Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic,and social rights and equal opportunities for women。 Feminist theory exists in a variety of disciplines, emerging from these feminist movements and including general theories about the origins of inequality。

    This paper, through absorbing the research achievements of predecessors, is devoted to generalizing the main works of Mrs Browning, and analyzes the Feminism characteristics in them to help readers more fully interpret Mrs。 Browning’ s works。 

    This paper can be pided into five parts。 Chapter one is the introduction of this paper, including the life of the author and her works to help readers have a comprehensive understanding of the author。 Chapter two introduces the three phases of the author’s poetry, the happy time of her childhood, the tortuous period of her fighting against the illness, and the period of universal love。 Chapter three generalizes the Feminism in the author’s poetry, from the perspective of her outlook on love, and her humanistic thoughts。 The author’s outlook on love can be pided into three parts, self-awareness, self-introspection and self-transcendence。 Chapter four illustrates the author’s Feminism from her work The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Poiny。The last chapter is the conclusion of the paper。 

    Researching methods are close-reading, text analysis as well as materials collection from previous studies in this respect。

II。 Mrs。 Browning and Her Works

2。1 The Life of Mrs。 Browning

Elizabeth Browning was born on March 6th, 1806, in Durham of England。 She enjoyed a privileged childhood。 Around the perimeter of the territory, she often rode a pony to visit the neighbors, and rehearsed family drama with her 11 sisters and brothers。 Although she was weak, she had no health problems before 1821。 Her mother died when she was 22 years old, and critics said that the death of her mother left a stain on the author’s faults in creating “Aurora Leigh”。 Elizabeth was a talented child since childhood。 Before the age of 10, she had read some Shakespeare's plays, some Homer’s translation of the era of Roman pope, and “Paradise Lost” and many articles about Britain, the Greek and Roman history。 In almost every respect, she taught herself。 When she was ten years old, she read the major works of Greek and Latin writers, and she read the original books。 Strong desire for knowledge led her to studying Hebrew quite well, so that she could read The Old Testament from the beginning to the end。 She appreciated the works and creative subjects of Paine,Voltaire, and Rousseau, which made her express concern for human rights in his future letters and poems。 Her fascination towards classic works of ancient Greek and Roman and pure philosophy was replaced by her religious obsession, which she later described as a “crazy and silly fantasy”。 In 1838, out of health problems, she moved to the shores of the Devon County。 She was accompanied by her favorite brother Edward, but in that year, Edward died of drowning, which gave her a heavy blow spiritually, so that she lain on the bed sadly for several months。 Later, her health never fully recovered。 People she came into contact with were only one or two in addition to her relatives。 Among those she contacted, she had a rich and joyous art friends, named John Kenyon。 The poems Elizabeth wrote in 1844 made her one of the most popular writer in Britain, which thus encouraged the Robert Browning to write to her, and tell her how much he liked her poetry。 So John Kenyon arranged Robert Browning to visit her in 1845, which opened a chapter of the most famous courtship in literature history。论文网

    Elizabeth was 6 years older than Robert Browning, and she was also a disabled。 She could hardly believe that this energetic Robert Browning would love her as he had publicly claimed, and her doubts were expressed in her “Sonnets From the Portuguese” which she wrote for the following two years。 At last, love triumphed over everything。 Robert Browning copied the hero under his heart—Shelley, and went away mysteriously with his sweetheart Elizabeth。 They finally arrived in Italy in August 1846。 As they were both decent victorians, so they formally married before they left and led a relatively comfortable life in Italy。 In 1849, their son was born, named Robert。 Under her husband insistence, she added her love sonnet into the second version of her poetry。 These poems brought her more fame, but at the same time, more criticism from the critics。 In 1857, she published “Aurora Leigh”。 People was unaware of what kind of sickness Mrs。 Browning suffered from that time, although she had enjoyed the medical services that a scholar did。 People did not know why she constantly took in opium which made her physical conditions worse and worse。 And her husband, Robert Browning, just took her to the south and took the utmost care for her to prolong her life。 But she finally died in the arms of her husband in June 29, 1861。 Under the heart of the cultivated readers of the 19th century in America and Britain, no female poet had enjoyed higher respects than Mrs。 Browning。 Her poetry had a huge impact on Emily Dickinson’ s works who praised her as an accomplished woman。 文献综述