morals. However, in the end the ego did “restore one’s lost estate” and Laura/lizzie’s ego immerges, awoke as from a dream, and once again the personality is balanced.
Work cited:
“Character-archetypes”.” Listology,Web. 03 October 2010.
http://www.listology.com/list/character-archetypes.
“Jungarchtypes”.iloveulove,web.03 October 2010.
http://www.iloveulove.com/psychology/jung/jungarchetypes.htm
“Christina Rossetti”. Poets,Web. 02 October 2010.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/716
“Christina-Rossetti”.Britannica.Web.02 October 2010.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/510180/Christina-Rossetti
“Psychology 101”.Allpsych.Web.02 October 2010
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html
“Adam and Eve”. Wikipedia.Web. 02 October 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_and_Eve
This blog entry is extremely well structured and clear. The poem is well summarized and the use of symbols, archetypes, plus the use of another psychology class is well separated but all linked together. There is a clear thinking and research process and it all makes sense. Even though I already knew a little bit about Freud's theory of Id, ego and superego, this entry is a very good exampl and makes it even clearer to understand.
ReplyDeleteFinally to tie this all together, the text is flawless which makes a real pleasure to read.
Well done.
Thannks for this good entry Maria.