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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Summary of Aurora Leigh

Knowing the plot of Aurora Leigh does not ruin the poem because the true treasure is in Browning's writing style.  The poem opens in Florence, Italy where the title character is born to an English father and an Italian mother.  Both parents die while Aurora is young, forcing her to go to England to live with her father's sister.   There she meets her cousin Romney Leigh with whom she differs on the vocation of women and the importance of art.  Aurora rejects Romney's offer of marriage, preferring a single life as a writer.  Romney places a greater significance on attacking social problems and experiences a couple of bad relationships based on a partnership in social reforms.  Meanwhile, Aurora enjoys a successful writing career.  Ultimately, neither tastes true fulfillment until they agree to marry and work together.

Among the ideas the poem addresses are the vocation of women, a woman's education, the function of writing and the writer, and the influence of love on art.

5 comments:

  1. why who cares whats the point

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  2. will i do care. and thank u for publishing ^_^

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  3. you should have given a brief explanation :/

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  4. Thank you, the brief analysis is very useful

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  5. A nice little summary though a tad brief. An important poem because it does talk about what was expected of women in that time as against what Aurora considered her due. An important piece if literature.

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