Dramatic Monologue by Robert Browning, The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church

In Robert Browning‘s dramatic monologue, “The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church,” the reader encounters a speaker who appears to be overtly conceited, object-oriented, and scornful. Due to the fact that the speaker is on his deathbed, the poem is written as one gigantic clump in blank verse, which allows the reader to infer that there is certain disarray in the speaker’s tone. His hasty speech is indicative of the numerous thoughts that are currently racing through his head during his final moments and it is evident that as these notions cascade out of his mind, they cloud his judgment and cause him to inadvertently reveal curious aspects about his character – aspects that are entirely antithetical to the expectations one would normally have for a bishop.

In the very first line of the poem, “Vanity, saith the preacher, vanity!” (line 1) the speaker makes known that he does not endorse the idea of self-absorption, which is entirely incongruous, however, in that he spends the majority of the poem talking about plans for an ostentatious tomb tailored to his liking for eternal rest. This line alone is wholly ironic, as he denounces the very quality that permeates his speech during his deathbed confession. He then addresses his silent auditors, “Nephews – sons mine … ah God, I know not!” (3), which is very telling and also crucial in comprehending the rest of his confusing address. The speaker unintentionally divulges the fact that his sons may have been conceived out of wedlock, meaning he had sinned and undoubtedly marred his image as a man of God, forcing him to conceal this secret for years on end – clearly, the reader is not coming upon a conventional bishop. The subtle break signifies a very realistic, informal way...

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...ing his children to flee his presence, he begs, “And leave me in my church” (122); the operative word in this phrase is “my.” Instead of dying meekly and saying “leave me in this church,” the bishop chooses to continue being possessive, claiming the church is his, as if he were God himself – a comparison any other bishop in his right mind would surely rebuke.

The speaker of this poem is altogether hypocritical, claiming he is anything but vain, when in actuality he is self-obsessed, insecure, supercilious, and disdainful of anyone he deems inferior to him. Involuntarily exposing these weaknesses about his character through his attitude towards his adversary Gandolf, using sacrilegious terminology, and meticulously obsessing over every detail of his resting place, the reader learns that the speaker is really the anti-bishop, the converse of a devout, God-fearing man.