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When one travels, it is easy to observe differences in social norms from country to country. One may also observe differences within a country, for example, the social norms of a small town or village versus those of a large metropolis. Differences in social norms can also be observed in literature. This essay will focus on two dramatic monologues, which were written by poets who lived in England during the same period. Robert Browning published My last Duchess in 1842, the same year that Alfred Tennyson published Ulysses. Both poets lived in England during the Victorian era. However, by examining characters from their poetry, namely Alfonso in My Last Duchess and Odysseus in Ulysses, we can see that they express opposite norms concerning controlling power, change, form and death.
“E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together” (Line 42-46) (Browning 714). This implies that Alfonso can't sand his wife's behavior, which leads him to kill her. He doesn't want to stoop for her, which means he doesn't want to give in to her to gain her attention in that way. Instead of being nice to her, he chooses to affect his power over her, a power he is afraid to lose. Yet even after he kills her, he keeps her picture, and covers it with the curtain. This is his way of putting her in her place, a prison of sorts, in which he chooses when and to whom she will ever smile again. Then he says to the servant of the Count of Tyrol “the curtain I have drawn for you” and he shows the picture to him. From Alfonso’s words, we can tell that he is satisfied with this action becau...
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... In My Last Duchess, Browning shows that thing has a form, which he literally has and everyone can see it, had a value and it will not change forever. Even Browning expresses that death still can bring back something he wants. In contrast, Tennyson mentions powers itself doesn’t attract or move him. A death won’t give anything to him. Therefore, to achieve what he wants means more to him. Browning doesn’t find any interest in the thing, which has a form and will not change forever. Change itself actually has value. From this, even though Browning and Tennyson lived in the same era, their norms are world apart.
Works Cited
Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." Literature Across Cultures. Ed. SheilaGillespie, et al 4th Ed. New York: Longman, 2005.
Tennyson, Alfred. "Ulysses". Victorian Literature, 1830-1900.Boston: McPeek, 2002. pp. 399-400. Print.
"Robert Browning." Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Vol. 1. Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1982. 338, 341.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in King Lear. Arudanthi Roy, however, uses her contemporary Indian novel to illustrate, using a proleptic and coalesce structure, the lives of the protagonists living in a post – colonial society. In each of these three texts there are characters who fit the stereotypes that society has instilled in them, but then there are those characters who noticeably differ from the norm; According to 19th century novelist Alfred de Musset “how glorious it is – and how painful – to be an exception.” Hence this statement can be seen as applicable to these characters, because in all three texts these characters do end up losing a lot.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. "My Last Duchess." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson; Longman Publishing, 2007. 432-433. Print.
Charters, Ann & Samuel. Literature and its Writers. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 137-147. Print.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning follows ideal love by breaking the social conventions of the Victorian age which is when she wrote the “Sonnets from the Portuguese”. The Victorian age produced a conservative society, where marriage was based on class, age and wealth and women were seen as objects of desire governed by social etiquette. These social conventions are shown to be holding her back, this is conveyed through the quote “Drew me back by the hair”. Social conventions symbolically represented by the character that “drew” her back, this personification emphasises the negative effect that society has on an individual. However Barrett Browning is shown to hold out against these social conventions
King, Neil. The Romantics: English Literature in Its Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts. New York: Facts on File, 2003. Print.
I read a critical article on Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”. I confess it was harder to find something in the NCLC’s than I would’ve thought. There was a considerable accumulation of critiques on Browning’s work, but very little on “My Last Duchess”.
Lawall, Sarah N., and Maynard Mack. The Norton Anthology of World Literature the Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
Browning, Robert. “My Last Duchess.” Making Literature Matter. Ed. John Schilb, and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford, 2000. 1376-1378.
Literature: The British Tradition. Ed. Roger Babusci etal. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 69-79.
During the Victorian Era, the concept of how a “proper” man and woman were to behave came under fire and there were men and women on both sides willing to argue for their beliefs. Though the traditional Victorian Era attitude is long since gone and devalued, it can be very enlightening to see the ways in which these attitudes surfaced themselves in the literature of the time. Sarah Stickney Ellis wrote The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits from the viewpoint that women should self-abnegate their own beliefs and become fully interested in the man. And to illustrate this point, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” will be closely looked at along with the essay to make some critical points.
22 of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Rpt. in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2014