Aurora Leigh

. . . She had lived
A sort of cage-bird life, born in a cage,
Accounting that to leap from perch to perch
Was act and joy enough for any bird.
Dear heaven, how silly are the things that live
In thickets and eat berries!
I, alas,
A wild bird scarcely fledged, was brought to her cage,
And she was there to meet me. Very kind.
Bring the clean water [to purify Aurora]; give out the fresh seed [to grow a new woman].

Aurora Leigh
Book I, 304-312

Aurora Leigh--a free bird, an unbridled spirit. Aurora's aunt? Not so free and not so unbridled. In this passage, Elizabeth Barrett Browning applies the metaphor of "woman as bird" to both Aurora and her aunt, allowing the comparison to operate in two different ways. Aurora is a bird who is not caged for she understands, appreciates, and takes full advantage of the freedom she has been given. However, upon joining her aunt--who "misliked women who are frivolous"-- Aurora's free femininity is curtailed by an ideology that perpetuates the containment of women. The aunt, born into and never encouraged to question this cage-like ideology, does not attempt to tame Aurora because of any misguided intentions; rather, it seems the aunt has pure intentions in "improving" Aurora. By "bringing the clean water" and "[giving] out the fresh seed," one could suggest that Aurora's aunt is cleansing her niece of the flawed femininity she has adopted as well as creating an entirely new woman.

As previously mentioned, Aurora's aunt has never known freedom, she has never lived outside the cage, and thus, she cannot value the "free" lifestyle. Aurora's tendency to desire that which lies beyond domestic duties and a confined existence demonstrates how vastly her views differ from the aunt's conception of life and femininity.