I spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun in my garden and listening to audio recordings and reading various poems. It was a wonderful way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon!
Goblin Market is certainly not for children with its erotic imagery. Even as a literal interpretation of sisterly love and how one sister saves the other from temptations, some passages would still be awkward. I read that originally she told her publisher that it is was not written for children and then she changed her tune.
It’s interesting how many interpretations one could make for this poem, which I suppose is why it is still studied today. The “market” in the title has various meanings. Some believe it refers to capitalistic merchant economies, and others believe it refers to the Victorian marriage market of men and women scheming to marry rich and move up in society. I read another critic that thought it was anti-Semitic. Still others think it might be about drug addiction, especially since she suffered from mental health issues and her sister-in-law died of a laudanum overdose. There are the religious interpretations as fantasy fan mentioned, as well as the feminist interpretation in light of Victorian social mores.
Here is one point that I found particularly interesting. As you read her poems, there is much more death than I expected. Even poems that start out happy, hopeful and lively turn dry, chilly or dead. It is interesting that she did not have Laura in the poem die or fulfill the role of the stereotypical “fallen” woman. Instead, after temptation she is redeemed through her sister and lives to experience marriage and children. Also Laura (the one who was tempted) is the one who delivers the moral at the end of the poem rather than the purer Lizzie.