Christina Rossetti and the fear of sense in Goblin Market

"Unholy Senses" The poem "Goblin Market", by Christina Rossetti, relates the ethical tale of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. Rossetti constructs the poem surrounding the two women who are unable to access their fully developed intuitions without being subsumed by the men who provide sensory delights. Rossetti establishes this through characterizing the base physical senses as an unfit endeavor for young women to experience. The character Laura, in the poem, is led through a tortuous …

…life? Is this a tale of redemption on Rossetti's part? This is only speculation, but Rossetti clearly sees that the physical senses and the desires that they may produce as unholy and inappropriate for women of character. The didactic tale of "Goblin Market" allows Rossetti to pursue the pleasures but from a moral and ethical distance, after all, she is informing women of the dangers that ensue when she follows the feelings of her body.