[Chelsea Bolier]
As we come to a conclusion on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, it is easy to see how this epic poem made such a stirring in society when it was published. Browning’s use of beautiful phrasing, historical references, and blatant honesty quite easily capture the attention of any reader; she sucks them right in from the start.
Cover of Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
One theme that made itself very clear to me was the way language Browning uses to describe Aurora’s inner turmoil over her cousin Romney, which she used as a stepping stone for conversations about feminism and societal beliefs of women. This can be seen on page 168, where Aurora is speaking of Romney and his desires to take a wife:
“[…] where we yearn to lose ourselves
And melt like white pearls in another’s wine,
He seeks to double himself by what he loves,
And make his drink more costly by our pearls.
At board, at bed, at work, and holiday,
It is not good for a man to be alone, –
And that’s his way of thinking, first and last;
And thus my cousin Romney wants a wife (Browning, 168)”
Browning uses this beautiful language to make beautiful an ugly thing; that all Romney really wants is to not be alone anymore, and he’s really willing to take anyone at this point to make that loneliness go away. Not only that, but he seeks to achieve something better in the process; he sees himself as lower because he is alone and has no woman to marry and cast his virtues upon. Aurora knows this, and flat out refuses to have any part in it. She turns him away, time and again, knowing that if she were to “ease his pain” she would be sacrificing herself in the process; for what person (notice, person, not woman) wants to be trapped in something of which they have no control? That is a human trait, of which everyone shares deep down, and Browning uses this to show how society traps women into a role funnel, where the only way out is through their perfect ideal of how a woman should be and should live. Browning also shows the opposite is also true; that women are rebellious and don’t have to conform; they can seek adventure just the same as men do. This can be seen on page 216.
“Yet indeed,
To see a wrong or suffering moves us all
To undo it, though we should undo ourselves;
Ay, all the more, that we undo ourselves;
That’s womanly, past doubt, and not ill-moved.
[…] We’re all so,–and made so–‘tis our woman’s trade
To suffer torment for another’s ease.
The world’s male chivalry has perished out,
But women are knights-errant to the last;
And, if Cervantes had been greater still,
He had made his Don a Donna (Browning, 216).”
This passage speaks a lot to her view of women. Browning shows here that women are naturally emotionally tied, and are compassionate for the suffering of others. That is a gender quality of the time that was perfectly acceptable; it was encouraged to be compassionate, just not too compassionate. You should not stray from the social norms in order to help someone. That would be scandalous. But she also points out that in helping the suffering, it can cause an undoing of oneself. In this case, by going to Romney and marrying him instead of Lady Waldemar, she would be easing Romney’s suffering and pain, but in the process she would be undoing herself. Giving up everything, even though she doesn’t have much – she has her freedom. And she isn’t willing to give that up. Browning brings in the knights analogy here, and I think that is perfect because calling women errant knights allows for a freedom that wasn’t there before. Knights have an obligation to their masters; the king, the nation, the people. But errant knights ride off into the sunset and take charge of their own adventure; stir up their own story. And bringing Cervantes into the picture finishes it off perfectly; if Don Quixote had been a woman, the adventure (which has been acclaimed to be one of the best works of fiction ever written) would have been even greater.
Portrait of Don Quixote
Being trapped is something that is a familiar feeling to everyone, and Browning uses beautiful language here to convey that message, making it relatable to both sexes, which I find incredibly refreshing. For who has not felt trapped in circumstances at some point in their lifetime? That is one of the universal truths of humanity; at some point in time, you will feel backed into a corner and will have to make the decision of your life. In Aurora Leigh, Browning has Aurora chooses herself, which is more than Romney can say for himself. Aurora chooses to be poor, and an artist, and a second mother to a child not hers, and an author, and herself. And I think that is something we can take into our own lives.
