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3. ‘Food penetrates the boundaries of the body, bringing the outside into that putatively

contained self and reconstituting the physical being; it refuses to be kept out by the

desire for control’ (Gwen Hyman). How do Victorian representations of eating make

manifest concerns about bodily control?

The reflection of consumption in Victorian women

The Victorian era takes place in a context in which people, especially women,

suffered all kinds of injustices. The most relevant and unfair treatments in this context is

consumption, both by them and to them. It will show how in the eyes of men, any

woman becomes a temptation and consumable and that his body can pay any debt.

Through Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Goblin Market you will see how fine

the line between consumer and consumed is, how preoccupation with food is noticeable

even among children, and how, in order not to be judged and to meet society's

expectations to fit in properly, women become ill, due to their unhealthy and poor

nutrition.

Consumption was a passion for the Victorians. Despite this desire of consuming,

women of the time confronted a wildly inconsistent norm surrounding consumerist

behaviour. A limitation was established on the 19th century woman's consumption

habits. As Coar (2012, pp. 48-49) mentions, “Through her adherence to the era’s non-

consumer code of conduct, I argue, the non-hungry heroine of Victorian culture

eventually became a titillating treat for male voyeurs and, ironically, an object of visual,

sexual and gustatory consumption herself.”, so in order to please others they established

behaviours in eating that were not at all healthy for them.

Through this form of consumption, or non-consumption, we can see how

women, in addition to being consumed, can also consume. Furthermore, it is important

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to keep in mind that in both cases, women suffer and are punished for imposing

themselves or letting themselves go. To start with this aspect, we have the clear example

of Alice, who, after returning to being a girl the size of an ant, and running away from

the rabbit's house, finds herself with a puppy, which next to her is huge, and although in

a normal situation Alice “should have liked teaching it tricks if- if I’d only been the

right size to do it!” (Carrol, 1891, p. 54), again the size is a problem and a handicap,

because, “it might be hungry, in which case it would be very likely to eat her up in spite

of all her coaxing.” (Carrol, 1891, p. 57) and the possibility of defending herself with

that height is non-existent.

In the same way, Alice, just after her encounter with the caterpillar, when she

consumes a piece of the mushroom and grows excessively, is mistaken for a serpent

because “her neck would blend about easily in any direction, like a serpent” (Carrol,

1891, p. 70). Thus, when “a large pigeon” (Carrol, 1891, p. 71) saw her near her eggs

“had flown into her face, and was beating her violently with its wings” (Carrol, 1891, p.

71). The bird continued to insist on the girl's physical form “You’re a serpent; and

there’s no use denying it. I suppose you’ll be telling me next that you never tasted an

egg.” (Carrol, 1891, pp. 72-73). That is, in this case, because Alice is a consumer, she is

attacked by the pigeon, and although she does not suffer any damage because of her

size, it could be interpreted as a kind of punishment for being bigger than she should be.

Something similar happens in Globin Market, perhaps in a more remarkable

way. The moment Laura was tempted and tasted the fruit “sucked their fruit globes fair

or red: Sweeter than honey from the rock” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 128-129) and once

finished, and intending to return the next day “To-morrow night I will Buy more,"”

(Rossetti, 1865, lines 167-168), she got a double punishment, the first one that “She

never caught again the goblin cry: “Come buy, come buy,” She never spied the goblin
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men” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 172-174), so that however much Laura might want more

fruit she could not buy it without seeing the market goblins, and the second one that

“Her hair grew thin and gray; She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn To swift

decay” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 277-279) and “But sat down listless in the chimney-nook

And would not eat” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 297-298) it is like she started to be a body

without a soul inside, she did not do anything, she did not eat, she just got worse and

worse every day. As Gilbert and Gubar (2000, p. 25) point out women were forced to

“kill” themselves in Victorian culture, to become art objects: slim, pale, passive beings

whose “charms” eerily recalled the dead's snowy, porcelain immobility.

