Aurora Leigh Essay, Research Paper

Aurora Leigh

The story “Aurora Leigh” is the story of a fictional woman poet. This story was Elizabeth Barret Browning’s greatest achievement. This was the first major poem in English Literature in which the heroine, just like the author was a woman writer. This story had a lot to do with Aurora as a rising poet in a society that did not except woman as artists. Society set a restriction on women because of the role that was put upon them. Society basically sets the women into an imprisonment.

Aurora Leigh” tells the story of the development of a woman poet largely as the story of her struggle to understand how her life and art can accommodate love. Aurora Leigh envies male poets because they find it possible to write poetry for their wives and mothers. As a woman to be an artist means to live as a lone woman. To be a poet goes against all of the feminine nature. In a society that molds a woman into a housewife and nurturer, Aurora Leigh feels she cannot become the artist she knows she can become. With the restrictions put upon her she will not live a complete life, and without that complete life she cannot become a complete woman. Aurora feels that by not becoming a complete woman and dealing with all aspects that a woman should deal with, she cannot become a great poet.

One of the biggest portions of this story is the proposal of Romney to Aurora Leigh on her twentieth birthday. He proposes marriage to her and she is confused on what to think and do. Her heart belongs to Romney, as we find out later in the poem, but Aurora has to refuse because she realizes she will not become the poet she wants to become if she marries Romney at this point in her life. Romney wants Aurora to become a basic housewife. He wants her around the house doing chores and other acts women do to please and satisfy their men during those times. She realizes this and has to make the decision of no.

She wants the experiences of life without a man. A good portion of the rest of the poem is devoted to showing Aurora’s accomplishments. It also shows the price that love paid in her accomplishments. Her health and looks decline very rapidly compared to Romney and releases that her accomplishments have meant nothing without love. She knew that she loved him but had to deal with her dreams first. And without her dreams her love would have meant nothing.

One of the greatest concerns in…

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