Celebrities, more than anyone on the planet, are hunted and thrown into corners where they feel trapped: the paparazzi, magazines, clothing critiques, movie critiques, fans. They all want a say in celebrity lives, and I can imagine how they might feel trapped by this notion that they can’t do anything without someone knowing. It was lucky for Browning that she could not easily leave the house, or she might have had a more negative experience with fame than she did. Not everyone is as lucky as Browning to escape public “trapping.” Take for instance, Jennifer Lawrence, who just recently fell prey to a vicious hacking of pictures in which certain nude photos were spread all over the internet. Her very private life was spilled, thanks to technology and some incredibly rude people, all over the internet in a matter of seconds. She has come out to say that she felt violated- that it was a “sex crime” and “disgusting (Zarrell, 2014).”
Jennifer Lawrence
But I imagine how trapped she must have felt. How would her career recover? How could she go outside into the world – let alone tell her father and family about what happened– and be okay? I think that celebrities often have this sense of feeling like they have nowhere to go, because where can they go that they won’t be recognized? Or humiliated? Or attacked by scantily clad 13 year olds, trying to rip their shirts off? It’s incredible that any of them actually go out during the day, when they know they are targets for the rest of humanity.
Emma Watson, someone who has been showered with praise in the past by the media and has escaped negative attention, gave a speech to the United Nations a few weeks ago, and implored the world’s men to take part in the feminist movement. Her campaign, HeForShe, attempts to recruit men into the feminist movement, so that men can lead other men by example and help achieve gender equality.
She uses her celebrity in the same manner as Browning does in that she uses her outstanding reputation to help back her up on an important issue she feels needs to be talked about and changed. I think that Browning and Watson share this characteristic. Browning wrote this novel with highly controversial themes and feministic ideas at a time where she already had a huge reputation as a fantastic author, and everyone read Aurora Leigh; not just females. She uses her reputation as a celebrity to give her a big audience for a controversial story, using language and issues that apply to both genders and makes her story applicable to both men and women, and that is really powerful! I see Watson doing the same, some 160 years later, using her celebrity to try to bring gender equality through bringing both men and women into the feminist movement. Browning said chivalry was dead, but Watson is trying to bring it back to life. I think that Watson, a hero of my own, would have made Browning proud.
Works Cited:
Barret Browning, Elizabeth. Aurora Leigh and Other Poems. Ed. John Robert Glorney
Bolton and Julia Bolton Holloway. London: Penguin. 1995. Print
Zarrell, Rachel. “Jennifer Lawrence Speaks Out For The First Time On The
“Absolutely…” BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
Images and Video (in order of appearance)
Aurora Leigh Cover Art http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348114754l/735435.jpg
Don Quixote http://psriblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/quixoteillusion.jpg
Jennifer Lawrence http://www.empireonline.com/images/uploaded/Jennifer-Lawrence-at-the-85th-Annual-Academy-Awards-Luncheon-Feb-4-2013-jennifer-lawrence-33527115-1280-961.jpg
Emma Watson, HeForShe Campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkjW9PZBRfk
Victorian Women Writers & Celebrity 
First-off, great choice of quotes!
One of the things I like the most about your blog is your referral to men and women as “people” and reference “universal truths of humanity.”
The proposal scene is also a good example, because it shows (through Romney) that men long for companionship as much as women do. It shows the universiality of a trait that is more often attributed to women than men: passionate longing.
I like how you touch on “human traits” too.
So often men and women are discussed separately in pieces of literature. While men and women differ in ways, there are also similarities to look at that can help us actually relate to and understand one another better. Let’s talk about this stuff & connect on much of it too. We are not so different from each other as we might think. Shared “human” characteristics tend to be overlooked both during the Victorian Era and still today. We focus more on attributing certain universal emotions to one gender or the other. For example, women are emotional and clingy while men are tough and controlling. We forget that these attributes are spread out across both genders.
This article makes me like Emma Watson too.
Another GREAT POINT you make is that celebrities are “targets for the rest of humanity,” as women were/are “targets” by the greater society (which tends to be run by men). Though not such a “glamorous” description of celebrity life, I think your description is far more accurate. “Human nature” makes us want to control things. Humans like to control themselves, but they also like to control others. We target things that are more vulnerable or easy to control. It is an interesting twist to look at celebrities in the light of possibly being less powerful than people who are not “household names.” Multiple perspectives such as thing truly go to show the complexity of society and of human nature and relationships.
