"Jenny"

1. "Jenny" can be seen as a dramatic monologue, even though Jenny is asleep and we can't be sure the speaker is speaking aloud. What kind of a person is he? Do we see him differently from how he sees himself?
2. The poem is full of images of money and gold. Why is this appropriate? How do these images function in the poem? What do they reveal about the speaker and his attitudes?
3. The speaker muses a great deal about prostitution. What social/political attitudes does he express towards it? Why does Jenny trouble him so, particularly in the line where he remarks with surprise that she sleeps "Just as another woman sleeps!" What is significant about his following this revelation with a discussion of his young cousin, Nell?
4. Does the speaker's attitude towards Jenny and himself change any over the course of the poem? What is his attitude at the end?
5. Is this a poem sympathetic to women? one that participates in the attitudes against which Aurora Leigh chafed? or is its position on women different?