Elizabeth Barrett, who eventually became Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was born in 1806, in Durham, England. Her father Edward Barrett was a landowner and slave owner on the family’s Jamaican estate. The Barrett family enjoyed a life of privilege and wealth. However, Edward’s harsh, controlling nature drove him to abuse those closest to him including Elizabeth. She was an intelligent, sensitive young woman and her father’s criticisms had a deep psychological impact on her.
Although there are no direct accounts of Edward’s abuse of Elizabeth, her widowhood writings and journals provide insight. According to Dr. Michael Venner, a writer on Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her family life, she described her reserve as a kind of “shell” that was present in her personality from an early age. Dr. Venner suggests that this reserve, or shell, was a psychological defense mechanism to fend off further abuse from her father.
Elizabeth largely remained at the family’s estate, Hope End, where she wrote and published a wide range of works. The medical treatments Elizabeth required due to a series of illnesses also increased her seclusion. Despite loving her father, her need to be out of sight, out of mind, drove her to write and create refuge in her literary works.
In particular, her 1844 book of sonnets “Sonnets from the Portuguese” in which she expresses deep feelings of unrequited love captured the attention of the public. Reactions were so intense that the public were eager for her to find true love, and eventually she met Robert Browning. By marrying Robert, Elizabeth withdrew from the relationship with her father, whom barred access to her fortune for her newly-formed family.
Elizabeth miscarried a child soon after the marriage, which triggered many of Elizabeth’s memories of being neglected, dismissed, and rejected by her father. These memories were key contributors to her depression and became intertwined with her feelings of insecurity and inferiority due to the oppressive nature of her relationship with Edward.
Elizabeth’s experiences navigating such a complex relationship speak to the psychological impact of childhood trauma. Despite the strength of Elizabeth’s writing and her capacity to write poetry and literature that remains applauded to this day, her work is symbolically tied to her experiences of childhood abuse.
Supportive Identity
For Elizabeth, loving and leaving her father brought a mix of joy and sorrow, relief and guilt. Despite her love and desire for her father’s approval, she was not always able to reconcile the oppressive nature of their relationship. As a result, she suffered from an identity crisis. Compounding the division between the witness of abuse and the beloved daughter, it was a divide she had to continually wade through.
In her later writing, Elizabeth doesn’t appear to directly confront her father’s abuse, instead seeking understanding, closure and redemption. Her poetry reflects her attempt to make sense of disturbing childhood events, her longing for justice and her search for forgiveness. While her work might not be seen as direct activism, she slowly relearned her power and relied on the written word to express her truth, subvert the reality of injustice and attain her voice.
The structural arrangement of her works is reflective of her own identity. Elizabeth’s poetry gives insight into the process of stigmatizing the effects of childhood abuse while allowing her to maintain a supportive identity.
The Impact of Abuse
It is an innate human response to attempt to cope with trauma and abuse by understanding the reasons for it. However, the ambiguity of not fully understanding the effects of abuse can make it difficult for those impacted to make sense of their experience.
Elizabeth’s work is a testament to the severity of the impacts of abuse, beyond what is regularly seen or understood. In her poetry, Elizabeth not only expresses her own experiences of subjugation but also attempts to go beyond the boundaries of empathy, inserting herself into the story of those similarly treated.
She connects her stories to a broader understanding of abuse and the implications it has on wider society. In this way, her work reflects the need to move beyond a focus on individual suffering and the need to strive for social justice and transformation. Elizabeth reclaims her voice and her purpose in a profoundly meaningful way.
The Price of Freedom
For Elizabeth, reclaiming her own identity and freedom from abuse had its costs. In her career as a poet, Elizabeth experienced a rollercoaster of admiration and criticism, depending on her perceived ‘compliance’ with patriarchal norms. Through her work, Elizabeth was both praised and ridiculed in equal measure, raising the question of who can truly win from the game of reclaiming one’s freedom.
Joseph Haske, a doctoral research candidate and critic of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s fame, noted that while Elizabeth’s books garnered mass commercial success, they were often undermined by the same group of people. The lack of recognition of her work being reflective of her own experiences of abuse, but her silence around her father’s abuse was seen as an obstacle.
The price of freedom and identity at the time was largely gone unnoticed and Elizabeth, ultimately, paid the price. The widespread criticism of her work acted a means to invalidate her story and her truth, however it also served as an affirmation of her strength and tenacity.
The Power of Protest
In her writing, Elizabeth would often weave her voice with those who were similarly subjugated by oppressive patriarchal norms. Her work amplifies the fragile and yet powerful impact of freedom in all its complexity and ambiguities. She speaks to the power of articulating truth as a means to recover autonomy, to go beyond compliance, and summon the power of resistance.
Elizabeth endowed her art with her internal battles and her traumatized ‘shell’, ultimately transforming it into a powerful weapon of protest. In this way, her experiences profoundly overcame the dangers of the censored silence.
Elizabeth held a unique ability to express the pain of her experiences of abuse, providing a lens into understanding both the importance of reclaiming an authentic identity and the perils of abdicating it.
Oppression and Censorship
The culture of oppression and censorship at that time was unremitting and Elizabeth’s work challenging the status quo was largely unheard. However, her work and her spirit of resistance became her most powerful tool in navigating such a hostile environment.
At the same time, Elizabeth’s literary canon illustrates the risks of seeking justice and gaining freedom, while maintaining a connection to a past that continues to unsettle her. While her legacy provides us a lens into recognizing childhood trauma, it’s a route shrouded in enduring psychological pain and suffering.
Elizabeth faced a challenging reality, which seeps through into every aspect of her life, fraying the edges between truth and fiction, and between public adoration and her own personal struggles.
Persisting Legacy
Elizabeth’s legacy persists in our ability to recognize and challenge oppressive systems of power in the 21st century. Her experiences illustrate the importance of understanding the psychological effects of childhood abuse. It also serves as a reminder that those who bear witness to abuse can be reserved, that experience does not always express itself in easy words and language.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s story speaks to generations of struggle, pain and resilience. Her
