Summary of 'Forbidden Fruits - Sex and Religion in 'Goblin Market' by Ray Cluley

'Goblin Market' written by Christina Rossetti, as Caroline Norton said, 'defied categorisation', meaning that it is incredibly open to interpretation.
The essay written by Ray Cluley talks about the links to sex and religion, littered throughout the poem.
For example, he says how the goblin's voices are linked to the coosing of doves which is an animal associated with Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love. I think that this is a very interesting point that has some solid evidence.

In the poem Laura gives away a lock of her hair in order to try the goblin's fruits, which is a sexual metaphor often used in literature, as Cluley says, and it may be Rossetti trying to show how women give away a part of themselves in  order to be married, and representing how women were expected to keep thier virginity until they were married.

Rossetti also makes it clear how the goblins are not what they seem to be due to the line 'they sounded kind', giving the impression that they were not actually kind and only 'sounded' to be.