Barret Browning

Assignment:

Discussion:

[Aurora’s Education]

 

1. In Browning’s poem “Aurora Leigh”, the speaker compares her home, Italy, to her new residence, England. Upon arriving in England after her father’s death, she describes the landscape as cold, distant, and uncaring, writing “Then land!—then, England! oh, the frosty cliffs/Looked cold upon me.”(221-222), describing the way in which the cliffs of Dover were approached her upon arrival to her father’s home country: frigidly. The speaker also wrote “The ground seemed cut up from fellowship/Of verdure, field from field, as man from man;”(260-261) expressing the un-neighborly reproach of the hedgerows that divide the land of individuals. The speaker also writes that “—not a hill or stone/With heart to strike a radiant colour up/Or active outline on the indifferent air.”(267-269) discussing the bland, uninspiring qualities of the landscape of England. This differs from her previous home in Italy, not explicitly, but assumptively, as the comments would not be made within the negative context had they been anything other than opposing qualities to the speaker’s definition of ‘home’. In regards to the difference in language between England and Italy, the speaker (assumed to be Aurora Leigh), describes English as her “father’s language”, which she heard first (upon arriving in England), “From alien lips which had no kiss” (254-255). Aurora implies the Italian language as her “sweet Tuscan words/Which still at any stirring of the heart/Came up to float across the English phrase/As lilies” (387-389). In this instance of language, there is a significantly more positive association with her native/home language of Italian, while English has been, from its first introduction to her, as cold and uncaring as she perceived the nation of people that spoke it.

 

2. Aurora’s description of her Aunt describes to us the conflicting roles of fostered motherhood and Victorian woman, which her aunt had been designated to play. In one sense, Aurora’s aunt was the model Victorian woman, who “stood straight and calm,/Her somewhat narrow forehead braided tight/As if for taming accidental thoughts/From possible pulses;” (271-275), and “She had lived, we’ll say,/A harmless life, she called a virtuous life,/A quiet life, which was not life at all….Between the vicar and the county squires,”(287-289,291). This exemplifies how Aurora’s aunt had been accustomed to society, and had, in many ways, trained herself to fit into the role provided for her given her characteristics. This contributes to Aurora’s childhood as she describes her aunt stating that “’She loved my father and would love me too/As long as I deserved it.’ Very kind” (335-336). This exemplifies the Aunt’s desire to care for the child, though only within the expanses of her capacity as a Victorian woman. That is, because Aurora was, essentially, illegitimate, she would only be willing to love her if she too adhered to the society standards that deemed her an acceptable Victorian girl/woman, “Since love, she knows, is justified of love.” (371). Furthermore, this required that Aurora lose all aspects of her mother, as her mother was both foreign, and hated by the Aunt. In this sense, the Aunt’s notion of the perfect Victorian woman was one that was inherently English, and because Aurora was only half such, she would only, realistically be able to fulfill half the role provided for her, “And English women, she thanked God and sighed/(Some people always sigh in thanking God),/Were models to the universe.” (444-446). Aurora writes that this resulted in her stating, “I only thought/Of lying quiet there where I was thrown/ Like sea-weed on the rocks, and suffering her/To prick me to a pattern with her pin,/Fibre from fibre, delicate leaf from leaf,/And dry out from my drowned anatomy/The last sea-salt left in me.” (378-384) which symbolizes her aunt, in training her to become a Victorian woman, disassembling all of the parts that made her, herself, and keeping only the small ounces that might contribute meaningfully to British culture/Victorian society.
3. Aurora learned algebra, mathematics, the circle of life, Spanish nobility in the 16^th century, geography, census information, difficult music, art (drawing, painting), dancing, reading (books on womanhood), and Anglican prayers.

 

4. The adult speaker describes women’s work as “The works of women are symbiological.” (256). Meaning, that the tedious work which is difficult and arduous in its own right, only every procures something that is at best, a nuisance, or an additional comfort. This symbolizes the appreciation of women in society, and the speaker writes that “This hurts most, this—that, after all, we are paid/The worth of our work perhaps.” (464-465). Essentially, the speaker is saying that, women are appreciated just as much as their work-which is very little, and then told this is fair, and/or, blamed for the inadequacy they have been confined to assume.

 

 

5. Aurora survives through “those years of education” (466), because she “kept the life thrust on [her], on the outside./Of the inner life with all its ample room/For heart and lungs, for will and intellect,/Involiable by conventions.”(477-480). Essentially, Aurora proceeded to act in accordance with the societal expectation demanded of her, but continued to willfully think, understand, and feel, within herself. Essentially, despite the efforts of the Victorian era to standardize women, Aurora managed to hold onto herself within her own mind.

 

[Aurora’s Aspirations]

 

1. Aurora celebrates her birthday with her cousin, Romney, in her garden. In fashioning herself a head wreath made of Ivy she converses and imagines with her cousin in the morning, before her aunt disrupts their (less conventional) expression.

 

2. Aurora’s vocation is as a poet. In conversing with her cousin Romney, she refutes his conception that she should join him in his social justice movement, he requests she does this, stating “Dear Aurora, choose instead/ to cure them. You have balsams” (108-110). Aurora responds that she is not capable of this, and prefaces his request (lines 97-107) with the reasons she chooses to be a poet, namely, “Because [she] love[s] the beautiful.”.