Like Rossetti’s another magnificent feminist
creation, Goblin Market , “An
apple gathering” is a study of an allegorical fable. There are many various
hidden or underlying meaning behind the simple sad story of a girl being
disappointed just because she could not get any apples. First of all the story
reflects the typical Victorian society who does not allow women a little
freedom. The significance of apples comes from the Garden of Eden, were the
forbidden fruit was consumed; however, the narrator in this poem plucks the
pink blossoms instead, which can suggest the act of impatience (sex before
marriage). However, we can suggest that the narrator here chooses to capture
the beauty of life or emotional happiness rather than sexual pleasures. The
so-called patriarchal society labeled her as a “fallen woman”:
“I plucked
pink blossoms from mine apple-tree
And wore
them all that evening in my hair;”
The color pink is associated with flay fullness,
innocence and feminism which shows that Rossetti here emphasized with the
narrator’s melancholic feelings and harsh treatment by society. Then there is a very important
phrase ‘due season’ which obviously is the symbolism of the time after
being betrayed. So, finding no apples in the tree in due season tells the story
of the speakers finding herself aloof from her chastity after the betrayal of
her lover. The phrase ‘dangling basket’ here symbolizes
the dangling condition of the speaker. After losing her chastity, the life of
that girl usually has no particular way, no particular standpoint and no
particular future. So this betrayed girl
will have to face so many ill treatments and mocking when she will pass the ‘self-same
track’.
In the third stanza, the narrator suggests ‘Lilian
and Lilias smiled in trudging by’. The two names symbolize purity as
they come from the flower lilies. The idea of them ‘trudging by’ can show how
her pureness has been lost due to her acts and the fact that
‘their
mother’s home was near’ reveals the fact that they must be on their
journey to become mothers and this is why they are considered to be pure in a
society’s perception. Those
girls may have lost virginity like her and carrying a child in their womb but
they are not victims of betrayed love like her. Moreover, there is an authentic
use of pathetic fallacy when it is said that the ‘heaped-up basket’ is
teasing the speaker ‘like a jeer’.
The next stanza again taunts the narrator for her
acts because it says ‘Plump Gertude passed me with her basket
full’, whereas out narrator is left with none, at this point we might
understand that apple at this stage symbolizes knowledge, fertility and joyness
which can only be consumed by married woman. The reason for her ‘basket
full’ was because she had a ‘stronger hand’ which could suggest
the physical support of her husband. Rossetti now reflects how society viewed
married woman in contrast with fallen woman.
The introduction of "Willie" was
expected as in many of Rossetti's poems she uses men as the cause for women's
downfall. For example in the Goblin Market the "goblin
men" are the ones who lure Laura. Willie is a Scottish name which
means determined protector. However, his name contrasts with his actions
because we learn that the narrator’s ex-lover has left her because he valued
his reputation more than the love of his beloved. Interestingly, Rossetti did
have an affair with a Scottish poet called William Bell Scott and according to
many critics; it is known that Rossetti referred William in many of her poems.
So the emotional side of an apple Gathering could reflect the actual experience
of Rossetti in real life.
In the concluding stanza, the apples are related to
earthly desire; the narrator seems to ask her lover if he valued the earthly
desire more than her love. Rossetti also includes the word ‘stooped’ which shows how
the lover must have picked up the narrator like a fallen apple and when he made
use of her, he abandoned her. Rossetti here highlights the downfall of morality
and collapse of relationship between a man and a woman. Her idea must have been
that even though, the mistake was coming from the male’s side, it is the woman
that suffers the consequences and she is left to be ‘loitered still’.
The ending of the poem makes us sympathize with the
narrator because she is left to be all alone without any hopes to return back
to normal. This poem proposes the inner emotional struggle of ‘fallen woman’ in
society.
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