The Victorian era was a time of great social and political upheaval, especially for women. Growing opposition to women's lack of political rights in relation to marriage and property laws, such as the fact that any income earned by a woman automatically belonged to her husband, as well as debates over education, were called "The Question of woman". However, there were also men and women, such as Sarah Stickney Ellis and Coventry Patmore, who believed that allowing women more freedom went against their "natural" temperament. Patriarchal values ​​deeply rooted in Victorian society meant that, instead of openly declaring women as the inferior sex, they were instead praised for the virtues that women should naturally possess: altruism, patience, the ability to love and maternal instinct. Although it ostensibly praised women for their contributions to society, this ideology was instead used to justify women's inferior roles and was highly restrictive and condescending. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The poem Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning interested me because it seemed to reflect and highlight many of the issues surrounding the complex "woman question" in the Victorian era, particularly the type of education deemed appropriate for women and their expected roles as wives and mothers, rather than the freedom to pursue their careers. The concept of the "woman question" in Victorian society appears to be filled with many competing ideologies, both dominant and dissenting voices. The poem, written in the style of a modern epic,1 concerns the upbringing, education and poetic aspirations of a young girl, who chooses not to conform to society's expectations and marry her cousin Romney but to dedicate her life to pursue a career as a poet. . Aurora Leigh can be seen as one of the first feminist texts, and therefore expresses ideas that were not supported by the patriarchal society of the time, however it was immensely popular in Victorian society too. I found it interesting that this could be the case and tested my understanding of the Victorians, as I would have believed that, as a voice of dissent, he would be unpopular or frowned upon. I was curious to know how poems like these could be reconciled by the general public with the patriarchal ideology of the time. However, as Antony Harrison explains in his chapter "Discourse, Ideology, Poetry", poetic works were consumed by the Victorians more widely than other art forms, and poetic words on a page were expected to mean more than other writings ; "he embodied the voice of a being endowed with extraordinary epistemological abilities." Because poetry was such a popular form of entertainment in the Victorian period, the messages and ideologies represented by the poems are therefore more likely to influence readers. I found this confirmed in my mind when I read an excerpt from “The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits” by Sarah Stickney Ellis. Ellis's book represents the dominant ideology of the time, which believed that girls should be educated in the ways of the "heart" rather than for intellectual pursuits, so that they would be better equipped to manage a home, raise a family, and be a loving and comforting wife. , "the humble monarch who sat alone, guarding the fireside comforts of her distant home." Despite the popularity of books like this, it seemed to me that the nature of Browning's poetry, as a more emotional anddramatic, would have had a broader appeal, and therefore would have more effectively conveyed a particular ideology, under the guise of arousing pleasure. The main topic in the first excerpt of Aurora Leigh's book is that of her education. Aurora's education is administered by her aunt, and is listed repetitively and labeled 'liberal' somewhat mockingly, to highlight the pointlessness of the things Aurora is learning: "I danced the polka and the Cellarius / Spun Glass , stuffed birds and flowers molded in wax / Because she liked the results in girls." However, this is an effective technique to ensure that the reader is fully aware that the poet herself was not uneducated, and was well versed in subjects such as literature and history, for example the famous French author Balzac - "I learned my complement of classical French/kept pure by Balzac,” such as what Aurora was not taught in poetry because her work was considered inappropriate for women. At the time, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most famous poets of Victorian England, and was known to have had an unusually "masculine" upbringing: she studied Latin and Greek, as well as philosophy and literature. In this way, Barrett Browning seemed to me to embody the argument for women to have an education equal to that of men: she demonstrated that it would not be "wasted" on women, who are equally capable of talent and successful careers . Aurora Leigh was the first poem written by a female poet about a character who was also a poet, and is therefore often interpreted as semi-autobiographical. However, there are obvious discrepancies between the character of Aurora Leigh and Elizabeth Barrett Browning herself, particularly in relation to marriage. While Aurora Leigh rejects her suitor Romney, choosing instead to focus on her poetry, Barrett Browning was deeply in love with her husband Robert Browning, with whom she eloped to Italy. I have often thought that marriage, for a Victorian women's rights activist, would be out of the question, as it would require her to compromise her political values, or somehow reconcile them with her decision. Although poetry was an influential art form that could be used to shape the reader's values ​​and opinions in reality, the poem also seems to demonstrate that it is much easier to discuss social issues through the fictional characters of Aurora and Romney, who through life itself. . These contradictions seem to embody the multiple aspects and topics of the "women's question" so widely discussed during the Victorian period. The dominant ideology in the Victorian era in relation to women was the idea that women were born with certain personality traits that made them suitable to be wives, mothers and generally subservient to the male population. This was justified by the widely accepted belief that this was willed by God, and therefore "a woman who sought to cultivate her intellect beyond the achievements of the salon violated the order of nature and religious traditions." In Aurora Leigh, the character of Aurora's aunt is used as an example of this type of woman: "She had lived, we shall say,/A harmless life, which she called a virtuous life/A quiet life, which was no life at all." ."While Aurora's aunt represents the "natural" virtues of a Victorian woman - quiet, charitable, and respectful (because she is doing her duty by raising Aurora), there are also contradictory examples of nature in the poem. Aurora is brought up on the "sight of the great lime-tree on the meadow", an allusion to Coleridge's poem This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison, in which the lime-tree, as in Aurora Leigh, becomes an inspiring and consoling vision of the beauty and, 2000.