"Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me": Eucharist and the Erotic Body in Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market

Abstract

In scholarship surrounding Goblin Market, there is no dearth of readings which focus on erotic nature of its imagery. In addition, any number of readings of poem focus on its allegorical rendering of spiritual redemption. Few readings, however, have attempted to bridge gap between these two approaches. And almost none, as Diane D'Amico has noted in her work Christina Rossetti: Faith, Gender, and Time, have yet given any detailed attention to Rossetti's Eucharistic beliefs, (1) even though Eucharist as sacrifice and saving meal is clearly at heart of Goblin Market. But, as I will argue in this essay, both/and nature of Rossetti's central image of erotic body as vehicle for salvation--an image that is at once profoundly spiritual and profoundly erotic--can only be understood through an appreciation of Anglo-Catholic doctrine of Holy Eucharist. This doctrine, shaped by teachings of Saint Augustine and heavily influenced by such key Tractarians as Edward Pusey and Robert Isaac Wilberforce, is, like Goblin Market itself, a bewildering and eroticized combination of physical and spiritual. Moreover, doctrine of Eucharist offers a paradigm of desire, echoed in Goblin Market, which acknowledges physical body and asserts that body may be used (and even enjoyed) in service of what Augustine and Pusey see as highest good, that is, the closest union of God and man. (2) In this essay I will first sketch briefly history of Rossetti's reading of Augustine (specifically The Confessions) and her connection with Tractarians. I will then offer some background concerning Anglo-Catholic doctrine of in Holy Eucharist as well as a discussion of role of physical body--that is, body of Christ as literal nourishment--in Eucharistic language. Finally, I will offer a reading of Goblin Market through twin sensibilities of erotic desire and spiritual satisfaction. In this reading, I will argue that Rossetti's startlingly physical imagery is logical and indeed appropriate spiritual conclusion of Eucharistic doctrine. In so doing, I will suggest that Rossetti is using body not as a symbol or metaphor but rather as concrete conduit through which humans understand God. In other words, for Rossetti, humans do not so much transcend body as they experience transcendent through it. As such, Rossetti resists a purely ascetic repression of body even while insisting it be employed in service of a higher desire. Backgrounds The influence of such spiritual reading as John Keble's The Christian Year and Edward Pusey's translation of The Confessions of Saint Augustine (3) left its mark on Rossetti's personal theology of Eucharist, as did her early initiation into rarified world of Tractarian movement. (4) As early as 1844, Rossetti was attending Christ Church, Albany Street, whose minister was a dedicated follower of Tractarian movement and its efforts to revitalize Anglican High Church tradition. Edward Pusey himself, one of leading lights of Tractarianism, preached there frequently. It thus stands to reason that Rossetti's Eucharistic beliefs were shaped by both conversion tradition found in The Confessions (which Augustine describes as soul's search for only food that will satisfy our spiritual longing--that is, heavenly food) and High Church tradition of Tractarians. Indeed, one of Rossetti's earliest works, novella Maude (written between 1849 and 1850 when Rossetti was nineteen but not published until after her death), reveals these influences with her tale of a young woman torn between allure of art and call to God, expressed ultimately in a conflict over receiving Eucharist and resolved by a final act of spiritual conversion. Throughout her poetry and prose, Rossetti demonstrates a firm belief both in Real Presence of Christ within bread and wine, as well as in efficacy of Eucharist to redeem and cleanse those who receive it (D'Amico, pp. …