Frozen Meets Goblin Market
Disney’s Frozen took audiences by storm when it hit theaters in 2013. With a quirky snowman, charming love interests, majestic powers, and singing trolls, Disney defied all odds and ventured away from the status quo to enchant viewers with a story of two sisters whose bond is stronger than tragedy. Like Frozen, Cristina Rossetti’s Goblin Market written in 1862, has a similar story line of two sisters who stick together despite abominable circumstances. Both tales, all though composed at different times, share similar character qualities and the same meaning of heroic sisterhood.
In Frozen the two sisters are Elsa and Anna and in Goblin Market the sisters are Lizzie and Laura. The parallels between these characters are seen in the beginning of the movie, Anna as Laura and Elsa as Lizzie. Elsa is older than Anna, which she is depicted as being more mature when she is casually sleeping in her bed at night and Anna comes in and jumps on her asking to play. Anna is like Laura here because she is curious and playful and wants to build a snowman with her sister’s powers. Elsa gives in and both play in the ballroom, but things turn drastically and Elsa accidently strikes her sister with her power and hurts her. After this the roles switch between sisters as they grow older, Elsa becomes Laura and Anna becomes Lizzie. The start of this change happens in the scene “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” where Anna is begging her sister to come out the room she is hidden in. Elsa is similarly like Laura when Laura falls ill after she is tempted by the goblin men to eat the fruit and is stuck in her bed for some time. Elsa’s illness is not really an illness but what keeps her hidden in her bedroom is her magical powers that she is afraid of. As the song moves along, Anna sings “we only have each other, it’s just you and me” and that illustrates how strong their sisterly bond should be and just like how Rossetti depicts Laura and Lizzie on their own, Anna and Elsa are like that too. At the coronation ball, Elsa and Anna see each other for the first time in a while and get into this huge argument about Anna marrying Prince Hanz, a boy that she just met, and this causes Elsa to reveal her powers to the community in which she runs away to a mountain. Anna goes in search of her, wanting to save her sister. This is just like how Laura falls ill from the fruit she takes from the goblin men in the woods and Lizzie goes off into the woods after Laura remains in bed, wanting to save her sister from being sick.
Similarly, the goblins in Goblin Market symbolize Prince Hanz because of the fact that both are the cause of trouble in the tales. Prince Hanz is portrayed as charming, kind, and loving in the beginning of the movie and Anna takes an interest in him for the time being. Prinze Hanz is the fall of woman. He is alluring and conniving. The goblins just like Hanz, are very tempting and can symbolize man and how woman is weak towards them. They initially have fruit for Laura that lures her to take from them. Because Anna is interested in Hanz, she asks for her sister’s permission to marry him and this causes Elsa to become upset and unleash her frozen powers in front of everyone, which ultimately leads her to run away and hide.
Along Anna’s journey to find her sister, she comes across Olaf a snowman in which she and Elsa built while they were kids. Olaf represents both of their innocence before all of this happened. When Lizzie goes in search of the goblin men in the woods she knows that Laura’s innocence is no longer with her and she has to somehow try and bring that back to her sister. Olaf is refreshing and uses his instinct of what innocence and love is to help Anna realize the meaning of true love and that is the act of sacrifice and Lizzie knew that was the only way to save her sister.
In Frozen, Anna sacrifices herself for her sister Elsa from Prince Hanz.
Ultimately, Anna finds Elsa and both end up being back in Arendelle and caught in a huge storm that Elsa has caused. Prince Hanz has tricked Anna into thinking that he unconditionally loves her, and denies her when she needs him the most. Hanz goes in search of Elsa in the storm and finds her while Anna is captured in the storm as well. The storm stops suddenly and Anna sees Hanz with a sword pointed at Elsa, and Anna runs in between the sword and saves her sister. Just like Frozen, Lizzie goes off into the woods to find the goblin men and sacrifices herself for her sister to come back to Laura and help her fight off the illness she has succumbed to. This shows a bond between sisters that cannot be broken, “it brings energy to the poem and serenity to the ending, not bitter repression but rather a fantasy of feminine freedom, heroism, and a celebration of sisterly love.”(Mermin). The act of true love from Anna and Lizzie saves both of their sisters and in doing so, they realize that sacrifice is the inevitable reason in doing things. Because both tales defy the stereotypical hero that is “man”, something empowering and special is created at the end, a heroine. Most tales that involve a damsel in distress, usually need a male character to save them from trouble but Frozen and Goblin Market, challenge the “norm” of society and use the power of family and love to conclusively illuminate the act of love and heroic sisterhood.
“Then joining hands to little hands
Would bid them cling together,
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 whilst one stands.” (Rossetti)
Works Cited
Mermin, Dorothy. “Heroic Sisterhood in “Goblin Market””. Victorian Poetry 21.2 (1983): 107–118. JSTOR. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Rossetti, Christina. “Goblin Market.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch & Kevin J.H. Dettmar. 5th Ed. Vol. 2A. New York: Longman, 2012. 1650-63. Print.
“Act of True Love – Frozen.” Youtube.com. Hollymayjune2, 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2xn0jDmiTw>.
Rossetti, Dante. Goblin Market and Other Poems. 1862. JPEG File. Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Kucharski, Joe. “Costume Design in Animation – Disney’s Frozen.”Tyranny of Style. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
Frozen. Dir. Chis Buck and Jennifer Lee. Perf. Indina Menzel. Disney, 2013. Film.
Rebloggy.com. Web. 4 Dec. 2015. <http://rebloggy.com/post/1k-disney-myedits-sisters-anna-frozen-disneyedit-elsa-frozen-spoilers-frozenedit/73579304430>.
