Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert
Browning: Love in the Victorian era
Introduction:
In
this paper I am going to talk about the importance of love in the Victorian
era, for this purpose I am going to talk about Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning.
The
Victorian era, an overview[1]:
This
movement includes the period in which Queen Victoria reigned. It is a period of
big changes in which
The
changes that took place during this period were the following:
·
The way of life changed, people moved from the country
to the city.
·
Science and technology began to be very important, the
people wanted to believe in things that can be proven scientifically, they
started to think that men can create solutions to problems.
·
As regards religion it is an age of doubt and
controversy.
·
In society appeared new movements as democracy,
feminism, socialism, Marxism…
·
The individual in the Victorian era is put in society,
differently from the Romantics; the Victorians had an attitude of social
responsibility.
·
There were discussions about women’s roles in society,
it was called “The Woman Question”, women were no longer consider only as a
housewife but women are considered to be as good as men in art.
·
Literacy increased, and this benefited the growth of
the periodical.
Love in the
Victorian Era[2]:
According of what I have read, throughout this period, due to the
appearance of the Capitalism and its development there were changes in the
social structure, the nobility was not as important as it were before, and the
rich businessmen were the ones who started to become more and more important,
that’s why they started to imitate the customs of the upper classes. The
“sensibility” started to be important, as well as love, that was considered a
powerful feeling.
The
reasons to get married also changed, due to the construction of schools
favoured by the Industrial Revolution children weren’t at home as many hours as
they stayed before, for this reason men didn’t had to marry with a woman who
were capable of doing all the work at home and they could look for a women as a
sentimental partner.
Concepts
of unity and togetherness appeared, this give rise to a new style of life in
the home, the husband tried to stay at home with his beloved wife as much as
possible in his leisure time, they enjoyed being with each other sharing their
all their life and their love.
In spite of all
this changes, many marriages continued being a business. That’s why before a
couple gets engaged they were investigated by the other party. Only few marriages
started with love, although many of them as the time passed they get fond of
each other.
The
legal age to get married was the 21 years old to both men and women, but after
the 1823 it changed and the legal age was 14 years old for the boys and 12 for
the girls, although the majority of the girls, specially for those who belonged
to the upper classes, was to marry between the 18 and 23 years old. An
unmarried woman of 21 could inherit her properties but when a woman got married
all her properties started to belong to her husband.
During
the Victorian period, the role of men in the courtship was taken very seriously
because all the property of his future wife will be in his hands after the
marriage, and also they had to demonstrate that they were going to be a good
administrator and that they were going to be capable of give her the same style
of life they were accustomed. Men were shy, they feared of meet with a rebuff,
besides they didn’t feel drawn towards the women who were very attractive and flirt
but towards the innocent and pure one.
Once they were married they were severe and patriarchal.
During
their life, women were trained to handle theirselves with the labours they will
do: to be a wife and a mother, they learned music, French; they were trained to
be conversant… But intelligence in women
was not supported as well as any interest in politics. Women were expected to
be virtuous and tractable, as well as modest and sweet; for this purpose there
were several rules that a proper girl had to observe. The only privilege women
had during this period was to consent o refuse a suitor. When a girl was being
courted the only way to show her feelings were with a “timid blush” or with the
“finest of smiles”. As a result of all this idealization of women there were an
excessive sense of decorum, which included sex but also bathroom functions. It
was thought that decent women hadn’t any sexual need, and that they didn’t feel
any pleasure during the sexual relations, even more, they believed prostitutes
were the only women who enjoyed having sex, and that the sexual desire in women
was an illness.
The
morality was very important during this period, that’s why there were several
behaviours which were not permitted, for example:
·
A single girl could not go out of her house by
herself; she needed an escort who had to be older.
·
A proper woman could not approach people of higher
class if she was not introduced by a friend.
·
A woman could not receive a man in her house if she
was alone.
·
Before the marriage an engaged couple was allowed to
hold hands or any other minimum contact as a chaste kiss, inclusively they
could ride together without any company and visit alone, but all before the
night because in the case that the engagement were broken the girl could have
her reputation ruined.
·
Obviously sexual relations were not permitted before
marriage.
It is curious the
facts that, during the Victorian era where the moral was so important and even
the novels which included sexual descriptions were “purified”, the number of
prostitutes increased.
