The Metamorphosing World of Literary Criticism
             The critical view of any literary work is always subject to the societal vices of the time. Judgement of a piece of writing changes over time because new view points, set to different fields of experience, fixed by completely different historical and social settings creates new conceptions that commonly conflict with ideas from the past. Criticism that is not considered contemporary to the piece in question is prevalently discordant with the opinions and insights of later literary critics, due largely in part to diversified sets of values. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a poet that has benefited from these changing mindsets as far as criticism goes, especially in regards to her explicit confrontation of political issues, particularly those concerning the social conditions of women at that point in history. Aurora Leigh is a poetic narrative that centers around Barrett's concern with women's issues, particularly the social restrictions placed on the mind and creative aptitude of women writers at the time. It is a piece of literary genius that was accepted with an incredible amount of resistance by many of her contemporaries; most of them denying that women even possessed the potential or position to compose significant works of literature. The modern view of the novel-poem Aurora Leigh has developed to become almost reverent by today's standards; the common conceptions of the poems themes now revolve around the themes of the piece as a crucial facet of the societal evolution of women.
             The artistic and critical success of the long poetic narrative evolved over time but was not initially embraced by the society that Barrett-Browning contended with. Upon the release of the poem to the public in 1856, the woman-author was bombarded with critical reviews that broke apart the very heart of her work, such as this critique from the London literary magazine, the Edinb...