SOURCE: Ward, Candace. “Damning Herself Praiseworthily: Nullifying Women in The Ring and the Book.” Victorian Poetry 34, no. 1 (spring 1996): 1-14.

In the following essay, Ward attempts to reconcile competing interpretations of the character of Pompilia in The Ring and the Book.

Readings of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book often focus on the views of women: the enlightened view presented through the characters of accused adulteress Pompilia and her champion, the Pope, and the misogynistic view held by Guido Franceschini, Pompilia's husband and murderer. Because these two views seem diametrically opposed, and because Guido's testimony is discredited by his obvious villainy, it is easy to accept the Pope's view of Pompilia's “perfect whiteness” as Browning's own. But such an idealization of Pompilia—however far removed from Guido's description of her as a “nullity in female shape”—does not constitute a celebration of womanhood, as some critics believe.¹ Instead...