Elizabeth
Barrett and Robert Browning’s love[3]:
The
love story between these two poets was difficult because there were some
problems which separated them. First of all, Elizabeth Barrett’s father, whose name
was Mr. Moulton but later took the name of Mr. Barrett, tried to hamper this
relation. As far as I know, Mr. Barrett
was a very authoritarian and possessive man who wanted her to stay at home,
always in her bedroom where she used to pass many hours studying, reading and
writing poetry; and without any company. Besides she was treated as an invalid
due to an accident she had when she was more or less 15 years old, she felt
from her pony and injured her spine, and she suffered of poor health.
Their
love story began because he admired her poetry, and he started to write letters
to her. That is the way that love arisen between them. But then the obstacle
was that
They
got married secretly in 1846, when she was about 40 years and he was about 34,
and then they moved to
Elizabeth
Barrett love poem:
To
better understand how Elizabeth Barrett Browning felt the love, we are going to
analyze one of her love poems. The one I have chosen belongs to a collection of
poems called "Sonnets from the Portuguese” [4]
In the importance that these sonnets achieved we can understand the importance
of love in the Victorian era, especially women’s love.
The
Victorians thought that these poems presented the best role of a woman, because
they are centred in feelings and love, it was so important that there were a
tale invented which described the way in which hypothetically Elizabeth Barrett
Browning gave the sonnets to her husband, this tale said that she, being very
ashamed “held him by the shoulder to prevent his turning to look at her, and .
. . pushed a packet of papers into the pocket of his coat. She told him to read
that, and to tear it up if he did not like it; and
then she fled again to her own room" (qtd. in Mermin 359). Probably it was invented because this is the
way women should behave in this time, as I said before women were so idealized
then, and they should not show any sign of being proud of herself
or for something she had done, and of course a women could not express their
feelings. Even though the Browning
explained the true story of the sonnets, the Victorian reader still preferred
the fictional one. The title the poet gave to her sonnets probably was to make
the content less private, but it actually was a reference of the way Robert
Browning referred to her: “my little Portuguese”, because she was swarthy and
dark-haired.
The
sonnets were not appreciated and successful until the biographical connection
of the author with the poems was known, because, in accordance with what I have
read about it, the Victorians enjoyed knowing this biographical connection. As
I said when Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning’s biography was
known the sonnets began to be read more and more, because a real love story was
more interesting than an invented one.
After the publication of some biographies Elizabeth Barrett Browning was
even considered a saint, not only as a poet but as a wife, as we can see in a
fragment of the biographical article “Elizabeth Barrett Browning” written by
Edmund Clarence Stedman and published in 1873 that I found which says:
"there are some poets whom we picture to ourselves as surrounded with aureolas, who are clothed in so pure an atmosphere that
when we speak of them though with a critical purpose and in this exacting age
our language must express that tender fealty which sanctity and exaltation
compel from all mankind" (qtd. in Lootens 136).
This
sonnets has also been considered to be the better love poems in English
language, C. B. Conant said that these poems were
“without competition, the finest love poems in our language, and afford lessons
from which every disappointed, unsatisfied heart every unbeliever in the
peculiar greatness of womanhood, every one unmindful of its power to solace and
support the soul of man may gain peace, hope, and the strengthening of
faith" (353). Also he thought that these poems are a representation of the
role of women: to love, he said: "in finding her mate, she found the
solution of the life-riddle that had perplexed her, and at which she had
guessed so adventurously. Nothing else is so remarkable in
these life-throbs of sonnets, as the sweetness of their humility" (353).
As I said before the sonnets were being valued in connection to the biography,
and from the ideal of women author of this time, the Victorians thought that if
a woman was going to write then they must focus her attention in love, not in
being famous or write. George Barnett Smith considered Elizabeth Barrett
Browning one of the top poets of
Throughout
the years the sonnets were losing importance as poems as were considered a
memory of a love story that everybody found amazing. But then Penini, the Browning’s son, published the love letters and
as a result of this the poems lost importance. Although at the beginning it
caused controversy and was criticised because some thought the letters were too
private, after the letters began to be more and more popular and the sonnets
started to be considered imperfect, some claimed that her poems were a bad
reproduction of her love letters.
Other
modern writers had argued that love letters were better received than sonnets
because to writing about courtly love is offensive because it is not what is
expected of a women in the Victorian age. But in some ways the letters and the
sonnets are linked, as for example in the fact that in both we can see a women
who is showing her feelings, she is active unlike the Victorian women who were
expected to be passive and only listen to the compliments.
