For an AP Literature this school year, I explored Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market (1862) from a feminist aspect and it completely changed the way I looked at the poem. At first glance, it feels like a Victorian fairy tale about two sisters and a group of mysterious goblin merchants selling enchanted fruit. Laura gives in to temptation, suffers the consequences, and is ultimately saved by her sister, Lizzie. But beneath that familiar story is a powerful exploration of female agency, sisterhood, and the expectations placed on women during the Victorian era. Reading it through a feminist lens reveals just how ahead of its time Rossetti’s writing really was.

For an AP Literature project this past school year I analyzed Sonya Marmeladova in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Before reading the novel, I expected Raskolnikov to be the character who carried its biggest ideas. After all, he’s the protagonist. But the more I read, the more I realized that Sonya becomes the novel’s moral center. While Raskolnikov wrestles with guilt, pride, and philosophy, Sonya offers a completely different perspective, one rooted in faith, compassion, and sacrifice.

The focus of my project was what I called “The Catastrophic Division,” the painful split between Sonya’s pure spiritual identity and the devastating reality she is forced to live. Through her, Dostoevsky asks one of the novel’s biggest questions: Can a person’s soul remain whole even when their circumstances are completely broken?