Artistic View In Aurora Leigh

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) enjoyed high prestige in her lifetime. But her fame declined into oblivion after her death. Not until the rise of feminist criticism were her works rediscovered by the feminist scholars. Aurora Leigh is Barrett Browning’s longest poem, which she also claimed to be her best work. Aurora Leigh was well received after its publication in1856. But there were also unfavorable reviews attacking its size, genre, flaws in language, plot, characterisation, and its rebellion against the convention. Studies of the work were conducted mainly from the perspectives of feminism, theology and economics,etc. Chinese study on the poet has been rare, focusing mainly on her love poems, especially her Sonnets from the Portuguese, and conducted mainly as a comparative study of Barrett Browning and other English and Chinese poets. A few studies abroad have slightly touched upon the artistic view in the work, but no thorough and systematic study has been done on this point. Therefore it’s necessary to make a thorough and systematic study of the topic, which will be a nice complement to current study on Barrett Browning.This thesis has analysed the artistic view in Aurora Leigh on the basis of a close and detailed reading of the text. Artistic view in Aurora Leigh consists of principles of artistic creation and art’s social functions. Artistic principles focus on the form and setting of art. Art gives emphasis to the spirit, so the form of art should be determined by spirit, and the setting of art should be the contemporary age. In creating artistic work the artist should follow his ideals and not succumb to the influence of the critics or the audience. Art has the functions of being conducive to personal growth and guiding the social reform.The thesis falls into five parts. chapter one is introduction, in which a brief introduction is given to Barrett Browning and her work Aurora Leigh, followed by a literature review of both studies abroad and in China on Aurora Leigh, and the aim and layout of the thesis. Chapter two analyses the principles of artistic creation as reflected in Aurora Leigh. Art puts an emphasis on spirit, so the form of art should conform to the need of the spirit, rather than to the literary convention. Because Barrett Browning holds that every age is heroic, she contents that art should have its setting in the contemporary society and be about modern life, rather than lingering on a heroic age in the past. Those living in a specific age are too close to the age so that they can’t grasp the greatness of their age. But the great age in the past was to the people in it as insignificant as the present age is to the modern people. And the past has been dead, only the present is lively, and worth praising. In writing Aurora Leigh, Barrett Browning applies this principle of art. This work is set in Victorian society and is about the various problems that the Victorian people were concerned with, such as the woman problem, poverty, class conflict, and social reform. Aurora Leigh itself is a mixture of two genres-novel and poem, and is a verse novel. Barrett Browning adopts this form to write about modern life.Chapter three is on art’s function in guiding individual growth. This chapter explores the process of the heroine’s growth, the difficulties she encounters concerning art and womanhood, and how art helps her in her growth.The heroine of the poem used to give up the hope of living because of lack of love and the suffocating traditional education for English women. Through reading poems and writing poems herself, she gradually develops her inner self, and becomes lively again. Her hope for life is renewed and she makes up her mind to become a poet. She resists the corruption of the self-denying education, refuses the proposal of arrogant Romney, and his offer of being his helpmate in his social cause that denies the significance of her own work as a poet. She pursues her dream bravely. Through writing she gains financial independence, which ensures her work for her art. She exerts strenuous efforts to improve her work, and adheres to her artistic ideal. Finally she achieves success and her work receives favorable criticism.Yet during this process she experiences thwarts necessary for one as both a poet and a woman. Artistic creation requires her to preserve her inner self and to express her soul. Yet the traditional image for a woman requires her to give up her self and to submit to man and to her love for Romney. The two are contradictory. At last, by firmly establishing herself as a successful artist Aurora is able to accept Romney’s love. By now Romney has realized his wrong, the greatness of poets and the importance of a poet’s work. Their love can no longer hurt Aurora’s art. At this time Aurora finally achieves success both in art and in love.Chapter four is on art’s function of guiding social reform. It relates how Romney fails in his course when he excludes art from his work and does not start from soul and individualism as art requires, and how he shall see the New Jerusalem when he accepts Aurora, the poet, as his guide in his work. Art can move man’s soul.The reform of the society must start from moving the soul. Art, by moving the individual, can gradually move the mass. And the goal of reforming the society can be achieved at last. Romney doesn’t realize it at first, but works to improve only the material condition of the poor and fails in his work. In the end, by reading Aurora’s poems he realizes his mistake, and accepts Aurora’s view on art’s guidance of social reform and invites Aurora to be his guide in his work to work together for the new world.Chapter five is the conclusion and will point out the main findings of the study, its implications and limitations, as well as the suggestion for further research.