Vision, Vulnerability, and the Victorian Marketplace in Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’

This article traces connections between nineteenth-century concepts of physiological sight and philosophies of vision in order to argue that Christina Rossetti’s much discussed and debated depiction of women in the marketplace in ‘Goblin Market’ should be framed by Victorian beliefs about vision and its moral extensions. I establish a historical, medical, and social context for the evolving views on vision in response to advancements in the visual sciences, particularly focusing on social responses to the physiological findings that allied the physical and psychological understanding of vision and knowledge creation in new ways. These theories of visuality within the medical and scientific communities affirmed the social rhetoric of female fragility, connecting frail female sight with precarious judgments and undermined morality outside the protected domestic sphere. I use this context to show that, although ‘Goblin Market’ clearly acknowledges potential dangers in the market for women, Rossetti ultimately presents a tale in which Lizzie is able to successfully participate in markets and in which feminine strength is shown to be a tool for self-governance more broadly. While keeping the moral values tied to female vision and public participation intact, Rossetti nonetheless undermines theories of simple determinism in the female body and mind. ‘Goblin Market’, I argue, can be viewed as a challenge to accepted beliefs about the vulnerability of physical and moral degeneration for women in the marketplace, a challenge that both operates within the social values of moral vision and offers a guide to an empowering public participation.