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Wow. I really liked the idea of feeling trapped as a celebrity. Most of the time, I feel like we think of celebrity as being freeing: you have money so you are not financially strained, you can go wherever you want in the world, you get things for free because of who you are, the possibilities are endless. But are they? Being a celebrity really does mean being trapped. You have to have security guards at all times. You are constantly being judged for every little thing you do. People will mob you—out of love and hate—if you are seen in public. It is terrifying. And thinking about how that connects to the Victorian age, women had to go through the same things in a sense. Women in the spotlight were tormented with ridiculous reviews that criticized their gender more than their work. They were brought to parties to act more like a party favor than an actual guest. I feel like that may be one of the reasons that so many women wrote under pseudonyms. They did not want to have to be trapped. I know if I ever get published in the future (fingers crossed, yeah?) I’m definitely going to use a pseudonym. While public recognition would be great, I feel like the bad definitely outweighs the good.
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Chelsea, I very much enjoyed reading your passage on the limitations women in this time period as shown through Aurora Leigh. I love your idea of a “role funnel.” However, the quotation on page 216 can be interpreted slightly differently. As you have written, Browning describing a woman’s natural inclination to show their emotions through “flesh,” rather than through the “soul” as men do. Women can cry at the littlest thing, something as insignificant as feeling the wind from the east. Aurora hates this part of herself. Browning writes “It seems as if I [Aurora] had a man in me,/Despising such a woman” (215). Like you analyzed, Aurora sees it is her duty as a woman to show compassion towards others suffering, as it is a “natural” inclination she has (no doubt passed down to her through history, media, and her own personal women role models). But she is trapped in her time period; Aurora is trapped in this “role funnel” society has deemed upon her. Aurora wishes to subdue her natural instinct, to “put away this weakness,” as a man would, and take part in the activities of a man. I personally have not finished the poem, so I do not yet know how it ends. However, it is clear if Aurora continues to follow her natural tendencies, she will unfortunately fall into the stereotype she so passionately despises.
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I really enjoyed your take on Aurora Leigh and the plight of the trapped celebrity. I’m glad you noted the “make beautiful an ugly thing” quote about Romney because I remember reading that and having a near 180 change in my opinion toward him. I liked the way you connected Aurora to the celebrity world. It is rather peculiar to me that Jennifer Lawrence is, as of lately, the victim in celebrity scandals while people like Emma Watson are left alone. In all honesty, even I will admit that if someone was slamming Emma Watson, I’d definitely feel inclined to defend her, but if someone was talking trash about Jennifer Lawrence, I don’t know that I’d speak up. I’m curious what exactly that’s all about from a psychological frame.
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While it is obvious that Aurora is trapped within the conventions of Victorian society, your post made me think about Romney’s position more deeply. Almost all positions in life are relational; to be a student, one must have a teacher. Likewise, to be a husband, one must have a wife. In this way, Romney is just as trapped by convention as Aurora is.
True, women were not in the position to make marriage offers, and still aren’t today, for the most part. However, Aurora’s rejection of Romney impacts him as deeply as it does her, because he cannot be a husband without a wife. And being a husband is not only what he wants, but also is an acceptable and conventional way for him to live life. Thus, Aurora’s rejection of him puts her in a powerful position. She has usurped his right to “husbandhood.”
Your post also made me consider the changes feminist movements have brought about. While feminist movements have done a great deal for women- think women working outside the home and voting rights- it’s unfortunate that many conventions are still playing out today. As I mentioned earlier, women are still not the traditional instigators of marriage proposals. And maybe many women are okay with that. But women should not be okay with the leaking of Jennifer Lawrence’s nude photos. Your posting reminds readers that gender equality is still a relevant issue.
