Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In EBB's "Aurora Leigh," we get the story of the titled heroin, who struggles to find "artistic and economic independence" in Victorian times, when women were expected to remain meek, docile, adn in the deomestic sphere. In the "Aurora's Education" section, we are given a list of things that women were--and were not--taught. She travels to be with her father, adn is educated accordingly. While she is eager to get more education, the things that she is to learn--and not learn--are things that her father have deemed are proper for a lady, so Aurora is given only enough education to make her aware she wishes to learn more; in actuality, her education is based more on what is not taught, like not being able to speak Italian anymore, or being taught French, but being "kept pure of Balzac and neologism," literature and ideas deemed inappropriate for women. Through this she is taught that she should not desire to learn more, that deep thought is unnecessary for a woman, and is only important for a woman to have a general grasp on various topics, supposedly to help in conversation; furthermore, she being socialized into role expectations through this education.
She is taught that it is only necessary for a woman to know generalizations of various subjects, like learning German, because the teacher liked a range of liberal ed in the languages, and states most specifically--not in books, as if books are useless to ladies. Aurora tells us that she learns a little math and science, but not too much because the teacher "misliked women who were frivolous," as if science and math was not a woman's place and to work in those fields meant a woman was being silly or "frivolous." She learns a list of useless information to her, like the laws of Burma, the difference in feet of different mountains, all because her teacher thinks it important to know "general facts," nevermind they are unimportant. Aurora learns how to do crafts, because it was seen as an 'accomplishment" to "model flowers in wax." How frustrating for Aurora, who is curious and intelligent. It is the ironic way the Aurora shares what she learns and doesn't, and her teachers reasons for learning it, that tell the reader she is unhappy about the quality of her education.
She begins to describe her feelings regarding her education, and the state of women. Women must consign themselves to lives of servitude and acquiessence, being of "particular worth...as long as they stay quiet by the fire and never say no when the world says ay." She skewers the modern interpretation of a woman's virtue as being only good in the home, calling women's virtue as defined by men being only good to "sit and darn, and fatten household sinners," which her teacher holds up as an ideal. Her attitude toward her teacher is also one of irony and disdain. It seems like she can't believe her female teacher is impressing this type of education on her. When she talks about being taught to cross-stitch because her teacher felt that she shouldn't be idle (and apparently leisure reading was not an option), she refers to her instructor as a "shepherdess", though you can tell by her tone and the aside "the pastoral saints be praised for't) that she is being ironic. She calls the tutor's head similar to the "tortoise shell which slew the tragic poet," symbolizing the teacher's destruction of real knowledge.
Aurora finishes this section by stating that men do not appreciate what women do, tedious labor and tasks that dim the eyesight to keep the household running smoothly ("We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight..."), because it is not seen as work by men.
"Aurora Leigh" is a great poem, and especially so in that it was a marked protest against what women should have been like. This poem leads me to my next section, "Victorian gender roles."
In EBB's "Aurora Leigh," we get the story of the titled heroin, who struggles to find "artistic and economic independence" in Victorian times, when women were expected to remain meek, docile, adn in the deomestic sphere. In the "Aurora's Education" section, we are given a list of things that women were--and were not--taught. She travels to be with her father, adn is educated accordingly. While she is eager to get more education, the things that she is to learn--and not learn--are things that her father have deemed are proper for a lady, so Aurora is given only enough education to make her aware she wishes to learn more; in actuality, her education is based more on what is not taught, like not being able to speak Italian anymore, or being taught French, but being "kept pure of Balzac and neologism," literature and ideas deemed inappropriate for women. Through this she is taught that she should not desire to learn more, that deep thought is unnecessary for a woman, and is only important for a woman to have a general grasp on various topics, supposedly to help in conversation; furthermore, she being socialized into role expectations through this education.
She is taught that it is only necessary for a woman to know generalizations of various subjects, like learning German, because the teacher liked a range of liberal ed in the languages, and states most specifically--not in books, as if books are useless to ladies. Aurora tells us that she learns a little math and science, but not too much because the teacher "misliked women who were frivolous," as if science and math was not a woman's place and to work in those fields meant a woman was being silly or "frivolous." She learns a list of useless information to her, like the laws of Burma, the difference in feet of different mountains, all because her teacher thinks it important to know "general facts," nevermind they are unimportant. Aurora learns how to do crafts, because it was seen as an 'accomplishment" to "model flowers in wax." How frustrating for Aurora, who is curious and intelligent. It is the ironic way the Aurora shares what she learns and doesn't, and her teachers reasons for learning it, that tell the reader she is unhappy about the quality of her education.
She begins to describe her feelings regarding her education, and the state of women. Women must consign themselves to lives of servitude and acquiessence, being of "particular worth...as long as they stay quiet by the fire and never say no when the world says ay." She skewers the modern interpretation of a woman's virtue as being only good in the home, calling women's virtue as defined by men being only good to "sit and darn, and fatten household sinners," which her teacher holds up as an ideal. Her attitude toward her teacher is also one of irony and disdain. It seems like she can't believe her female teacher is impressing this type of education on her. When she talks about being taught to cross-stitch because her teacher felt that she shouldn't be idle (and apparently leisure reading was not an option), she refers to her instructor as a "shepherdess", though you can tell by her tone and the aside "the pastoral saints be praised for't) that she is being ironic. She calls the tutor's head similar to the "tortoise shell which slew the tragic poet," symbolizing the teacher's destruction of real knowledge.
Aurora finishes this section by stating that men do not appreciate what women do, tedious labor and tasks that dim the eyesight to keep the household running smoothly ("We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight..."), because it is not seen as work by men.
"Aurora Leigh" is a great poem, and especially so in that it was a marked protest against what women should have been like. This poem leads me to my next section, "Victorian gender roles."
posted by stevepeano at 11:36 AM
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