Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, a richly textured narrative poem, can be interpreted through various critical lenses. One of the most fascinating is the intersectionality between Rossetti’s exploration of temptation, redemption, and duality in Goblin Market, and the philosophy of Cartesian Dualism, a concept popularised by René Descartes. By examining these two seemingly distinct works — a Victorian-era poem and a 17th-century philosophical treatise — we can uncover a deeper discourse on the nature of the body and soul, desire and restraint, and the internal conflicts between mind and body.