I found the comparison between the goblins and Prince Hanz particularly interesting in this piece. Both seem to be manipulative by nature and cause worry automatically in Anna and Lizzie. I haven’t seen Frozen, so I’m curious if Anna’s distrust of Hanz is similar to how Lizzie views the goblins- has she seen him acting cruelly or does she know her sister well enough to figure it out based on her moods?
This was a solid look at how Disney is changing its approach to social norms, male-female relationships (Malevolent’s true-love kiss was from a woman to another woman), and female togetherness. My favorite statement was as follows: “Because both tales defy the stereotypical hero that is “man”, something empowering and special is created at the end, a heroine. Most tales that involve a damsel in distress, usually need a male character to save them from trouble but Frozen and Goblin Market, challenge the “norm” of society and use the power of family and love to conclusively illuminate the act of love and heroic sisterhood.” I found this analysis not only germane, but an in-depth look at the gender relations that we’re seeing in film these days as the paradigm changes. What I draw from your analysis is that the artists here use female-female relationships as a way to evaluate or challenge traditionally-accepted standards of relational behavior.
I thought this was a really great comparison using the two sisters from Frozen and Goblin Market. Both are not your typical disney princess story where there is a damsel in distress who needs to be saved by a prince. Instead, the sister is the one who needs to save the day. The sister is the one who will be there for you forever–just as Lizzie and Laura.
I found this post to be very intriguing. It was a heartwarming and well thought out spin on how Frozen and “Goblin Market” compare. The sisters in both tales have a great bond and would do anything for one another. I thought that your detailed analysis of scenes from both titles were very well put together and it made the piece enjoyable and easy to follow along with. I liked that you showed the reader how Anna and Elsa compared and changed throughout the story to match the characteristics of Lizzie and Laura and also how Prince Hanz in Frozen became like the goblin men. I find it particularly interesting the idea of Hanz being the bad guy rather than the hero and how that ultimately links the sisters together in the end. Overall, this was a very thought provoking and interesting topic!
This post definitely made me see the connection between Elsa, Anna and Laura and Lizzie. Especially the final scene of frozen when the sister’s kiss and the not the male lead is what saves the day. This directly reminds me of Laura’s sacrifice for Lizzie and how strong the bond of sisterhood is. Although there are also many dissimilarities between Frozen and The Goblin Market, sisterhood is clearly an accurate common theme between the two. As a child I had a multivolume children’s book that depicted the scenes from Goblin Market, even as a naive kid I could tell something was off with the story and I could pick up on the violent and sexual themes of the story, especially as shown through illustrations. Just thought it was funny that way back then I encountered Goblin Market for the first time and now I have a much clearer understanding of the text. Also it humors me that you compared Goblin Market to a Disney movie because Goblin Market would probably not make the cut for an appropriate children’s movie. Overall a very interesting post, I enjoyed your analysis.
I never thought of Anna and Elsa when I read “Goblin Market.” The comparison makes sense, both sets of sisters care for each other to an extent where they will put their lives at risk to save the other. What contrasts is the sexual aspect of “Goblin Market,” which does not appear in Frozen. The text implies that Lizzie helps Laura in a sexual way. Anna and Elsa do not aid each other sexually, but I think analyzing Anna and Elsa’s sexuality could be interesting. I have heard arguments that Elsa is a homosexual because she never expresses a love interest for a male like Anna.
Like suzyfab mentioned, I have heard theories that Elsa could be gay because she doesn’t have a male love interest, and that this was Disney’s subtle way of implying so without alienating their core demographics. But, I think Elsa is just a career oriented woman (being Queen is a heavy responsibility), and the traditional structure of marriage isn’t her thing. The comparison of Frozen to this particular poem makes so much sense though, and you did a very good job in elaborating why! Laura’s journey to eventually having a family of her own is not traditional at all. She is after all, a fallen woman by the Victorian’s standards. I can see that the same can be applied to Anna’s courtship, because instead of being duped into marriage, she finds out about his true intentions, and more importantly, she’s given the agency of redemption through her sister, Elsa rescuing her. I think when C. Rossetti makes the argument that her poem is really meant for children, I can see where she’s coming from – if you just look at it through this PG-sister-and-family-love-saving-each-other angle.
Oh what a great comparison! I love Frozen! I think this is one of my favorite comparisons, so far, by the way. I didn’t think about Anna and Elsa while reading Goblin Market, but now I can’t stop thinking about it! The great thing about Frozen, and Goblin Market, is the fact that it’s family saving family-and even better: sisters saving sisters! I do have to agree with what Suzyfab said above: Elsa doesn’t help Anna in a sexual way like the girls do in Goblin Market. That’s the only contradiction. Otherwise, good job!
I loved the way you were able to compare the Prince Hanz from ‘Frozen’ to the goblins in “Goblin Market”. Especially your statement, “The goblins just like Hanz, are very tempting and can symbolize man and how woman is weak towards them”. Although there is very prevalent sexual aspect to “Goblin Market” which does not seem to be in ‘Frozen’, they are compatible in the aspect of obeying the norms opposed on them and how it relates to women. Some being curious and not so quick to stick with the norms of their time, while others wanting to abide by the traditional views and do as they are told by society.
This is a great comparison. I think you emphasize the feminist aspects of these two very well. What makes Frozen different than the majority of Disney movies is it’s lack of a damsel in distress being saved my a prince. This is also where Goblin Market is successful, challenging the fallen woman narrative. Well done!
I love that you saw the way these two tie together! The idea of women helping one another is not one that is seen much in literature and although the Goblin Market can be a bit raunchy the feminist strength is definitely apparent. When reading the Goblin Market I never saw how it could be related to children, but with this comparison I can see now how it could be read by any age. Girl power!