In 1842, Robert Browning published a book entitled Dramatic Lyrics, which was a famous work that contained a collection of dramatic monologues. Two of the poems found in this book were “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, Browning introduces a powerful insight into the demented mind of an extremely possessive man, while “My Last Duchess” tells a story about the Duke of Ferrara revealing to a guest the murder of his wife and the motives behind it. The two speakers share similar qualities, both being extremely possessive and completely unremorseful. A key difference between the two narrators is how they show their love for their mistresses. Both poems were written in the literary from known as dramatic monologue, and narrated by a male speaker. A dramatic monologue shows the reader the narrator’s inner thoughts and motives when involved in a particular situation. Using this literary technique, Browning allows the reader to explore the abnormal psychology of the two speakers and also to get closely involved with two acts of murder.
Prior to the murders, both speakers are shown to be extremely possessive of their women. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, the narrator is romantically involved with his lover.
She enters the cabin and is in a very vulnerable state, and the narrator wishes to completely capture this single moment in time. The two appear to be in love, but the woman feels reluctant to be with him because it would be opposing to societies standards. The narrator says,
Murmuring how she loved me-she
Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavor,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me forever. (21-25).
The narrator uses the word “forever” to show his extreme passion for her to be in his possession as long as he lives. While lying in his arms, he also makes this point clear when he says, “That moment, she was mine, mine, fair “(36). The narrator emphasizes the word “mine” in order to show that in that moment alone, the woman completely belonged to him. The man is completely insane and could not let her go, so he brutally strangles her with her own hair demonstrating an extreme form of unnatural possessiveness. Death is also the result of a women stuck in the possessive reigns of an egotistical duke in “My Last Duchess”.
Obviously, Robert Browning’s two texts, Duchess, and Porphyria’s Lover can be compared and contrasted. They can be similar because speakers in the texts killed their women, they both had mental issues, and they were both jealous for one reason or another. Also, the speakers in the texts were different because the speaker in Duchess wanted to replace his wife, while the speaker in Lover didn’t. The Speaker in Duchess was also very rich, and the speaker in Lover was not. Lastly, the speaker in Duchess committed premeditative murder, while the speaker in Lover just murdered his girl.
In contrast to Macbeth’s love for his wife, in Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ there is an absence of the romanticised emotion of love. The Duke refers to his wife as ‘My Last Duchess. Here the use of the possessive pronoun ‘my’ gives us the idea from the outset that the Duke saw his wife as merely a possession. The iambic pentameter of ten syllables per line used in the poem also emphasises possession by stressing ‘my’ further in the pattern. Browning’s portrayal of love is one that is absent of emotional attachment, but instead something by which he could possess and have power over her. It could be argued that there are similarities in the way that Lady Macbeth also uses the emotion of love. Being in the form of a dramatic monologue, use
... her with joy this sense is only experienced while being confined in her bedroom. And as soon as she leaves her room, the freedom she’d just begun to understand is now taken away from her in an instant. She actually died of sorrow and great disappointment of her husband’s return as he waited at the front door.
In the poem "Porphyria's Lover," the lover begins by describing the unfolding scene to an unidentified listener: "and from her form / Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl, / And laid her soiled gloves by, untied / Her hat and let the damp hair fall" (10-13). The lover, left alone in the cottage, relates the events of the dark, stormy evening in which he anxiously waits "with heart fit to break" for his beloved Porphyria to enter. "Evidently, her absence is due to her attendance at a 'gay feast,' one of the 'vainer ties' which Porphyria presumably cultivated" (Magill 338). When she finally arrives, he tells the reader: "she sat down by my side / And called me. When no voice replied" (14-15). Porphyria speaks to him, "murmuring how she loved [him]" while the lover silently watches, becoming the mastered object to be petted and "loved." However, when he looks into her eyes, he knows that she loves him: "at last I knew / Porphyria worshipped ...
Love and Hate are powerful emotions that influence and control how we interact with people. To express this influence and control and the emotions associated with love and hate, for instance, joy, admiration, anger, despair, jealousy, and disgust, author's craft their writing with literary elements such as as structure, figurative language, imagery, diction, symbolism, and tone. Poems in which these can be seen present are “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare. Within “My Papa’s Waltz” a mighty love is seen between the father and son. To express this Roethke uses figurative language, symbolism and diction. Within “My Last Duchess” there is little love, but an ample hate towards the duchess from the Duch. To express this the
It goes on to speak about sympathy in general and how Browning “delighted in making a case for the apparently immoral position”, how he found dramatic monologues the best form to do so, and how he went about it. It keeps going for a couple more pages on things which I will not go into because they have little relevance to any interpretation of “My Last Duchess”.
