Aurora Leigh, a girl born from an Italian mother and an English father who is sent to her strict English aunt after her father dies. Considering the fact that poor Aurora Leigh is now an orphan, you would imagine that her aunt would at least try to be a loving person. Well you are wrong. You would also think that her aunt’s “strictness” comes from the fact that she is now her guardian. Let me tell you, you are wrong again.

In this story, after reading it I noticed that “strictness” and “perfection” kind of go hand-in-hand. Aurora Leigh’s aunt is very strict with her education. We know this because Aurora Leigh said that her education consisted of learning English, prayers, the catechism, French, German and a little algebra. Her education also consisted of learning the sciences, information about other countries and music, etc. While her education sounds wonderful at a glance, we later learn that her aunt is educating Aurora Leigh because she wants her to be educated enough to attract a man. It makes sense because Aurora also mentions that she learns to sew, dance, spin glass, stuff birds and mold flowers in wax. Which are skills that are a bit useless but they are skills of a perfect English woman.

Aurora Leigh was educated enough by her aunt to be the perfect wife. A perfect wife, who would be educated enough to have a proper conversation with her husband about a topic. A perfect woman, who would be quiet and would never say no. Education and perfection, what a combination they are.

To me it’s sad that a woman could not be educated just because she wanted to be educated. I feel sad for Aurora Leigh because being a perfect woman is not what she wanted. It’s sorry to know that her aunt was not around to hear the words of Anne Lamott, “Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting.”