Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess

1991 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on my last duchess and porphyria's lover interpertation

The two poems that I am comparing are Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess,

both early nineteenth century dramatic monologues by Robert Browning.

Compare the three dramatic monologues you have studied on the way in

which the characters reveal their true nature through what they say.

The two poems that I am comparing are Porphyria’s Lover and My Last

Duchess, both early nineteenth century dramatic monologues by Robert

Browning. A dramatic monologue is a poem in which only one person

speaks, but the presence of another person is usually felt. The

narrator reveals a great deal about himself without any apparent

intention of doing so. In both of these dramatic monologues, it

appears that the speaker has murdered their mistress and is reflecting

upon their actions while contemplating the image of their lover’s

beautiful face. Both are selfish men who were jealous of their

victims. The two speakers came from very different backgrounds, one a

rich and powerful Duke, the other a low-born worker living in rural

simplicity.

Porphyria’s Lover is a love story told in the words of a simple man

obsessed by his love for a woman of noble birth. The first five lines

describe the weather on a miserable, wet evening. This is Browning’s

use of pathetic fallacy, giving the works of nature human feelings –

the feelings of the speaker.

======================================================================

“The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm tops down for spite,

And its worse to vex the lake:”

The speaker is longing for his lover and feeling miserable but then

she arrives. The whole mood changes from darkness and cold, to warmth

and light. His mood change is shown by “she shut the cold out”, both

...

... middle of paper ...

... saw the

young Duchess, a work of art, something that he owned and could show

off, and something that he could also discard when it no longer

pleased him. The speaker in Porphyria’s Lover, reveals himself to be

someone who speaks his heart and does not ‘fence around’ the truth

like the Duke. Although the Duke says he does not have skilled

speech, its is obvious that his diction is carefully chosen through

out. He is almost inviting the listener to disagree with him.

“Even had you the skill

In speech – (which I have not)”

The speaker in Porphyria’s Lover uses a much simpler diction, as he

will not have been as well educated as the Duke. Both men are

murderers, one because of love, which he feels, could never be

accepted because of the social divide, the other as a result of

jealousy, arrogance and spite, again occasioned by the difference in

class.

Show More
Related

  • Sophia And Princess Calizaire: A Psychological Analysis

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Sophia and Princess Calizaire were four and seven years old, they were taken into foster care after their mother left them stranded at a motel. However, this simple abandonment led to a series of problems. Not only were they tossed from house to house as if they were trash, but they also suffered abuse from their foster families. On several occasions, the two sisters were beaten with belts, hangars, and heels, as well as having their heads submerged in sinks until they were near death; they ate dog food, slept outside, and were raped daily. Luckily, the two girls were able to survive, so that they may share their stories in adulthood. The women now live to warn others of the dangers of foster care, as they did through their interview with

    Read More

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

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Obviously, Robert Browning’s two texts, Duchess, and Porphyria’s Lover can be compared and contrasted. They can be similar because speakers in the texts killed their women, they both had mental issues, and they were both jealous for one reason or another. Also, the speakers in the texts were different because the speaker in Duchess wanted to replace his wife, while the speaker in Lover didn’t. The Speaker in Duchess was also very rich, and the speaker in Lover was not. Lastly, the speaker in Duchess committed premeditative murder, while the speaker in Lover just murdered his girl.

    Read More

  • Lady Macbeth The Real Power Behind the Throne

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Power is a theme used by Shakespeare throughout the play Macbeth. The plot involves Macbeth trying to gain more power. Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan so that he will become king in his place. Macbeth also is persuaded to kill anyone who threatens his chances of being king, including Banquo. Power is used by certain characters in the play to influence others. One such character is Lady Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, she is a strong-willed character. She takes on the role of a dominant male. She has great influence over her husband, who appears to be weaker than she is. It is her influence that convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth is the dominant partner at the beginning of the play, she persuades Macbeth to achieve his goal, and she plans the murder of Duncan.

