1. “Goblin Market” Historical/Cultural Biographical Mythological
Feminist
Only men present = goblins (men are conniving, animalistic; will lead women astray)
Women save each other
Sisterhood defined not just by blood
Marxist
Commodification of the body
Lizzie rebels against the status quo by offering actual money and resisting the Goblins—successful rebellion because she saves Laura
Goblins=government
Laura=lower class
Lizzie=middle class
Lower class is oppressed by government, but middle class intercedes on their behalf and is successful (rebellion!)
Psychoanalytic
Lizzie and Laura’s names are very similar and easy to confuse—perhaps we are meant to see them as the same person, or the conflict within one person, rather than 2 separate characters
Fruit=drug addiction and withdrawal
Lizzie=superego
Laura=ego or id (knows that she shouldn’t eat the fruit but eventually does; impulsively eats the fruit because she just wants to)
Goblins=id or ego (represent impulsive desires, but also are the middle ground between the extremes of Lizzie and Laura)
Historical/Cultural
Mid-19th century
Rise of mercantile and middle classes
Prostitution seen as sinful and an indelible mark; cannot recover from
“The Woman Question”
Segregation of spheres (domestic vs. public)
Lizzie is transgressive because she goes into the public sphere
Biographical
Religious, well-educated
Worked at Highgate House—rehab prostitutes
Women could change each other’s lives—fallen did not mean unredeemable
Mythological
“Fallen Woman” archetype
White and golden=innocence, purity
Hair=symbolic of body and soul
Maids=virgins; fruit could represent sexuality
Laura eating the fruit (and cutting her hair/giving her body) could suggest her loss of virginity (Fallen)
Last Supper and Garden of Eden allusions
Woman tempted by animal
Lizzie=Christ figure offering salvation to her sister [for her sins]
“Eat me, drink”=Last Supper