“Aurora Leigh” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (post 3): A romantic comedy cliché that suggests Aurora has multiple personality

The Second Book of this novel is notable here for its romantic cliché—at least as old as the novels of Jane Austen—that a person may not realize she loves someone.

“For although I blushed indeed, as if I loved the man…I think I loved him not…” (1, p. 58).

Apparently, there is a difference of opinion between one of Aurora’s personalities who loves the man and another of her personalities who does not. This would be a symptom multiple personality.

1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Aurora Leigh [1856/1859]. Edited by Margaret Reynolds. A Norton Critical Edition. New York, W. W. Norton, 1996. 

Added Aug. 6: If Aurora were merely ambivalent, she would have said that she didn’t want to limit her life to the subordinate position and parental responsibilities of a wife, but instead wanted to be completely free to pursue her writing and poetry; however, she would have added, especially in view of her blush, she knew that she was, to some extent, aroused and attracted, and she had to admit, at least to herself, that she had mixed feelings.

In contrast, Aurora dismisses her blush as though it were some kind of meaningless reflex, and says that she has no feelings for him, period. Meanwhile, I suspect, she had an alternate personality who had blushed, because of feeling attracted. And this interpretation does not forget the context of what was discussed in prior posts.