The sexual battle in Browning's Aurora Leigh Women beware of women, beware of rivals and, above all, Women beware of sexual jealousy apply equally well to Aurora Leigh, but the Victorian society was not ready for such honesty, so these themes all had to be codified in Elizabeth Barret Browning's epic novel-poem. Aurora Leigh is a sexual battle rather than a battle of the sexes. Aurora's main problem is not being accepted into the male world of poetry, but rejecting rivals for her future sexual partner. Yet she does so with admirable dexterity for someone who lacked a mother to instruct her in the ways of the world. This is due to a substantial coolness in his character, also present in Romney, but tempered in him by a philanthropism, which is endearing, if misleading in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's terms. Romney is an essentially passive character, ready to marry all three women even though he loves Aurora (although he never proposed to Lady Waldemar, she claims he would if Aurora hadn't gotten in the way). It thus becomes the object around which their manipulations are concentrated. In life, it seems that while competing for everything, the expected gender behaviors are "Men fight, women spite", and Aurora Leigh certainly explores the regions of spite. The most important thing women should watch out for in other women is rampant sexual jealousy, which wells up from the unconscious to control Aurora's conscious actions. Women, pay attention to yourselves! Aurora never consciously acknowledged that this was affecting her judgment and behavior, but Elizabeth Barrett Browning made it obvious to her readers that this was happening. Sexual jealousy is the cause of Aurora Leigh's seriously excessive hostility towards Lady Wa...... middle of paper......unified sisters.Bibliography...Barret Browning, Elizabeth: Aurora Leigh, ed., introduction and notes by Kerry McSweeny, World's Classics edition, Oxford University Press, 1993 Case, Alison: Gender and Narration in Aurora Leigh, Victorian Poetry, Vol.29, no.1, Spring 1991 West Virginia University Press (NB: this article was extremely unpleasant to read, very boring and completely useless, but since I have undergone the torture of reading it, I feel justified in including it among my references.)Kaplan, Cora: Introduction to the Women's Press edition of Aurora Leigh, 1978Mermin, Dorothy : Genre and Gender in Aurora Leigh, Victorian Newsletter, no.69, Spring 1986 Steinmetz, Virginia: Images of "Mother-Want" in Aurora Leigh, Victorian Poetry, Vol.21, no.4, Winter 1983 by Elizabeth Barret Browning West Virginia University Press.