Problem
For Elizabeth B Browning's poem Aurora Leigh excerpts from Book 1, characterize Aurora's aunt (lines 270-309) and her aunt's plan for educating Aurora (e.g., lines 399-449)? How does Aurora respond to that plan (e.g., Book I, 465-480). In Book II, how does Aurora fights back against male prejudices (lines 342-364 and 433-439) in debating with Romney, her aristocratic cousin. What arguments does she marshal to contest societal prejudice (and a male audience)? With what arguments and opinions does Romney respond? What does he think about her poetry?
Then, Book V, the poem's centerpiece, which begins as a long digression on the poet's task. The poem ends with a rather rousing and celebrated admonishment of her (male?) Victorian peers. As you read lines 183-222, how might she be critiquing poetry like Tennyson's and try to figure out what she's arguing about the Victorian age. How would her reading audience would have responded to this?