Symbols in Goblin Market

The colors Rossetti uses to describe Lizzie are important. White and gold symbolize purity and divinity. Angels are often depicted in these colors, draped in white robes and graced by a floating golden halo above their heads. Lizzie is depicted this way because of her continued purity, even when confronted with temptations of the goblins and their delicious but wicked fruit.

Winter is a classic poetic symbol for old age and death. Jeanie’s improper actions brought on an “early winter,” which aged her prematurely.

In Christian theology, doves symbolize peace and heavenly harmony. Laura hears “doves’ in the voices of the goblins. However, the reader should not take this as a sign of the goblins’ internal goodness. This is instead a sign that Laura is blind to the dangers of these goblins. Much like Eve was tricked into believing the serpent was virtuous in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, Laura is tricked into seeing the goblins as friendly.

Notice how the depiction of the goblins shifts throughout the poem. They begin as mythological monsters, then become male goblins, then become “merchant men.” This progression advances the metaphorical reading of this poem as a Victorian allegory against sexual temptation and the preservation of one’s chastity. In this way, the goblins represent men tempting women into sexual deviance.

Throughout the poem, gold is a symbol for godliness and purity. In Christian imagery, golden halos are painted on saints and other holy people. Heaven is thought to be populated by angels so gloriously beautiful that they appear in a golden beam of light. The “golden hair” of these sisters shows that they are pure and that they belong in the Garden of Eden.

Given the religious symbolism of apples and the Christian imagery throughout the poem, the seemingly eternal nature of this fruit could be read as an allusion to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

In Western Culture, “apples” allude to the story of Adam and Eve. In the Biblical story of Genesis, God grants Adam and Eve dominion over all of Eden, a paradisiacal garden where there is no time or strife. The only thing he forbids them from doing is eating from the Tree of Knowledge. When Satan tricks Eve into eating an apple from the tree, Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden and condemned to mortality.