Compare two Robert Browning poems - The Laboratory and My last Duchess.
The two Robert Browning poems I have chosen are 'The Laboratory' and
'My last Duchess'. My initial reaction on reading The laboratory was
one of horror and fascination as it tells a tale of a woman scorned. I
found it horrifying that a human being could plan in such a cold and
calculating way, but I also found this fascinating.
'Not that I bid you spare her the pain;
Let death be felt and the proof remain:'
My feelings on reading My Last Duchess was pity for the Duke who was
narrating the poem as it was clear that his jealousy and insecurity
had ruined their relationship.`
'she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile?'
Both poems have contemporary relevance, as people today are still
intrigued by murder, mystery and tales of unrequited love. It is very
obvious that the poems were wrote in the 19th century though, as some
of the language is no longer in use in today's society eg durst/dared
and forsooth/indeed. There are other indications that the poetry was
written in the 19th century by the references made to the use of a fan
and also the way the poison was prepared using pestle and mortar.
'Grind away moisten and mash up thy paste,
Pound at thy powder-I am not in haste.'
The topic of the poem in My Last Duchess is infact a painting, had it
been written in the 21st century it would have been far more likely to
have been a photograph.
The theme of The Laboratory is one of the eternal love triangle.
Whereas the theme in my last duchess would seem to be about an
obsessive yet insecure lover. The similarity would be the extreme
jealousy that is displayed by both narratives. The difference is that
the narrator in My Last Duchess is so jealous and insecure that he
'gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together.'
implying that he sent away or disposed of his loved one in some way.
In The Laboratory, the focus of jealousy is directed at the other
woman.
'He is with her, and they know that I know'
The character of the narrator in The Laboratory displays an intensity
of emotion through her obvious jealousy of the other woman, this
intensity of jealousy could only be achieved if she also had
experienced the same level of love. Similarly, the character of the
narrator in My Last Duchess also displays obvious jealousy although it
is without such an intensity of emotion. It is my opinion that the
on: April 10th 1864. He was born in 1809 and died at the age of 83 in
As Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “I would define, in brief the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.” The two poems, “Birthday,” and “The Secret Life of Books” use different diction, theme, and perspective to give them a unique identity. Each author uses different literary devices to portray a different meaning.
The story can be analyzed using feminist criticism perspective. Feminist criticism is “" the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women"” (Brizee & Tompkins). When reading a text one can find how women were treated in contemporary times. It can be expressed in many areas listed by Brizee & Tompkins. Moreover, Delahoyde also gave more details on the subject when he said “Feminist criticism concern itself with stereotypical representations of genders. It also may trace the history of relatively unknown or undervalued women writers, potentially earning them their rightful place within the literary canon, and helps create a climate in which women's creativity may be fully realized and appreciate.” Women had been undervalued and taken for granted. Many things they do are not as...
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley and ‘My Last Duchess’ have many links and similar themes such as power, time and art. ‘Ozymandias’ shows the insignificance of human life after passing time whilst ‘My Last Duchess’ speaks of his deceased wife in a form of a speech.
‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ and ‘The Preservation of Flowers’: two notable poems, two very different styles of writing. This essay will look at their contrasts and similarities, from relevant formal aspects, to the deeper meanings hidden between the lines. We will examine both writers use of rhyme scheme, sound patterning, word choice, figurative language and punctuation. It will also touch a little on the backgrounds of the writers themselves and their inspirations, with the intention of gaining a greater understanding of both texts.
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.
Robert Browning, the poet, uses iambic pentameter throughout the poem. He breaks up the pattern so that every two lines rhyme. Aside from being a dramatic monologue, the poem is also considered lyric poetry because it is a poem that evokes emotion but does not tell a story. The poem is being told in the speaker's point-of-view about his first duchess, also as revealed in the title, The Last Duchess. The setting is important because the duke's attitude correlates to how men treated women at that time. The theme of the poem appears to be the duke's possessive love and his reflections on his life with the duchess, which ultimately brings about murder and his lack of conscience or remorse.
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
Both of these poems can be used read from different points of view and they could also be used to show how society treated women in the Nineteenth Century: as assets, possessions. Both of these poems are what are known as a dramatic monologue as well as being written in the first person. The whole poem is only one stanza long, and each line in the stanza comprises of eight syllables. ‘My Last Duchess’ is about a member of the nobility talking to an ambassador concerning his last wife, who later on in the poem is revealed to have been murdered by the person speaking, who is about to marry his second wife. ‘Porphyria's Lover’ gives an insight into the mind of an exceptionally possessive lover, who kills his lover in order to capture that perfect moment of compassion. ‘Porphyria's Lover’ uses an alternating rhyme scheme during most of the poem except at the end. The whole poem is only one stanza long, and each line in the stanza comprises of eight syllables.
forced to watch one of his men die after failing to put his gas mask
The poem gains the reader’s interest from the very beginning with this line: "That is my last Duche...
has a listener within the poem, but the reader of the poem is also one
In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.