In the two texts “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” both by Robert Browning describe the horrific events of two doomed lovers and their mistresses. The text of Duchess tells of a jealous lover who is suspicious of his lover’s smile. His jealousy consumed his life to where the point of where his wife died, either from a murder from her lover or from suicide, that we will never know. In the text of Porphyria by Robert Browning also, describes the suspicion he has when his wife comes home from a night on the town, to which the jealous husband strangles her with he own hair. These disturbing texts reveal the jealously of men when it comes to loving their women. Both of these texts of “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” both share extreme similarities and major differences. …show more content…
The man in Duchess is mainly jealous of his wife’s smile, in which Browning states, “To easily impressed: she liked whatever she looked on and her looks went everywhere.” (Browning, My Last Duchess, page 980, lines 23-24) He is so jealous of her joy to everything that she either commits suicide when her Duke of a lover orders her to stop smiling at everything or simply dies from depression when her lover tells her to stop smiling and the final option could be that her husband killed her from jealousy. The other text of Porphyria’s Lover is more brutal in the lover’s jealously. When she comes home from a ball or party, her husband’s jealously soars through the roof. However, after she cuddles with him, he calms down, but still filled with some form of jealously he strangles her with her own hair. This could have happened with his thought process of “if I can’t have her, then no one
Both My Last Duchess and Blank Space, have similarities in terms of jealousy, and the fact that they are both about previous lovers. The jealousy of the Duke in My Last Duchess, can first be seen when he says, “She had a heart—how shall I say –too much glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her
The death of the female beloved is the only way deemed possible by the insecure, possessive male to seize her undivided attention. This beloved woman represents the "reflector and guarantor of male identity. Hence, the male anxiety about the woman's independence for her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk" (Maxwell 29). The jealous and controlling males in Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" possess a fervent desire to fix and monopolize their unconstrained female beloveds. Due to a fear of death, both speakers attempt to achieve control and deny object loss; by turning their lovers (once subjects) into objects, they ultimately attain the role of masterful subject.
Portrayal of Women in La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Lady of Shalott, My last Duchess, and Porphyria's Lover
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.
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
"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.
love or passion but was merely a way for the Duke to show off. The
The poem ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning however, is about a powerful Duke, and his beautiful, flirtatious wife. The poem begins and also ends with him mourning over her death. However, the reader is later lead to believe that he knows more about her death. The Duke chooses his words very carefully, when he talks to his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his friend about the death of his Duchess.
Through the course of history, men have sought to subdue women by restricting their rights, limiting their freedoms, and when all else fails – murder. In Robert Browning’s "My Last Duchess", Duke Ferrara kills his wife in retaliation for the fact that he could not control her being – actions and feeling – which is evidenced by his description of his last Duchess, his curtain over her portrait, and his skillful control over the syntax and conversation. Through this poem, Robert Browning addresses a grander issue of the extent to which men will go to maintain control.
Porphyria worshipped me”: “That moment she was mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good: I found / A thing to do ... / And strangled her”. Although the Lover’s act would usually not be considered an act of love, in the speaker’s corrupt mind, it is. The ideology of the speaker’s mind is the ideology of the modern world. In “Porphyria’s Lover,” the Lover can only be sure she is his alone if she is dead. By killing her, he has finally solved his problem, which has been transformed into a simpler material problem to be solved.
In conclusion, both the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and the poem Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning share the theme of the longing for everlasting love and losing all moral standards when trying to achieve this affection. The theme of the longing for everlasting love is seen in the demand that Frankenstein’s monster makes for a female. This theme is also seen in the way that Porphyria’s lover is delighted to find out that Porphyria loves him. The theme of losing all moral standards when trying to achieve affection is seen in the threats Frankenstein’s monster makes when Victor Frankenstein refuses to make a Female monster. This theme is also seen when Porphyria’s lover kills her, so he can be with her eternally.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. In this essay I will compare these two poems to find similarities and differences.
In conclusion, Mr. Robert Browning depicts in ‘My Last Duchess” that the Duke is not an ideal husband by referencing how controlling he is over women and other people in his vicinity. Mr. Browning also references the Duke’s jealous and petty actions that make him seem desperate for a way to seek attention. That is why the Duke disposes of her since she was not giving him the proper care he wanted he decided that she was not worthy. The Duke is also not an ideal husband based on his views of how disposal women are to him. His jealousy and insecurity lead him to be an unhappy self-centered
Courtly love was a popular theme in literary works and poetry in thirteenth century Europe. Andreas Capellanus, chaplain to Marie de France and author of the classic The Art of Courtly Love defines courtly love as "...a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embrace." In reality, courtly love was no more than an explicit court of rules for committing adultery. However, in literary works, the basis of chivalry became the presentation of lover's passion for one another and their consideration for others. I will be examining Geoffrey Chaucer's literary masterpiece, Troilus and Criseyde in light of this courtly love tradition.
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...