Jonty Claypole

Hard agree, Sophie.

And here's some direct smoking quills to connect that.

The genius of this poem is there is no single interpretation.

There's many, but they all hold up.

And one is that it is Christina Rossetti.

writing a sort of comeback to the aggressive masculinity of the pre-Raphaelite movement.

So let us not forget that one of the two sisters in this poem is Lizzie, which is the name of her brother's mistress, Lizzie Siddle, and eventually her brother's wife.

Lizzie was treated terribly by these men and she became very ill.

She became an opium addict.

Rossetti finally married her when she was very unwell and she died the same year that Goblin Market was published.

It's a fairly tragic story.

In Goblin Market, the interesting thing is Lizzie is not the sister who succumbs to the goblins.

Lizzie is the one who resists.

And I think one of the things Christina Rossetti is doing is rewriting Lizzie's life.

So I think the goblins, as we said before, are very clearly these hectoring, sexually aggressive men.

And they are like the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

So there's a moment where after Lizzie, who's the sort of good sister, goes and confronts them but refuses to give in, they try and make her eat the fruit.

And she says, no, I'm not going to.

And they do that thing of they suddenly turn very aggressive.

And this is the sort of male behavior women in Victorian England and indeed women now are familiar with.