Choose one of the following prompts listed below. Please let me know which prompt you end up choosing.
1. Early in Book V, Aurora says she wants to be inspired by God’s creative force or “lava-
lymph” (5.3) so that her work will move readers. She also says that modern writers
should not hesitate to write epic poems about “this live, throbbing age, / That brawls,
cheats, maddens, calculates, aspires” (5. 303-4). She does not like epics that pretend to go
back to the ancient or medieval periods, which are artificial and therefore unlikely to
reflect the passions and concerns of modern readers. Write an essay about how Aurora
Leigh addresses “this live, throbbing age,” mid-nineteenth-century Britain. Which issues
seem of most concern to Browning and how does she dramatize them in her epic? You
might conclude with thoughts about whether it is any longer possible to write an inspiring
epic about the current age. Have you ever encountered, or can you imagine, such a work?
2. Romney and Aurora represent two different approaches to the problems of Victorian
Britain. Romney wants to solve the country’s social ills by applying social and economic
theories. Aurora contends that unless people are inspired by the arts, such as poetry, they
will never follow the theorists’ leads. Referring to their debates throughout the epic,
which character do you think makes the strongest case? How does the end of the epic
resolve their argument about how to attack Britain’s social problems?
3. Romney accuses Aurora, and women in general, of not caring enough about humanity in
general. He says women only care about individuals. Aurora disdains his belief that
because of this, no woman can be a real artist. Does the subplot involving Marian Erle
suggest a resolution to this argument? Marian clearly represents a very real Victorian
problem, the large number of women forced into prostitution by various circumstances
and scorned as “fallen” by respectable people. Does the conclusion of Marian’s story
inspire another way of thinking about these downtrodden women?
4. Aurora is clearly an exceptional individual. Raised by both a father who ignores her
gender and offers a wide-ranging education and an aunt who tries confining her to the
same “sort of cage-bird life” (1.305) she has lived herself, Aurora attempts to escape her
aunt’s cage, including an arranged marriage. In the nineteenth century, the story of an
ambitious young woman, supporting herself by a career as a professional writer, would
have seemed daring. Write an essay about how Browning defines Aurora’s challenges, as
a writer and as a lonely young woman. Are Aurora’s conflicting emotions still
understandable today, or do you find Browning’s portrait of the artist as a young woman
hard for a modern reader to relate to?
5. This epic is full of images of female breasts. Breasts represent the most basic and
necessary nutrition, a kind of life-force. Aurora would like to write an epic so lasting and
influential that future readers will say, “Behold the paps we all have sucked!” (5.219).
Write an essay about the various images of breasts in Aurora Leigh: what is the
significance of featuring this very female imagery in an epic poem by a woman? (Does it,
for instance, imply an answer to Romney’s insistence that a woman cannot write a great
poem?)
6. Lady Waldemar stands in contrast to Marian and is obviously the “bad guy” of the epic.
Write an essay explaining what you think Lady Waldemar represents, as what we would
call a socialite do-gooder. Given her self-explanation at the epic’s conclusion, what do
you think Browning hoped her readers would learn by reading about this character?
7. If you have any background in Christian religious studies, you will recognize a good deal
of prophetic imagery in this epic. Aurora, for example, wants to be a kind of poet-
prophet; Romney wants to rescue the poor by sponsoring a “Christian phalanstery,” a
kind of Utopian community. Looking at the examples of prophetic imagery in the epic,
how does the novel’s conclusion resolve the debate between Romney and Aurora? In the
end, what kind of prophet seems likely to effect social change?
8. Think about Romney and Aurora’s debate about how best to solve the nation’s social
problems, through applying economic theories or inspiring behavioral change through art.
As twenty-first century students, do you think either character makes a stronger case?
Use passages from the poem to illustrate your point. In your lifetime, can you think of
examples where the application of theory or the inspiration of art, or both together, made
an impact toward solving an important social problem?
9. Think about Marian as representative of a major social problem in Victorian England.
Victorian poems, drama, and fiction featured sympathetic “fallen women,” but they
always die; it seems to have been impossible for readers to imagine a “ruined” woman
going on to lead a respectable life. Browning’s character was therefore shocking to her
first readers. How does Browning create Marian as a character intended to make readers
think about, and think differently about, unmarried women with babies? Can you think of
a current example of a fictional character intended to persuade readers or film-goers to
think differently about a modern kind of outcast?
