A Study On Goblin Market From The Perspective Of Biblical Archetypes

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) is an outstanding British Victorian female poet,whose talent can be comparable to Mrs. Browning. Her poems are pure and fresh, full ofsorrow and imagination, rich in symbols and metaphors, conveying a strong religioussignificance as well. Goblin Market is one of her most famous works. For a long time, GoblinMarket has been seen as "a poem intended for children", and published widely as a children’spoem. However, after a careful study on it, it can be discovered that it is very evident that,under the veil of a children’s poem, Goblin Market was imbedded with a strong religiousdoctrine.The author is committed to, on the basis of Frye’s theory of Archetypal Criticism,making an analysis of the biblical influence on Goblin Market and making a further discoveryof the various archetypes of the poem in Holy Bible, in the hope of a deep understanding ofGoblin Market. In the thesis, the poem will be studied from the aspects of narrative pattern,theme and characterization respectively in order to represent the archetypal images, reveal thebiblical archetypes. By means of the archetypal criticism analysis of Eve, Jesus Christ, andthe serpent, the poet’s strong religious consciousness behind the shaping of the archetypeswill be discussed.The theory of archetypal criticism can help the readers of the poem jump out of the boxof the past research framework and make a new interpretation of the poem from theperspective of biblical archetypes. From Holy Bible, the archetypes of Goblin Market innarrative pattern, theme and characters can be found; with Holy Bible as a key, the door to amore thorough understanding of Rossetti and the poem itself will be opened.The biblical archetypal study on Goblin Market will enable us to make a more completeunderstanding of the real Christina Rossetti, and provide more diverse perspectives for us tostudy her works.