By the mid-1800’s, power-driven machines had replaced hand labor for manufactured goods. To work these machines, factory owners turned to children, as they could be paid a lot less than an adult. Soon, child labor became a major problem in England and the U.S. as children were exploited for their cheap labor. These children would sometimes work 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week and would only earn a dollar. Many of these children were also quite young, even beginning work before age seven.
Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market” is intriguing because of its endless ways of interpretation. One such take on the poem is how it reads as a cautionary tale for fallen women. For example, in “Goblin Market,” Laura ends up eating the goblin’s fruit and becomes a fallen woman. Eventually, this consumption of the fruit makes Laura deathly ill and Lizzie worries her sister will die if she doesn’t receive more fruit. To save her sister, Lizzie goes to the goblin men to pay for their fruit. However, the goblins don’t want her money.
This oil painting is called Vanity. It was painted by Frank Cadogan Cowper in the Pre-Raphaelite style in 1907. As a Pre-Raphaelite paining, the colors are quite bold, bright, dramatic. The painting itself looks highly realistic, another Pre-Raphaelite feature. Along with this, the painting is of a beautiful woman with pale skin, which was a common theme for Pre-Raphaelites to paint.
