The history of women's education is long and winding, and it is almost impossible to overstate the evolution that has taken place over the this period. The outdated emphasis on appealing to men of vapid accomplishments has been replaced by teaching critical thinking and useful skills, and nowhere is this contrast more evident than in a college classroom, where a predominantly female student body analyzes Victorian texts. In this context, it is pleasantly surprised that all the literature of the time shows support for the educational methods of the time. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh, for example, illustrates an in-depth perspective on the realities of women's education of the time by carefully structuring a coming-of-age narrative around the difficulties of assimilating into the problematic system. Against a backdrop of tellingly described settings, Browning uses her characters to emphasize the futility and ultimately destructive nature of the Victorian English system of educating women. The first character introduced is arguably England herself. England gets her first glimpse of “frozen cliffs,” and Aurora subsequently despairs at the bleak landscape of her new home (251). Immediately, England stands out as an unwelcoming place for the free-spirited, Italian-raised Aurora. He clearly misses his homeland, “as the earth feels the sun at night,” and this imagery of Italy under the sun contrasts sharply with the gray and gloomy depiction of England (475). Italy produced Aurora's free spirit and individuality, something the very landscape of England seems to reject. Before even addressing education, Browning uses the framework of the story to emphasize the goals the country has for its women, and the Victorian ideal of England is already...... middle of paper ......carefully wrapped in a more innocuous setting. form, Aurora Leigh has stood the test of time. Browning could never have predicted the changes to come in women's education, but her work helped highlight some of the major flaws in women's education – after all, how could a woman serve as a compass moral to his family if his feelings had been changed? stripped of her? An education that robs a woman of her identity inevitably leads to generations of weak women raising more weak women, but this trend has been broken, in part by authors like Browning, who paved the way for a system in which women are not only educated. , but able to discuss the history of their education at will. Works CitedBrowning, Elizabeth Barrett. "From Book I of Aurora Leigh" The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. general. Julia Reidhead. 9th ed. Flight. E. New York: Norton, 2012. 1138-43. Print.