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Porphyria lover as a dramatic monologue by robert browning
Porphyria lover as a dramatic monologue by robert browning
Porphyria lover as a dramatic monologue by robert browning
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In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”, both portray women that are killed by their significant others. In “Porphyria’s Lover” her lover seems to be obsessed and not wanting to let her go, whereas in “My Last Duchess”, the speaker appears to be jealous by the woman. By having these two different deaths, why does Browning have the men commit these acts on the woman they love? Perhaps he wants to demonstrate and justify how these acts of crimes where done in the name of love or does he want us to acknowledge certain flaws that made them act on their crimes.
In “Porphyria’s Lover”, the speaker in this monologue is living in a cottage when his lover, who seems to be from a higher social class, comes in to see him. As
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she becomes more affectionate with him, and trying to get his attention he states: “Porphyria worshipped me, surprise Made my heart swell, and still it grew While I debated what to do” (33-35) As he describes her, one can see the beauty he has fallen in love with, but when he has a sudden epiphany, he realizes that she will not end up staying with him.
He believes that she will leave him. For the speaker, his only solution into keeping her with him is by killing her. This is a way for him to stop time or freeze the feelings he has in order to be with her always. Even though he has committed a terrible act, he believes that what he has done is justifiable and acceptable. Browning shows the speaker presents his beastly murder as an act of rationality and love.
On the other hand, on “My Last Duchess”, the speaker is a Duke who is going to be remarried. As the speaker shows his new wife’s father a painting of his previous wife he describes how she was like. Unlike the previous poem, this one clearly depicts the speaker as a monster. He had his wife murdered for what comes across as fairly innocent crimes. In the following lines he states;
“She had
A heart – how shall I say? – Too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed, she liked whate’er
She looked on , and her looks went everywhere.”
(21-24) The duke has an excessive demand for control, which comes across as his most defining characteristic. The obvious sign of this is the murder of his wife. Her crime is barely presented as sexual even though he does admit that other men could draw her "blush" (31). It seems as though he wanted to have all of her glances to be only for him. He is jealous and wanted all of her attention on him. Now, all of his affection now rests on a representation of her. He has chosen to love the an image of her rather than the reality, which similar to how the narrator of "Porphyria's Lover" chose a immobile, dead love than one he was destined to have. For both dramatic monologues, one feels that the speaker were not doing this out of love, but instead where drawn more to their flaws. In our first poem, “Porphyria’s Lover”, there can be some justification as to him wanting to keep her by his side, yet at the same time one can see how he cruel he is by taking away her love from him. As for “My Last Duchess” the speaker or Duke was angered at the fact that his wife was so “well liked” by many. He could not bear that she did not devote all of her attention to him. Perhaps Browning tries to state that we are drawn to both the things we love and the things we hate, and we are extremely capable of rationalizing either choice.
‘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.
In the poem "Porphyria's Lover," the lover begins by describing the unfolding scene to an unidentified listener: "and from her form / Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl, / And laid her soiled gloves by, untied / Her hat and let the damp hair fall" (10-13). The lover, left alone in the cottage, relates the events of the dark, stormy evening in which he anxiously waits "with heart fit to break" for his beloved Porphyria to enter. "Evidently, her absence is due to her attendance at a 'gay feast,' one of the 'vainer ties' which Porphyria presumably cultivated" (Magill 338). When she finally arrives, he tells the reader: "she sat down by my side / And called me. When no voice replied" (14-15). Porphyria speaks to him, "murmuring how she loved [him]" while the lover silently watches, becoming the mastered object to be petted and "loved." However, when he looks into her eyes, he knows that she loves him: "at last I knew / Porphyria worshipped ...
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).
Browning uses caesura's towards the climax of the poem, when the male narrator murders his lover. The caesura's are used to create a pause in the middle of the line, suggesting Browning is giving the reader time to take in the idea of murder. The use of caesura's are important when looking at the context of the poem. Due to it being written in the Victorian period, it was seen to be an anomaly as very few poets wrote about the ugliness and brutality of murder. Therefore, at the time, the pauses within lines were used as a way of evoking the thoughts of murder within the middle class readers and ultimately caused them to see the horrors within their society.
Porphyria and her lover. ‘For love of her and all in vain: So, she was
...s all about power and jealousy, the Duke becomes jealous of the attention his wife shows to other people. He takes command and decides that murder is his only solution. The Duke wants people to understand his authority, any sense of emotion that his wife expressed was considered a threat to his power. He has pride on where he stands in society and he is not willing to risk it. In “Porphyria’s Lover” Porphyria seems to be of a higher social class, the lover knows this and kills her in an attempt to bring balance to their relationship. The love they have between each other turns quickly into a power play; his desire to possess Porphyria reduces her to an object in which he can manipulate. The fact that both poems both involve some sort of killing questions the author’s behavior. Robert Browning’s works are dark and obscure; they fit perfectly with the Victorian era.
It goes on to speak about sympathy in general and how Browning “delighted in making a case for the apparently immoral position”, how he found dramatic monologues the best form to do so, and how he went about it. It keeps going for a couple more pages on things which I will not go into because they have little relevance to any interpretation of “My Last 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.
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.
A Comparison of the Dramatic Monologues of Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
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.”
It was a tale of two lovers uniting in the night to express their affection and devotion. So how exactly did this tale of love, end in cruel, cold-blooded murder? Good evening and welcome to Poetry Break Down, I’m your host Mary Doe. Tonight, we will delve into the fascinating world of classic Victorian literature. Under the microscope is canonized poet, the late Robert Browning. Browning’s poetry was a reflection of his life and times living in Victorian England. Later on this evening we will analyze just how his times came to play a major role in some of his greatest works, in particular his revered poem Porphyria’s Lover. Released in 1836 (Catherine Maxwell, 1993, p.27), this esteemed text follows the murder of beloved Porphyria, the lover of the enigmatic speaker who, after inviting her to his cottage for a romantic rendezvous, strangles her. Stay tuned, for tonight we explore just how this poem come to be a perfect representation of a society that was obsessed with the dominate preoccupation of male dominance.
"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.
After the passing of a significant person the individuals who were close to the person generally take time to go through a grieving process in order to show respect for the dearly departed. The speaker in Browning’s poem should be doing the same, as the loss of a spouse is usually a traumatic experience. While he gives the façade of a loving and caring husband his attitude begs to differ, much like when the speaker says, “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,/ Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile?” (43-45). The speaker seems to be grieving by remembering his Duchess’s wonderful smile but the smug tone that he speaks with quickly discredits his attempt at endearment. Instead of going through the normal stages of grief and remembering her fondly, his thoughts rapidly turn to bitterness because he felt that she gave the very same smile that should hav...
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