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a haunting poem that tells the story of a seemingly perfect wife who dies, and then is immortalized in a picture by her kind and loving husband. This seems to be the perfect family that a tragic accident has destroyed. Upon further investigation and dissection of the poem, we discover the imperfections and this perfect “dream family” is shown for what it really was, a relationship without trust.
"Porphyria's Lover" is an exhilarating love story given from a lunatic's point of view. It is the story of a man who is so obsessed with Porphyria that he decides to keep her for himself. The only way he feels he can keep her, though, is by killing her. Robert Browning's poem depicts the separation of social classes and describes the "triumph" of one man over an unjust society. As is often the case in fiction, the speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" does not give accurate information in the story.
Browning’s works were the primary model for the basic form of the standard Victorian dramatic monologue which was based around a speaker, listener, and a reader. Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” became a model for the dramatic monologue form primarily because of the strict approach he took while developing the poem. One of the aspects characteristic of this work is the authors level of consciousness. Each element in “My Last Duchess” is thoughtfully constructed with form and structure in mind. This poem is filled with dramatic principle that satisfied the Victorian period’s demand for an action and drama that were not overtly apparent in the work. In the case of “My Last Duchess” the drama of the poem is how his character, the Duke, is introduced. In dramatic monologues the character’s self is revealed through thoug...
Robert Browning frequently wrote dramatic monologues to enhance the dark and avaricious qualities in his works. Browning's use of this particular style is to "evoke the unconstrained reaction of a person in aparticular situation or crisis" (Napierkowski 170). A poem may say one thing, but when mixed with dramatic monologue, it may "present a meaning at odds with the speaker's intention"(Napierkowski 170). This change may show the reader more insight into the poem without directly stating the underlying facts. The reader is allowed to "isolate a single moment in which the character reveals himself more starkly" (Napierkowski 171). Browning's use of dramatic monologue "disposes the reader to suspend moral judgement" (Napierkowski 171) causing a haughtiness to hover over many of his works.
In ‘My Last Duchess,’ the speaker is conveyed as being controlling, arrogant, malicious, and capricious. The Duke shows signs of jealousy and over-protection towards his first wife. On the other hand, the narrator in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is portrayed as who has lost touch with reality, someone clearly insane. There a few hints that this character may be lonely and withdrawn. After Porphyria enters the room he is in, the tension immediately drops and the mood warms.
The Theme of Love in the Poems First Love, To His Coy Mistress, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess and Shall I Compare Thee?
Though ballads and Sonnets are poems that can depict a picture of someone’s beloved, they can have many differences. For instance, a Ballad is a story in short stanzas such as a song would have, where as a sonnet typical, has a traditional structure of 14 lines employing several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tight thematic organization. Both Robert Burn’s ballad “The Red, Red, Rose, and William Shakespeare’s “of the Sonnet 130 “they express their significant other differently. However, “The Red, Red, Rose depicts the Falling in new love through that of a young man’s eyes, and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 depicts a more realistic picture of the mistress he writes about; which leaves the reader to wonder if beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder.
A dramatic monologue is defined as a poem in which a single character is speaking to a person or persons- usually about an important topic. The purpose of most dramatic monologues is to provide the reader with an overall or intimate view of the character’s personality. A great poet can use punctuation and rhythm to make the poem appear as if it were an actual conversation. Robert Browning, known as the father of the dramatic monologue, does this in his poem, “My Last Duchess.'; The Duke of Ferrara, the speaker in “My Last Duchess,'; is portrayed as a jealous, arrogant man who is very controlling over his wife.
The Victorian period was in 1830-1901, this period was named after Queen Victoria; England’s longest reigning monarch. Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. This period was known for a rather stern morality. A huge changed happened in England; factories were polluting the air, cities were bursting at the seams, feminism was shaking up society, and Darwin’s theory of evolution was assaulting long established religious beliefs. The Victorians were proud of their accomplishments and optimistic about the future, but psychologically there was tension, doubt, and anxiety as people struggled to understand and deal with the great changes they were experiencing. One of the authors known for writing during the Victorian Period was Robert Browning. Robert Browning was a poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic monologues, which made him one of the Victorian poets. Robert died in December 1889. His Poem “Porphyria’s Lover” was published in 1836. This essay will explore three elements of Victorianism in Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Brown...