Feminism in the Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti The Victorian period marked the first traces of progress in the feminist movement, and poet Christina Rossetti embraced progress as her established principles slowly became publicly acceptable . Her poem "Goblin Market" comments on the institutions of Victorian society that she and her feminist contemporaries wished to see altered, creating modern female heroines to carry forward her messages. The goblins serve as malevolent male figures to tempt the innocent heroines, sisters Laura and Lizzie, into corruption. According to the Victorian definition, a gentleman "never takes unfair advantage...nor insinuates evil which he dare not speak" and possesses, among other qualities, the ability to avoid all suspicion and resentment (Landow 4). The leprechauns in Rossetti's poem manage to contradict every Victorian definition of a gentleman throughout the poem; the only male figures present, they represent the deleterious nature of men on women's lives. In "Goblin Market," the men's only beneficial purpose is "impregnation. Once both sisters have gone to the goblins and acquired the juices of their fruits, they no longer need them" (Mermin 291). goblins who call the sisters' attention to their delicious exotic fruits, which represent the proverbial forbidden fruit: a single taste leads to destruction. But the goblins describe their fruits as tempting. Rossetti uses rich imagery such as "Current and gooseberry,/ Barberries bright as a fire,/ Figs to fill your mouth,/ Cedars from the south,/ Sweet to the tongue and sound to the eye" (1) to stimulate the reader's senses, just as the goblin calls provoke Laura and Lizzie. The goblins at......middle of sheet......n 'Goblin Market.'" Victorian Poetry. Vol. 21, No. 2. Summer 1983.Phillips, W. Glasgow. "Theme in Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market'." The Victorian Web. 1992. URL: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/vn/victorov.html.Plowman, Melanie. "As A Poet Speaking from Within feminine limits." The VictorianWeb.1990.URL: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/vn/victorov.html. Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." Goblin Market and Other Poems. Ed. Candace Ward. New York: Dover Publications, 1-16. "Christina Rossetti: The Sisterhood of Self." of the Victorian Web: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/vn/victorov.html..