What would bring a man to kill his wife? People would say he was probably insane or evil and they wouldn’t be wrong. Robert Browning explored this question in two of his dramatic monologues “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria's Lover”. Both stories are told from the point of view of the man who murdered his wife. They are told in different ways, one is told out loud and one is narrated from inside his head, the men themselves are also different, with different motives, but the stories do have some similarities.
Starting with “My Last Duchess” the main character is talking to someone about the painting of his late wife, the first line of the story confirms this when he says “look at my last duchess painted on the wall looking as if she were alive.” as he goes on we learn that he keeps her painting behind a curtain. It may seem odd that he’d have a curtain over the painting of his wife but it has a purpose, he seems to be the only one who is allowed to open the curtain or people are afraid to open it, this is because when he is talking about the curtain in an aside “(Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I)”. This makes more sense as the Duke starts talking about what kind of person his wife was, he describes her as a kind hearted
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The Duke would get very jealous over things like that he even says “I know not how-as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
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.
My Last Duchess takes place in Italy, late Renaissance Italy which is over 300 hundred years before My Ex-Husband. You also see a reference to Italy within the poem My Ex-Husband. “You yet these lovely champagne flutes, hand blown, Imported from Murano, Italy” (Lines 52-53) Italy is yet another connection between these two paired poems. May it be the glorious and beautiful history or may it just be symbol of wealth between My Last Duchess and My Ex-Husband. The symbol of wealth is almost ironic because in the end who is really wealthy? They both have faced a sense of
"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.
awake') seeing as he had a 'heart fit to break'. Both the Duke and the
love or passion but was merely a way for the Duke to show off. The
Considering the Representative’s ability to easily contact the Count and his daughter as demonstrated when the Representative says, “We’ll meet / The company below,” the Duke tells his story in hopes that the Representative would quickly give him the passage in contacting the daughter of the Count (47-48). Even though he has shown indications that he was responsible for ridding his wife, he still has her “painted on the wall” and described her as “a wonder” (1,3). By describing the portrait with such positive diction, it shows his connection with the painting from an internal factor, not because he likes her, but from the sense of company that the portrait mentally provided. The portrait, obviously, does not provide enough to the Duke, resulting in him moving on to the Count’s daughter. Since the Duke “chuse never to stoop” as low as the Duchess, it demonstrates a sense of dramatic irony considering that the Duke, himself, is no better than the Duchess since he was the one that “gave commands” to kill her (43,45).
...ding this poem, it is obvious to think that the Duke was definitely a cruel and heartless man. Assuming he had his first wife killed, he didn't seem to care. He just forged ahead in an attempt to find another woman he could control. As a matter of fact, he used his influence to actually warn the servant of his plans for his marriage to the Count's daughter. Instead of mourning his first wife, he seemed to revel in the fact that he was now able to control her beauty in the portrait by only allowing viewing to those he invited to see it when he opened the curtain. Oh, what a powerful feeling that must have been for him! In the 20th century, however, I think this poem would have been written differently to reflect the freedom women have today. No woman would have put up with him! Maybe the Duke would have had second thoughts about how he treated his beautiful Duchess.
Love is something that everyone is familiar with, it is a special emotion that is reserved for the use between two people who mean a lot to each other. It is a something that William Butler Yeats wants the other person in his poem, "When You Are Old" to remember for eternity, meanwhile in Robert Browning's, "My Last Duchess" the Duke does not mention loving his own wife. Both poems deal with the theme of love, however the way love is shown in both are nothing alike. In Yeats' poem, assuming he is the male character, he wants his wife to remember how much he loved her when he is no longer there to show her his affection.
Porphyria’s Lover Robert Browning’s Poem is a dramatic narrative about a murder. The poem is about violent love affairs. The narrators repetition of the word love exactly 4 times seems to have many meanings behind it. The word love mainly comes from Porphyria, the narrators lover.
‘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.
Through the appearance of jealousy, the Duke tries to hide his actual inner struggle of insecurity. The Duke may have that feeling, possibly because of his appearance and how the Duchess usurpers him in that category. This results, in the Duke poisoning the Duchess, because the Duke comes to the conclusion that possibly someday she would grow tired of him and have an affair. So not only did he murder her but in doing so he made sure she could only be with him, thus sealing her fate. For this reason, the Duke clearly thinks of himself as a self-justifier who is attempting to cover up his feelings and actions by getting rid of her. The quote references his insecurity which therefore is a fuel for his jealousy. Michael G. Miller states in his essay, “Browning’s My Last Duchess”, “His subtle and unconscious slander of his last victim exposes at the bottom an instinctive self-justifier or at least a man
over his wife as he refers to her as a belonging; it also shows that
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 desire for an easy life motivates people to improve upon the technology that is currently available. This desire allowed for the creation of the modern world, in which many people no longer have to worry about basic necessities due to advances in agriculture, medicine, and architecture. However, despite these advances people continue to desire more, creating a deep void of sorrow that will never be filled. This everlasting desire can be witnessed in Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover,” in which the Porphyria’s lover kills Porphyria out of desperation that she would leave him. These desires are also demonstrated in Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” in which the Duke only allows himself to see a portrait of his deceased wife. Lastly, the effects
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...