Aurora Leigh (1857)
I
As you read the poem, notice which portions seem autobiographical. Why do you think EBB is preoccupied with the theme of mother-love?
Do you see any psychological significance to the first metaphor?
What is the nature of the parents' love for each other? Their relationship?
Characterize Aurora's childhood. What significance does her mother's portrait come to assume? (168-73) Does her isolation serve any structural purpose for the poem?
What does Aurora think of philosophic systems? Describe her responses to England and to her aunt? What kind of life has the aunt lived? (287-308)
How is Aurora's education attacked? (385-426) What are the contents of contemporary handbooks for women? (427-441) How are women rewarded for their needlework? (455-465)
How is Romney Leigh first presented and judged?
What regenerative forces exist in Aurora's environment? What are her tastes in scenery--any analogies with her reading habits?
What is her defense of poetry (moral/aesthetic, etc.)? Romney later comments that women are incapable of generalizations on humanity--is this true of her poetic responses?
II
What are Romney's first objections to her desire to be a poet? (91-95) Her rebuttal? What does he think is a proper sphere for women? (108, 109) According to Romney, what characterizes women's style and how are women writers inevitably treated by male critics? How do female temperaments differ from those of men, and of what achievements are they incapable?
Why does Aurora consider herself more limited than a man of the same age? (329-335) Of what hypocrisy does she accuse Romeny? (359-361) On what grounds does she reject him? What theories of marriage is she opposing? (cmp. Jane Eyre)
Does her narration reveal ambivalence in her attitude toward Romney? What does she later learn concerning Romney's motivations? What is her response? (755-64) Does Romney's letter show any modulation of attitude?
On what grounds does she refuse to accept his assurances on financial matters? (1054-65) What will be the goal of her independent life in London? (1181-87) Is this scene set up to prepare for the later reversal?
What does Romney think the content of her poetic life will be? (1200, 1201)
What recurring themes or dichotomies have been set up by the first two books?
III
1. According to Aurora, what's wrong with the values of literary and social London? What descriptions and iamges are repeatedly associated with city life? (1-24, 171-83, etc.)
2. Is there anything interesting or appropriate in EBB's frequent use of solitary bird images?
3. What in her background or in early Victorian writing may have reinforced EBB's deep belief in the work ethic?
4. How does Aurora's writing improve? What is so insidious about the methods of Lady Waldemar? What current French socialists does she read to impress Romeny? (584-92) Why the mention of Eugene Sue? What wouldn't Lady Waldemar do for Romney--and the significance of this lapse? (598-602)
5. Why is the Marian Erle narration inserted, and do you find it a useful digression? Do Aurora's and Marian's childhoods have anything in common?
IV
1. What does Marian expect will be her role in marriage? (226-29) With what animal is poor Marian compared? (279-82) Do you find Romney's account of his motivations credible?
2. What themes does the non-wedding scene draw together? How are the members of the lower classes represented, and do you think this representation is just? Why has Marian fled?
3. Has Aurora changed the basis of her defense of art to Romeny? (1150-57)
V
1. What inner irresolution does Aurora conquer? (42-83) What is her opinion of romantizations of the past? What is the poet's proper work and why? (201-222)
2. Why doesn't Aurora write dramas? From her presentation of the debate between Sir Blaise and the young man, does EBB seem to favor the abolition of marriage?
3. How does Aurora contrast the significance of marriage for men and women? (1073-1081)
VI
1. What are Aurora's opinions on and criticism of French character? Were they unusual for the time?
2. What should be the subject matter of poetry? (161-97) What two careers does Aurora now see as allied? (198-204)
3. How does Aurora first respond to Marian's maternity; on what basis does she come to respect her? Why do you think EBB presents Aurora's arbitrary judgment before giving us the facts? What traumatic events have occurred to Marian and how has she responded psychologically?
4. What is now Marian's reason for existence? (824-27)
VII
1. What familiar hypocrisy is involved in her employer's treatment of Marian? (86-105)
2. To what does Aurora frequently ascribe her fits of depression? (200-214) What qualities does she generally associate with masculinity? (e. g. 227-34)
3. What frequent female response to women writers does Carrington describe? (612-22)
4. Is Aurora's desire to unite the natural and spiritual unusual for her day? (760-826) What do the physical forms of nature represent? (834-869)
5. How does she find Italy changed since her childhood? What has altered in her response to nature? (1086-1109)
6. How does she spend her time in Italy? What metaphor does she use to describe herself as the book ends? (1306-11)
VIII
1. Is there any significance to the Boccaccio reference, 21-24?
2. What is Romney's response to her last book? Why does he consider his work a failure; what new perception does he recount? How does Aurora attempt to explain their mutual sense of failure? Is this a satisfactory resolution of the poem's various debates?
3. How do you interpret Aurora's dislike of discussions of women's role? (814-24)
4. Are elements of this scene improbable?
IX
1. Which sex does Lady Waldemar prefer in poets? (63-67) What ruptured her relationship with Romney?
2. Do you see any sensible purpose to Lady Waldemar's letter? Does she serve adequatley as the poem's 'evil woman' figure?
3. According to her, why cannot Marian Erle marry? Do you find this convincing? What does Aurora blame in herself in the final scene? How do you react to the ending? Are there literary parallels to the burned hall/blinded suitor conclusion?
What do you think have been the poem's chief merits and weaknesses?