Aurora Leigh

If the ambitious Aurora Leigh bears a striking resemblance to Barrett Browning herself, Romney Leigh is a thinly veiled Robert Browning. He is described in Book 1 as being “cold and shy / and absent...tender when he thought of it […] grave betimes, as well as early master of Leigh Hall” (Book 1, Lines 513-16), and this description is designed to express the reality of his childhood freedom, which stands as a sharp contrast to the strictures that bind Aurora despite her relative liberty in an otherwise strict British society. The Leigh cousins therefore stand as foils for one another, for as Aurora herself states, “We came so close, we saw our differences / Too intimately. Always Romney Leigh / Was looking for the worms, I for the gods” (Book 1, Lines 551-52).

While Aurora focuses on traditionally female literary subjects, it is through the character of Romney that Barrett Browning articulates the dominant political and social views of the day. Romney Leigh is a figure who stands for social justice in the poem-novel, and in his dedication to the poor, the disadvantaged, and the meek, he takes on a somewhat Christlike persona despite his sanctimonious statements, many of which clearly annoy Aurora as the years progress. The somewhat ghost-like apparition of Romney throughout the poem, whether he appears in person or merely in Aurora’s thoughts, continually disrupts the rhythm of the female characters’ lives. Whenever Romney physically appears within a scene, his presence serves as a philosophical counterpoint to Aurora’s often radical assertions, and he also functions as an avatar of sorts for the patriarchy, for his considerably conservative views provide a necessary contrast for Aurora’s contemplations and allow Barrett Browning to explicitly critique and condemn the aspects of society that she judges to be so constricting and damaging to women in real life.

Romney Leigh’s appearances and behavior continually shock both the women and the reader throughout the poem, for as he finally admits in Book 9, he does indeed experience a variety of political and social failures over the course of the story. In this regard, his character also serves the practical purpose of injecting new plot developments and creating fresh motivations. Thus, although Aurora Leigh is a remarkably progressive character given the time frame, she is nonetheless relegated to a reactive role within the story, for Romney’s actions often serve as a catalyst for her own decisions. In this aspect of the story, it is clear that even Barrett Browning is still influenced by a certain degree of internalized misogyny, for her protagonist is ultimately dependent upon the actions of a man to realize the highest culmination of her life’s ambition: the pursuit and achievement of love. Yet Romney’s ambiguous status as a love interest also allows the poet to conduct a wider examination of the changes to the prevailing social order that were gradually taking place in Barrett Browning’s day.

Much like Mary Magdalene, Marian is a maligned yet spiritually “pure” woman. It is significant that despite her lowered status after her fall from grace, she comes to live high in a garret just like Aurora, and this transition to a “higher” state of living indicates that although society has cast her down, she nonetheless retains her spiritual stature and morally pure character. During Barrett Browning’s lifetime, abject poverty was often associated with artistic ambitions, and accordingly, lower-class living conditions were often conflated with high art in the Romantic mindset. Ironically, because the most prominent Romantic poets often occupied a privileged place in English society, they had the luxury of portraying poverty itself with a rosy glow that they might find it far more difficult to perceive, were they themselves subject to such poverty.

Within the context of the story, Barrett Browning uses the character of Marian to examine issues of Social Justice in 19th-Century England, for Marian endures many injustices throughout the poem—from Lady Waldemar’s trickery to Marian’s subsequent traumatic experiences with sexual exploitation, rape, and unplanned pregnancy. By portraying a conclusion in which Marian emerges from these traumas with a new sense of dignity and dedication to her son, Barrett Browning asserts that no social scandal can have a permanent effect upon Female Identity and Value in the Victorian Era, regardless of what the paragons of high society might attempt to decree. Beautiful and innocent, Marian is described as Aurora’s “woodland sister” (Book 5, Line 1095), and her name and appearance clearly echo the shepherdess Maid Marian who features (alongside Robin Hood) in earlier English folklore. Marian expresses herself in a simple “rustic” manner (Book 4, Line 151) that contrasts with the pretension of the wealthy and manipulative Lady Waldemar.