Goblin Market Critics

One critic, Terrance Holt infers the poem 'Goblin Market' by Christina Rossetti to be entirely based on the theme of gender and sexuality. Holt also suggests that the poem is treating the relationship between the goblins (who represent males in Victorian society) and the women - Laura and Lizzie - as a business deal, due to the economic language used, such as the repetition of 'come buy' and words such as 'golden', 'coin' and 'fee'. He also states that due to the hinted theme of sexuality, the poem is 'not only based on gender relations'.