My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover

1647 Words4 Pages

The murder was a method to attain love in both monologues. 'My Last Duchess' and 'Porphyria's Lover' are famous dramatic monologues by Robert Browning who wrote forms of dramatic monologue in the Victorian era. Both the poems sketch the man’s obsession with a woman that concludes in her murder. His way of showing love is that it eventually turns into death or a murder. Together the monologues include the issues of jealousy, obsession, love, and hatred. Individually the speakers were exceptionally possessive, the murders were deliberate; the monologues had different setting, tone, and approach to make it sound more dramatic.

Both speakers in each monologue were selfish men who love their victims. They loved their women for their beauty but did not care for the love that was unseen in their beauty. In 'Porphyria's lover', Browning writes about an abnormally possessive lover waiting for his woman to return. The lover is obsessed with Porphyria, and wants this moment of love to last forever. He feels that Porphyria loves him the same way. He is always happy when she is around him. The speaker had said, "Happy and proud; at last I knew/ Porphyria worshiped me: surprise/ Made my heart swell, and still it grew" (32-34). The speaker is also egocentric and jealous but while the speaker was killing the woman. The speaker had said,

"In one long yellow string I wound

Three times her little throat around,

And strangled her. No pain felt she;

I am quite sure she felt no pain." (39-43).

The speaker killed his victim by tying her hair around her neck. The women did not stop him. By killing, he knew she could not leave him anymore. She would be his and only his until the end. Similarly, the Duke is a proud, possessive, and a lover of ...

... middle of paper ...

...so he thinks it was okay. The speaker had said, " And all night long we have not stirred,/ And yet God has not said a word!" (59-60). In 'My Last Duchess' the Duke has all rights to do what ever he wants because he is dominant of his rank. If his love does not suite the Duchess's he can move on and forget about her. The monologues are similar because both women in the monologues are killed over control. The speakers were possessive, jealous, and full of love and hatred and they talk to the silent listeners about a dramatic events or experience. His murder of Porphyria was his only thought for them to be together and the Duke did not kill the Duchess out of love, but because he was self-doubting. Both women are very flirtatious. Each man wants to own their woman and treat them like an object. This is the only solution why ultimately they take the lives of the women.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Males in Browning's Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess

    1732 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Literary Comparison of Robert Browning’s Texts My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Initially, both speakers in the literary texts are similar because they killed their lovers. In Duchess, the duke that is the speaker says blatantly that he killed his last wife. As the speaker says in lines 45-46, “I gave commands; then the smiling stopped all together.” These lines mean that he told her to stop smiling, but she didn’t listen to him, so therefore he killed her, thus the smiles stopped all together. He explained that he did this such action because she smiled too much. In the same way, the speaker of Lover explained that he killed his lover too. The speaker grabbed his woman’s hair, and wrapped it around her neck three times, and strangled her to death! “I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her” (Lines 37-41).

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems Kid, Havisham, The Laboratory And My Last Duchess

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    The oxymoron, 'beloved sweetheart bastard' shows the mixed and miscellaneous views of 'wishing him dead' but also crying at the wall for him to return. The line 'some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear then down till I suddenly bite awake.' This shows she sometimes dreams of her lost lover, but when she awakes the bitterness and hatred returns. My Last Duchess is about the Duke of Ferrara, talking to the go - between arranging his next marriage.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast My Last Duchess And Blank Space

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Furthermore, since the Duke is wealthy, he is able to get away with this murder, and is talking to a person who happens to want to marry his daughter. What is bizarre with this story is that, the duke seems to get jealous over the most simple things, such as when Fra Pandolf was painting her portrait, and the duke said, “Her husband’s presence only, called that spot of joy in the Duchess cheek; perhaps Fra Pandolf’s chanced to say “Her mantle laps Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint half-flush that dies along her throat”(Browning Ln 15-18). Throughout the story, he continues to talk about how this jealousy affected the Duchess, but the most interesting part is when he said, whenever I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive” (Browning ln

    Read More

  • Exploration of Different Kinds of Love in Poems To His Coy Mistress, First Love and Porpyria's Lover

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Exploration of Different Kinds of Love in Poems To His Coy Mistress, First Love and Porpyria's Lover

    Read More

  • Interpretation of Robert Brownings My Last Duchess

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    I was gratified to see that this critic agreed with my interpretation of the Duchess’s demise, viz., the Duke had her murdered. The theory advanced by my brilliant and magnificent Professor had been that the Duke gave her so many orders and restrictions that she pined away. I had been looking at his famous line “And I choose/never to stoop.” He married her for her beauty but would never lower himself to tell her when she angered him.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast My Last Duchess And Porphyria's Lover

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” both deal with the love of a woman. The theme for both is power and how the speaker in both want to be in control over the woman. The imagery in “My Last Duchess” is based off what the Duke’s feel and what he shares with the servant. The imagery in “Porphyria’s Lover” is based on Porphyria’s. The tone in “My Last Duchess” is arrogant and ignorant because the Duke think so much of himself and foolishly shares all his flaws. The tone in Porphyria’s Lover” is rational the speaker makes sense of the murder of a woman he loves so much. Both poems displayed dramatic

    Read More

  • How are Women Portrayed in Robert Browning’s ‘Porphyria Lover’?

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ll “And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirred”. This allows the reader entry into the lover’s state of mind - he is clearly insane. Consequently, some critics believe that "Porphyria's Lover" was inspired by a murder that was described in gory detail when published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1818 by John Wilson, which was eighteen years before Browning wrote this poem. The story, "Extracts from Gosschen's Diary," is about a murderer who stabs his lover to death and describes her blonde hair and blue eyes in doting detail. This not only outlines that women are only considered convenient if docile and attractive but also that writers, including female writers, “were regularly found to have succumbed to the lure of stereotypical representations”. For those reasons, the private and the public are intimately interlinked and not wholly separate.

    Read More

  • My Last Duchess

    488 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • My Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock Comparison Essay

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Comparison of ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Different Types Of Love In My Last Duchess, By Robert Browning

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    A resemble example for ludic and possessive love reveals in the poem "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning. Just from the word "Last" could infer that the main character Duke of Ferara had more than one wife. However, his last duchess is the subject of the painting that he show to the visitors. In the poem, the Duke welcome a stranger to look at his painting of the last duchess, but every stranger when they saw the paint would be inspired by the passionate look on her cheek. The Duke then speaks: "Strangers like you that pictured countenance,/ The depth and passion of its earnest glance,/ But to myself they turned (since none puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)/ And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,/ How such a glance came there; so, not the first/ Are you turn and ask thus" (7-13). The curtain symbolize Duke 's possessive love, which nothing but he is the only one who could pull off the curtain from her portrait in order to show others. This demonstrate a complete control over his wife by the Duke, and he believes that himself should be the only that that pleased by the "spot of joy into the Duchess ' cheek

    Read More

  • Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert browning you see a man who seems perfectly normal turn into an insane man in a poem about murder. Porphyria comes to her lover to have a good night with her loved one, but in a horrible way she loses her life. With setting, irony and symbolism you see clearly how the superego was taken over by the id. Porphyria’s biggest weakness turns out to be her locks of “love.”

    Read More

  • Point of View in Porphyria's Lover

    1372 Words  | 3 Pages

    "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.

    Read More

  • Use of Irony, Diction, and Imagery in My Last Duchess

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    the Duchess's kindness toward others. Her benevolence "disgusts" the Duke, and causes him to "stoop" down to spouting off "commands" in her direction.

    Read More

More about My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover

Open Document