On the other hand, Laura, by consuming fruits, is also consumed. This appears

subliminally in the poem, in the first place when “She sucked until her lips were sore,

Then flung the emptied rinds away, But gathered up one kernel stone” (Rossetti, 1865,

lines 136-138) as the particular use of these words can be interpreted with a double

meaning. Secondly, the moment when she buys the fruit "She clipped a precious golden

lock, She dropped a tear more rare than pearl," as Carpenter (1991, p. 427) says, Laura

“hands over this emblem of her virginity with only a single tear”. In this way, in

addition to taking away her virginity and desire, she loses the will to live the life she had

and deteriorates physically, as mentioned above.

Lizzie is also consumed, first, when she goes to look for the goblin men to get

help for her sister, who upon seeing her arrive “Clawed with their nails, Barking,

mewing, hissing, mocking, Tore her gown and soiled her stocking, Twitched her hair

out by the roots, Stamped upon her tender feet, Held her hands and squeezed their fruits

Against her mouth to make her eat.” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 398-407). That is to say that

as well as attacking her body and perpetuating her fears of consumption, the goblin men

also ensure that she is consumed again, in this case by her sister, as she has the antidote
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in her body and so Lizzie says to Laura when she returns home “Hug me, kiss me, suck

my juices. Squeezed from goblin fruits for you,” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 468-469).

As mentioned above, non-consumption, or rather, food refusal in young women

was first brought to medical attention at this age and was classified as the neurotic

disorder anorexia nervosa. As Thompson (1991, p. 92) states “Victorian young women

were bred to be "angels" and were taught to fear the monstrous madwomen they would

become should they refuse the submission, self-denial, compliance, docility and silence

expected of them. The injunction to be small, sylph-like, almost incorporeal and highly

delicate creatures, taken to extremes, engendered diseases such as anorexia nervosa and

agoraphobia”. In this case, Lizzie could suffer from both diseases. This is reflected from

the very first scene of the goblin market men when, even though she knows that there

are other reasons not to listen to them, she warns Laura to do not stare at them “Laura,

Laura, You should not peep at goblin men." Lizzie covered up her eyes Covered close

lest they should look” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 48-51), so as not to see the fruit and not to

be tempted. Lizzie also covers her ears and runs away “Their offers should not charm

us, Their evil gifts would harm us." She thrust a dimpled finger In each ear, shut eyes

and ran” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 65-68). The way she avoids the market is a reflection of

both her agoraphobia and, more subtly, her anorexia, as she avoids food, avoids

consumption. As Thompson (1991, p. 93) states “Through eating, sexuality and the care

of the body (and the body's size), we acquire our bodies, genders and identities.” Thus,

as Lizzie confronts men to get the fruit for her sister Laura, she is also confronting her

fears, and it is a way in which, despite her fear for her body, she is gradually developing

her own identity.

Just as anorexia is presented in Goblin Market, it also appears in Alice’s

Adventures in Wonderland, and it is worth noting that in a more “terrifying” way. This
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is because the protagonist in this case is a little girl, and we see the reflection of an

illness and how her main concern at all times is her size, and not only her size but her

interest in food, in practically every situation. The “terrifying” point is the fact that she

worries about it from an early age. Throughout the book she makes comments such as

“how I wish I could shut up like a telescope”, “I do wish I hadn’t drunk quite so much”,

“It was much pleasanter at home…when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller”

and “I should like to be a little larger, sir”, “it’ll never do to come upon them this size”

(Carroll, 1897, pp. 9, 44, 46, 67, 75), in addition to all the comments related to what

they eat either by others or herself such as “she’s such a capital one for catching mice”,

“it might be hungry”, “I have tasted eggs”, and “What did they live on?” (Carroll, 1897,

pp. 26, 54, 73, 105). Besides, one of the comments that could most highlight her

anorexia, apart from the fact that she is obsessed with her size and food, is one of her

comments at the tea party when the March Hare says to Alice “Take some more tea”

and Alice replies that “I’ve had nothing yet” (Carroll, 1897, p. 106), emphasising the

fact that, although it is tea time, and everyone is drinking tea, she has not even tasted it.

