Like a Lily in a Flood

I agree with Rachel that Lizzie is a hero because she is just a normal person who does something to help her sister. However, I would still venture to say that Celie in The Color Purple is more of a hero than Lizzie. Celie faced unbearable suffering from others in her life. The abuses from the various men in her live was beyond her control, and for that reason, Celie’s struggle and transformation makes her a hero that we can all admire.

Lizzie, in the Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, is a hero in a different sense. I feel that Lizzie comes off as more of a hero than many of the other people we’ve read about because many of us can relate to Lizzie. Many readers have had siblings or really close friends. As sisters, Lizzie and Laura, like many of us, probably have gone through horrible fights and disputes about different chores, etc. However, once Laura falls into temptation of the goblins and eats the nectar of the fruits offered by the Goblins, she becomes “sick in part” and “longing for the night” (Rossetti, 212, 214). It is evident that Lizzie feels deeply for Laura’s change in attitude. Laura has “turn’d cold as stone,” and Lizzie doesn’t really know how to respond (Rossetti 253). Lizzie is a stereotypical hero in her actions. Everyone in our class who as written about a passion for compassion can identify with Lizzie in her desire and need to help her sister. For me, I cannot stand to witness suffering. Even more, watching blood relatives or close friends suffer is unbearable. Like Lizzie, I cringe and feel the need to do something when my parents or brother are going through some sort of suffering.

As “Tender Lizzie could not bear to watch her sister’s cankerous care yet not to share,” I find myself often feeling the obligation out of love to reach out to my brother if he is having a bad day (Rossetti, 299-301). My brother and I have definitely gotten a lot closer since we’ve both gone to college. The maturity we both developed after going to college allows us to better understand one another and forget the countless fights we’ve had growing up. Those growing pains characterize sibling bonding. Relating this to Goblin Market, I know that I would do anything for my brother and feel that he would do anything for me. The cliché Blood runs thicker than wine is something that my mother taught my brother and I.

I feel that Lizzie’s determination and love for her sister, Laura, allowed her to overcome the “scratch[ing], pinch[ing], kick[ing], knock[ing], maul[ing, and] mock[ing]” of the goblins (Rossetti 427-429). Lizzie is certain Laura’s hero. However, I don’t think I could call Lizzie my personal hero. Lizzie’s actions were a result of her love for Laura. I feel that sibling love can transcend to love for others, but that love is not as strong as blood ties. For this reason, I support the idea that Lizzie is a hero, but no more of a hero than Celie or any of the other characters we’ve read about.

The ending lines of the poem are powerful and basically stress the importance of sibling love.

“For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whist one stands.” (Rossetti 562-567).