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I’m curious to see how the ending of Aurora Leigh fits in with the statement that Aurora refuses Romney again and again because she puts herself first. At the end of the poem, Romney travels to Italy, and Romney and Aurora confess their love to one another. It seems at this point that it moves away from all conversations about gender; you could even argue that Aurora eventually “gives in” to societal pressure and isn’t a “true” feminist thinker because she chooses to be with him. However, I think that Browning is shifting from a conversation on gender to making a point about what is most important in life. Regardless of your gender, when you put yourself first you become blind to the good things that are in other people. Romney laments at the end that because of his pride he could not see Aurora’s true beauty and worth; Aurora says precisely the same thing. This poem feels a little bit like a fairy tale to the feminist in me; the heroine succeeds in remaining true to herself when the man tries to control her, but once they’ve both reached a place of newfound understanding, they are finally capable of one of the most important things in life–love. We see this in “Jane Eyre”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “Emma”; countless books tell this tale. “Aurora Leigh” is particularly special because of the emphasis placed on the worth of a woman on her own, and that’s one of the reasons why it should be studied today.
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I completely agree with the way you have described Aurora and her desires to be her own person, and not simply an asset to a man. She most definitely defied the social norm at the time. I love how you say Aurora would be easing the pain of Romney by adhering to his wants. I think this is a very important concept in the discussion of feminism. Women at this time were tied to their husbands, doing for them what would best suit him. As you have said, Aurora was not the least bit interested in this idea. You have brought up Browning’s use of language, something that we have not yet discussed about Aurora Leigh, but I think is a very vital point in analyzing this poem. Lastly, your thoughts on how Aurora would feel “trapped”, as many celebrities do, really solidified the concept of feminism in this poem. I agree with you in the fact that Browning probably used the idea of celebrity to publicize the idea that a woman can have an identity of her own; one without the attachment of a man. I really enjoyed reading how you tied celebrity into this idea of Aurora refusing to marry Romney simply because he felt he needed a wife.
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Chelsea,
I love so much of what you say in this post! It’s all so relevant to class and to society today. I particularly like your response, “Browning uses this beautiful language to make beautiful an ugly thing.” I think this defines so much of Aurora Leigh even beyond the great quote you used.
Aurora Leigh’s story is so raw that Browning’s use of language to display the hard-hitting topics you discussed is very powerful. To consult the second quote you used from page 216, “tis our woman’s trade / To suffer torment for another’s ease,” seems to be one of the most significant hard-hitting phrases surrounded by beautiful language. This line is so heavy that I wonder what influenced Browning to feel such torment, especially if it was for the sake of man.
I think today women feel less pressure or suffering for the sake of man, but still feel torment for the sake of each other. In your discussion of celebrity, it seems that celebrities feel not pressure put upon them by men, but pressure by society as a whole. These women still suffer unnecessarily largely because of their sex, but now as a result of an even larger group of people. Perhaps this is a sad realization—how far have we truly come when “To suffer torment for another’s ease” is still so relevant?
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning did in fact create a literary masterpiece that can be easily tied to the feminist movement, however, I don’t believe that was her overall intent when she began writing the epic poem, “Aurora Leigh”. I believe Barrett Browning started her novel with the intent of advocating for fellow women writers, using Romney’s character as an example of societies standards being placed on women, and Aurora as the struggling artist that EBB was herself.
When Romney first proposes to Aurora and tells her to give up on writing, that it’s a silly thing for a woman to waste her time on, and Aurora rejects him, EBB creates a heroine out of Aurora. While I believe EBB’s intent was to create a heroine for female writers, she created a heroine that all women alike can relate to. A woman who shows that conforming to societies norms isn’t the only way to lead a happy life and that sometimes unconventional situations happen and happiness can be found within them.
EBB lets Aurora have her cake and eat it too by having her reject Romney at the beginning and giving Romney back to her at the end, after she went out and pursued her art. I believe EBB was trying to set an example for female writers that they can have their happy ending and their art, despite what society tells them. A woman shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be entrapped by patriarchy.
I do agree that EBB would be a fan of Watson’s work as a celebrity and an artist, advocating for her personal beliefs.
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