Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Beata Beatrix,
depicting the angelic heroine of Dante's Divine Comedy, Beatrice, Dante's dead lover who is now in heaven. Notice how Beatrice's beatific attitude of "spiritual ecstasy" reflects the same tension between spirituality and sensuality as is found in "Goblin Market."
Questions:

1. Some scholars have read the depiction of Lizzie as Rossetti's attempt to create a "female hero." How is Lizzie heroic, and how is her heroism specifically "feminine" according to Western cultural constructs of femininity?

2. How could Lizzie be interpreted as a Christ figure?

3. Although Lizzie represents a standard of spiritual perfection and self-denial, her act of heroism and her sister's redemption are described in highly sensusous, erotically charged imagery. What sensuous/erotic imagery do you see in lines 408-421 (Lizzie's defiance of the Goblin Men) and lines 507-524 (Laura's "cure")?