During the publication of Sonnets from the Portuguese, the people and society were very conservative. Through Barrett’s poems, it is evident that the people maintained a strict way of life, a unique code that defined their relationship above the ordinary engagements. The lyrics were love letters that Barrett exchanged with her would-be husband in secret. The secret aspect of the letters is a clear indication of a culture that preserved their ways of life and maintained a strict traditional framework that defined much of their mannerisms and relations. Another primary concept evident from the poems is Barrett’s mistrust and doubts that shrouded her love for her husband, Robert Browning. In sonnet 14, she laments on the fact that she does not want to be loved as they are unreliable and changeable.
Even though the production of the book is set in a culture strict on family values, Barrett is seen to go against the tides to elope with her lover and husband-to-be. Their secret affair, as shown in a sonnet the emotional and passionate sonnet 43, although they started from nothing, the society helped them legitimize their relationship. It is a clear manifestation of a culture bent on maintaining their traditional ways of life.
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The sonnet reveals publishers who are selective, biased, and focused on only working with poets whose work is already known. It took them over three years to acknowledge the beauty and unique aspects of Barrett’s poems. Such is a clear manifestation of focus on already established names and ignoring arising poets whose work is not only exemplary, but also classical. The production of Barrett’s work in later years acknowledged her great work that took long to publish. The people were also choosy and focused only on those whose work was already well known.