These particular excerpts demonstrate that, in this case, food is not related as such to

hunger, but to control and obsession with body size. Also, when Alice talks to the

Cheshire Cat and he says “We're all mad here.... You must be... or you wouldn't have

come here” (Carroll, 1897, p. 90), it can be associated with Alice's eating disorder.

Last but not least, it is worth noting how in each case, each character tries to

meet the expectations of Victorian society. In addition, they also make considerable

reference to women's appetite in a sexual rather than a food sense. This is especially

seen in Goblin Market, when they describe the fruit or how Laura eats the fruit, it all has

a rather erotic feel to it. Also, at the end of Goblin Market, when the sisters appear as

mothers and are telling them the story of the men of Goblin Market so that the same
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thing does not happen to their daughters, Laura mentions “those pleasant days long gone

of not returning time” (Rossetti, 1865, lines 550-551) so that as Thompson (1991, p.

104) points out “This equation casts doubt on whether the complex of attraction and

denial of food which precipitated the narrative's crisis has been successfully exorcise.

The social work of their story is to perpetuate their own and their society’s disease, to

scare their daughters from men, the market, sensual pleasures and the female body.” On

this point, it must also be said that the author, Rossetti, drew on her own personal

experience, for as Carpenter (1991, p. 417) states “her immediate experience with the

interaction between prostitutes and women's religious communities may have

constructed Rossetti's representation of a “marketplace” in which “appetite” puts a

woman at risk, but where her salvation is to be found not in controlling her appetite but

in turning to another woman.” In this case, it is reflected in Laura and Lizzie, but it can

serve as an example for the daughters of the now mothers themselves.

For her part, Alice herself seeks to be the perfect size, as when she talks to the

caterpillar and says “I'm not particular as to size... only one doesn't like changing so

often, you know” (Carroll, 1897, p. 67). However, she is constantly taking the wrong

way, as once she discovers that the mushroom can make her change size “she set to

work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes

taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her

usual height.” (Carroll, 1897, p. 74). Therefore, even if her goal was to return to her

normal height, she is still obsessed with standards because what she had previously told

the caterpillar is a complete lie, firstly because she says no particular size, and secondly

she does not change that often, and she is changing until she reaches her ideal height.

All things considered, it can be confirmed that the Victorian era was a difficult

time for women. Society's expectations caused them to have a plethora of illnesses,
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many related to food, especially not eating it. Whatever worked, being unhealthy was

one of the things needed to fit in, and if they had to suffer in the process, they were

going to do it. The fact that they appear in children's stories, and that the children

themselves were aware of it, is just one more problem that appears in this society. Alice

is the perfect case of how finding the perfect size is an odyssey, and even once you have

it, you always have the need to keep changing, for one reason or another. Laura is the

reflection of a society in which consuming has its negative consequences. Lizzie shows

that it is possible to resist temptation, but at a price she is paying with her health, as she

is the clear reflection of anorexia nervosa and agoraphobia. So how is it that the

Victorian era held itself to such unhealthy standards if it was considered consumerist,

i.e. how did Victorians consider themselves lovers of consumption if women were not

free to consume?
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References

Carpenter, M. W. (1991). “Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me”: The Consumable Female

Body in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.” Victorian Poetry, 29(4), 415–

434. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40003006

Carroll, L (1897). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

New York: The Macmillan Co.

Coar, L. (2012). Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice: The Victorian Woman's All-

Consuming Predicament. Victorian Network.

Gilbert, S. & Gubar, S. (2000) The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the

Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Rossetti, C. (1865). Goblin Market. Poetry Foundation.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market

Thompson, D. A. (1991). Anorexia as a Lived Trope: Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin

Market.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of

Literature, 24(3/4), 89–106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24780467

Wilson, E. (1991). The Sphinx in the City. University of California Press.