Compare and contrast Porphyrias lover and My last Duchess
“Porphyrias lover” and My Last Duchess are similar in many ways, they
are both written by Robert Browning. In “My Last Duchess” the speaker
is an Italian Duke who is speaking to the ambassador of a count, whose
daughter he hopes, to marry. The Duke is trying to impress the counts
representative by showing him around his gallery and the painting of
his last Duchess. He openly speaks about having his last Duchess
murdered, because she did not show him enough respect. “Porphyria’s
lover” is a dramatic monologue that describes the events that lead up
to Porphyria’s death. A dramatic monologue is a description of events
being told by one person, this is also the case in “My Last Duchess”.
Porphyria is a higher class then her lover and can never come down to
his level in public. Her lover believes that the only way for them to
be together is for him to kill her. This essay includes similarities
and differences between the poems all under four topics; possession,
jealously, the way the woman are killed and different class of the two
people in each relationship.
Possession is very important in both relationships, in “My Last
Duchess” the Duke owns the duchess “that’s my last duchess” it is his
“my” that shows, he sees the Duchess as a piece of art not a person.
The Dukes love is materialistic, he thinks that she is only good for
looking good, like a piece of art. The duke has curtains on the
portrait of her “The curtain I have drawn for you, but I” he is the
only person who can look at her when he pleases, he chooses who can
look at her. He is in control.
In “Porphyria’s lover”, the lover craves her and is annoyed she does
not spend enough time with ...
... middle of paper ...
...else.
Both poems have many similarities and differences, “Porphyrias lover”
is more to do with the divide between the classes. While “My Last
Duchess” is more to do with the male being in control and possessive
over the female. “My Last Duchess” rhyme scheme is rhyming couplets
this portrays the control the duke is in throughout the poem.
“Porhpyrias lover” is different, it only has rhyming couplets at the
end. When he begins murdering her, when he is in control. When he has
no control there is no rhyme scheme at all. The differences do
outweigh the similarities, however the similarities may be few but are
still extremely important in the structure of both poems. The most
important difference of all is the difference in love Porphyria’s
lovers love, is a passionate love, while the Dukes love is
materialistic. But end result is the same, both women die.
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
The composition of this painting forces the eye to the woman, and specifically to her face. Although the white wedding dress is large and takes up most of the woman’s figure, the white contrasts with her face and dark hair, forcing the viewer to look more closely into the woman’s face. She smokes a cigarette and rests her chin on her hands. She does not appear to be a very young woman and her eyes are cast down and seem sad. In general, her face appears to show a sense of disillusionment with life and specifically with her own life. Although this is apparently her wedding day, she does not seem to be happy.
The poem is an example of a carpe diem poem - 'carpe diem' is Latin
envy his beauty and "feign[…] the appearance of love" for him (Marie 24). Although the king
Love is everywhere in the world and the majority of the people will do anything for love. People will push the limits to what they do for love and it just makes you wonder of how much crazy people are out there and are willing to take it to that crazy level. Social media blows up everywhere when they hear about a story that the guy or the girl went crazy in the relationship and just did something crazy. Well there are two poems that author Robert Browning wrote about love and they are called “My last Duchess” and “Porphyria's Lover” and there are a couple things that you can compare and contrast about it like both have very jealous people and another is how crazy people can get and one that’s different is how they handle it.
"Girl Before the Mirror" is created in 1932 and it is said that the girl in the painting is his at the time girl friend Marie Therese Walter. No matter who is drawn in...
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
In the poem, the last Duchess, power is present as having a bad impact on the Duke as he becomes arrogant due to his high status. The phrase ‘My gift of a nine-hundred year old name’ implies that the duke pictures himself as a manipulative man who is very proud of his high rank. The Personal pronoun ‘My’ emphasizes that he is very wealthy and has got
The theme of “My Last Duchess” is power, it is based on the Duke’s political and social power applied by the speaker. In this
In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," a portrait of the egocentric and power loving Duke of Ferrara is painted for us. Although the duke's monologue appears on the surface to be about his late wife, a close reading will show that the mention of his last duchess is merely a side note in his self-important speech. Browning uses the dramatic monologue form very skillfully to show us the controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits the duke possessed without ever mentioning them explicitly.
The Theme of Love in the Poems First Love, To His Coy Mistress, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess and Shall I Compare Thee?
The Speaker in ‘My Last Duchess’ is conversing with the servant of a count whose daughter he is proposing to marry. He treats t...
"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.
Throughout "My Last Duchess," Browning uses diction to further increase the haunting effect of his dramatic monologue. His precise and scattered word choice is meant to make the reader recognize the underlying haughtiness in his speech to the Count's emissary. The Duke refers to his former wife's portraits "depth" and "passion" in order to place a cloudiness over the realism of the painting. This, along with the "faint" and "half-flush" appearance that "dies along her throat," brings about an overcast appearance to the poem. The Duke's "trifling" lack of "countenance" is evident in his jealousy of
In 1668, King Charles II had a painter, Peter Lely, create a piece of Venus and Cupid, but by taking a closer look the viewer can see that it’s actually a portrait of Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwynn. The girl in the portrait looks benignly at the viewers and showed “her submission to the owner’s feeling and demand.” (Ways of Seeing 52). The king hung the painting behind another landscape so he could unveil it and make “his guest envied him.” (Ways of Seeing 52). The painting makes Nell into a prize with no other purpose but to feed the King’s ego. Even the mythology theme says more about the King than Nell given that he had a whole series of mythology erotica painting made after Lely’s Venus portrait of Nell. Despite Nell being the subject of the painting, there’s no indication of her being an actress or a wit, she’s nothing but a