Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh:Rewriting the Epic Tradition to Reshape the Societal Role of the Woman
In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s epic-novel, she creates a hybrid form. By mixing both the epic as well as the novel, she is mixing a traditionally male genre with a traditionally female genre. Women, traditionally seen as emotional beings meant to be a man’s “helpmate” as well as a caretaker of children are seen in a new light in Aurora Leigh. Men are also given new roles. As Barrett Browning writes of the epic and poetic tradtion, “Their sole work is to represent the age,/Their age, not Charlemagne's,–this live, throbbing age…” (Barrett Browning V.202-203). By writing this, Barrett Browning pushed the boundaries. She represented an age of change both with from and content. She not only represented her age, but proposed a new ideal; that women can be and are self-sufficient.
Aurora Leigh is a character shoved into self-sufficiency when not only her mother dies, but her father too. She is thirteen when she lands at her aunts, however Aurora just serves as a reminder of her mother. She is then stripped of her identity as her mother’s child,
I broke the copious curls upon my head
In braids, because she liked smooth ordered hair.
I left off saying my sweet Tuscan words
Which still at any stirring of the heart. (Barrett Browning I.390-393)
By doing this she makes Aurora unrecognizable to herself, and more importantly her parents who loved her curls so. She was also taught more of how to be a proper “English woman” than to be an active member of society (Barrett Browning I.448-453). It is this that helps us make sense of why Aurora falls so dearly in love with the art of poetry. It in itself is an escape, which Aurora tell...
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...one shelf,
And slowly, through the interior wheels of each,
The blind mechanic motion sets itself
A-throb, to feel out for the mutual time (Barrett Browning IV.436-440)
This passage hints at the two and their fate to come together eventually, even if they are two essentially different people. They will eventually come to be alike, and in a way in a “mutual time.” This idea of fate also explains why Marian and Romney’s marriage does not happen. However by Marian leaving, we are given another example of a woman not being subjected to the domestic married life, but a man desperate for a woman by his side.
Romney’s desperation becomes painfully evident when we find out about his new engagement to Lady Waldemar, “She's Lady Waldemar–to the left,–in red–/Whom Romney Leigh, our ablest man just now,/Is soon to marry.'” (Barrett Browning V.652-654). It is after this news
Elizabeth Barrett Browning follows ideal love by breaking the social conventions of the Victorian age, which is when she wrote the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. The Victorian age produced a conservative society, where marriage was based on class, age and wealth and women were seen as objects of desire governed by social etiquette. These social conventions are shown to be holding her back, this is conveyed through the quote “Drew me back by the hair”. Social conventions symbolically are portrayed as preventing her from expressing her love emphasising the negative effect that society has on an individual. The result of her not being able to express her love is demonstrated in the allusion “I thought one of how Theocritus had sung of the sweet
Therefore it’s hard to believe that Shelley, a daughter of one of the leading feminists of the day was responsible for presenting women as the submissive role to their male counterparts. How ironic it is that that she was not subservience to her male counterparts in her own life, because although of her father’s disapproval of her partner Percy Shelley, who was already married and to his pregnant wife. She fled to France with him, and disowned herself from her family.
Aurora tends to over dramatize a lot of events taking place. At the wake her father was holding because a close friend, Mr. Alter, had committed suicide, ?[Aurora] was mortified? (93) because ?there were cars parked all over the yard and police cars in the driveway? (93). One can say that under the circumstances it was expected for people to draw together, to pay reverence to a love one, but Aurora saw it as an inconvenience or an embarrassment. As well as when Mr. Seats, a close friend of Mr. Alter, came to stay, Aurora did not want to give up her room, she states ?I did not kill him. Why should I give up my room?? (94). Again, Aurora makes a big deal over giving up her room, in understandable circumstances. In addition, when she describes her new boyfriend, Giorgio, ?[he] speaks about fifteen languages and he is so good-looking [one] wouldn?t believe it? (93), her description goes a little too far, bec...
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Mary Shelley’s magnificent minor character Justine endures a horrendous death and maintains courage and grace when faced with a daunting trial. The powerful description of this strong young woman magnifies the gross wrongdoings of Victor Frankenstein and belittles his masculinity as he is seen as weak in comparison. Frankenstein is incapable of possessing the qualities inherent to Justine thus supporting the idea of womanly might as a formidable force.Through the representation of Justine’s intense, unwavering courage during her trial and Frankenstein’s absence of masculine bravery and justice, one can see that Shelley’s minor character is an affirmation of the undeniable strength of women.
Womanhood in The Eve of St. Agnes and La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Mariana by Keats
Beatrice's refusal to be controlled by men and Hero's subservience carries echoes of modern-day feminism. Comparing this novel to a contemporary society, women have made a substantial amount of progress in terms of gender roles. It is women like Beatrice, and the many others that choose to defy the expectations that are placed upon us by society, that help us progress to a more utopian civilization. This novel can be read by future generations to reflect back on how much we have changed and how much we have progressed, not only as women, but as humans in general. Additionally, this play also serves as one of the world's greatest odes to the single life known to man.
Since a young age Barrett Browning had shown significant amounts of interest in poetry and literature. By the age of four she had began reading and writing verse. “She was educated at home, and learned classic Greek, Latin, and several modern languages” (Shilstone 646). For being self-educated, her devotion to poetry, literature, and classical studies was exceptional (EXPLORING Poetry). “Elizabeth could read Homer in the original at 8 years old” (Greer). “She completed an epic poem, ‘Battle of Marathon’. when she was thirteen, and her father had it privately printed” (Greer).
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. (There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries). These women authors have impacted a male dominated society into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
In essence, Elizabeth Barrett Browning dramatic monologue proved a powerful medium for Barrett Browning. Taking her need to produce a public poem about slavery to her own developing poetics, Barrett Browning include rape and infanticide into the slave’s denunciation of patriarchy. She felt bound by women’s silence concerning their bodies and the belief that “ a man’s private life was beyond the pale of political scrutiny” (Cooper, 46).
To the Lighthouse is an autobiographical production of Virginia Woolf that captures a modern feminist visionary thrusted in a patriarchal Victorian society, as embodied by Lily Briscoe. Lily’s unique feminist vision and her ability to transcend artistic and patriarchal conventions progressively allows her to locate her quest for identity as an aestheticized epiphany journey. However, no matter how Woolf attempts to present Lily’s aestheticized exploration of her identity as a radical opposition to patriarchy alone, therein lies a specific aspect of feminism that Lily secretly wants to achieve. Therefore, I argue that although Lily is a symbolic rebel of patriarchal conventions who strives for women individuality, she brings her struggles a
“O Rose! Who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet.” (A Dead Rose) Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an impenetrable hardworking person. Her passion for her work left her with the legacy she has today. “Amongst all women poets of the English world in the 19th century; she was admired for her independence and courage.” During her lifetime she endured several hardships. Those hardships included her childhood, marriage, and works. (Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature Pg. 87)
Browning's amazing command of words and their effects makes this poem infinitely more pleasurable to the reader. Through simple, brief imagery, he is able to depict the lovers' passion, the speaker's impatience in reaching his love, and the stealth and secrecy of their meeting. He accomplishes this feat within twelve lines of specific rhyme scheme and beautiful language, never forsaking aesthetic quality for his higher purposes.