Transcending the fairy tale element in Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

Abstract

Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets writing m the nineteenth-century England, was born in London December 5, 1830, to Gabriele and Frances (Polidori) Rossetti. Although her fundamentally religious temperament was closer to her mother's, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father. The publication of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Other Poems in 1862 marked the first literary success of the Pre-Raphaelites. This form of poetry was very popular with readers. Rossetti often found herself caught between the claims of worldly passion and celestial faith. This schism was central to her life and poetry and may have its origin in the tension between her Italian and English ancestry. Ever since Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market in 1859 it has been the object of extreme analysis from the literary community. A large part of this scrutiny centres round the various interpretations that can be made when reading Goblin Market. Critics have ignored Rossetti's claim that she did not mean anything profound by this fairy tale" and have come up with their own opinions.