In
conclusion, I think that “Sonnets from the Portuguese” is the best way to
understand how important was the love for the Victorians but also for Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, who at the beginning was considered a very good poet, later
what was more important was her love as a woman. The sonnet I have chosen to analyze is the
number 43[5]:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with
my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Structure and analysis[6]:
This
poem, as we all know, is a sonnet, usually the theme of this kind of poems is
love or something related to it, and this is the case of this poem. As I read,
she wrote this sonnet number 43 following the Petrarch’s
model. The rhyme scheme is from line1 to 8 ABBA, ABBA; and from lines 9 to 14
CD, CD, CD. Although there is also an internal rhyme in verse 2: depth and breadth. According to the information I found of this poem, the Petrarch’s model has this structure: the octave (the first
eight lines) introduces the theme of the poem, and the sestet (the other six
lines) is the resolution or gives more information about the theme; in the
“sonnet
I
LOVE | thee TO | the DEPTH | and BREADTH | and HEIGHT
My SOUL | can REACH, | when FEEL | ing OUT | of SIGHT.
The author uses figures of speech,
the one she most uses is the anaphora: the use of I love thee in several lines, and also uses alliteration, as we can see for example in : thee, the (lines 1,2,5,9,12); or freely, strive, Right (Line 7) or
but, better, after (Line 13).
Bearing in mind what I have read
about the poem, this is the analysis that I propose:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
In
this verse we can see that the author is appealing directly to the receiver of
the poem, thee refers to her beloved,
her husband Robert Browning. I think it is worth to say that the poem starts
with a question, this question appeals not only the addressee but also to the
own poet. Then she says Let me count the
ways because she loves him in many ways, that’s why she has to count them,
in the following lines she is going to describe her love.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
Here
the author is saying that her love is real, because she is mentioning the three
dimensions of the real world: depth,
breadth and height; at the same
time she is saying that her love is immeasurable.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace
The
immeasurable love she feel is physical but it is also
spiritual, that’s why she mentions the soul. Besides, probably grace refers to God.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet
need, by sun and candlelight.
Here
the poet is saying that she will love him all the time, by sun and candlelight, at morning and at night, and that she will
be there to meet all his needs,
including the simplest one.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
She
loves him freely, no one forces her, and intensely because is as men who fight
for rights, because they need it to be happy, as Elizabeth Barrett needed his
husband.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise
I
think that the author utilizes the term purely
because purity was very important during the Victorian era, especially if
had to do with women. At the same time the poet is saying that her love is
authentic and don’t need any worship.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and
with my childhood's faith
In
these verses the author says that her love is as intense as an experience of
suffering, and with my childhood's faith,
which means that she believes without doubt as a child whose faith is blind.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
With my lost saints there means that
she has lost her innocence, because she is not a child anymore.
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if
God choose,
I shall but love thee better after
death.
The author is saying that she will love her
husband both in the happiness (Smiles)
and in the sadness (tears) and that
this love will be eternal, never will end because it will last even after
death.
In
short, as we have seen, the principal ideas of this poem are: “expression of the
depth of her love”, “an attempt to describe the indescribable” and “comparison
to known feelings and interactions”.
Conclusion:
I
think that the Victorian era was a period of very important changes; in this
paper I focused my attention in how was the importance of love during this
period. In my opinion, and bearing in mind all that I have read, love was very
important during this period, I think that there were even and idealization of
this feeling. That’s why this romance was very fascinating during this period,
but another reason why I chose this topic is that even nowadays this history is
as amazing as it were before, one example of this is the “sonnet
[1] George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art
History,
The Victorian Age:
review <www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/review/summary.htm>
[2] Hoppe, Michelle J. Courting
the Victorian Women. 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.literary-liaisons.com/article009.html>
The history of love and sex 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.party-till-you-drop.com/love-and-sex.php>
Hampson,
Thomas. ROBERT BROWNING (1812-1889)ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861). 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/browning.html>
[4] Jennifer
[5] "Sonnet
43" from "Sonnets from the Portugese"
(1850)
Elisabeth Barrett Browning 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/43.html
>
[6] How Do I Love Thee? Analysis 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.eliteskills.com/c/2193
>
[269] How do I love thee? 2 Jan 2008 <http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/269.html>
Sonnet
[7]Sonnet