    Read More

  • Porrphyria's Lover And My Last Duchess Comparison Essay

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”, it is extremely important to know the commonalities between these two poems. Both are dramatic monologues in which lovers tell their stories of love. While in "Porphyria’s Lover" the lover is and abnormal man telling how he made Porphyria’s love for him eternal, in "My Last Duchess" the lover is a proud man boasting about his last duchess and how he controlled her with his abilities. "Porphyria’s Lover" is a poem about a man with abnormal love. In the poem, Porphyrias lover lives in a cottage in the countryside. One stormy night, his lover Porphyria arrives, “sullen wind was soon awake,” and “and did it worst to vex the lake” (“Porphyria’s Lover” Ln. 2-4), is personification used to describe the scenery. Also, “the s...

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing My Last Duchess And Porphyria's Lover

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love is everywhere in the world and the majority of the people will do anything for love. People will push the limits to what they do for love and it just makes you wonder of how much crazy people are out there and are willing to take it to that crazy level. Social media blows up everywhere when they hear about a story that the guy or the girl went crazy in the relationship and just did something crazy. Well there are two poems that author Robert Browning wrote about love and they are called “My last Duchess” and “Porphyria's Lover” and there are a couple things that you can compare and contrast about it like both have very jealous people and another is how crazy people can get and one that’s different is how they handle it.

    Read More

  • An Evil Necessity: Lady Chatterly's Lover

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Characters in D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover struggle to escape the inescapable confines of money, class, and power.

    Read More

  • Have Not We Affections: The Romantic Power Struggles of Shakespeare’s Women

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the bitter Emilia to the pious Isabella, Shakespeare was a champion of crafting women. With a wide range of personalities, professions, and situations, Shakespeare mastered early in his illustrious career the art of creating diverse, dynamic, and multidimensional female characters. When stepping outside the traditional roles for female characters in theater, Shakespeare pushed boundaries by giving his women intelligent wit, innate humor, motives and goals which the Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences could relate directly to their own experiences. More than anything else, Shakespeare created a race of theatrical females who were first and foremost described as complete human women with virtues and vices which were believable and realistic. With these attributes, Shakespeare’s women were able to perceive unequal distributions of power in their worlds, particularly the distribution of power in the romantic relationships which in many cases were chosen for them. Comprehending with a bitter distaste the lack of control they held over their future lives, the women of Shakespeare took matters into their own hands more often than not, utilizing revolutionary or unconventional means to gain dominance in the power dynamics of their relationships. William Shakespeare offered his female characters the abilities and opportunities to recognize their subordinate positions concerning romantic relationships as well as the initiative to attempt a shift in these power dynamics.

    Read More

  • The Femme Fatales Lady Macbeth and Serena Pemberton

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Shakespeare commented on the length of life when he wrote that life is simply a march toward death in his play Macbeth. Characters known as femme fatales are well aware that life is short, and they will not waste it. These striking, driven, intelligent women are prepared to take life for all it has, and nothing will stop a true femme fatale from pursuing her course of action. Macabrely fascinating, these women appear again and again in both classical and modern literature. Perhaps the archetypical example of a femme fatale, the Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare’s Macbeth serves as a loose model for Serena Pemberton of Rash’s Serena. Lady Macbeth and Serena are both intelligent, self-servingly ambitious, and commanding femme fatales in their own right.

    Read More

  • Porphyria

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Fierce pain, paralysis and sickness took over my body, for week’s doctors seemed to think I was either making it up, mad or anorexic. Eventually they discovered it was porphyria, and it was inherited from my father… We learned that antibiotics prescribed for a minor infection, had probably triggered it in my case, but after that, I generally suffered attacks in my pre-menstrual period. These attacks varied in severity, but the pain and vomiting were omnipresent… My weight gradually dropped, as I was unable to regain it in the short periods of time between attacks, which led me to an attack which left me almost completely paralyzed.” (Elizabeth, 2011)

    Read More

  • His Everlasting Moment of Intimacy

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the widely acclaimed novel “Catching Fire”, the fictional character Peeta Mellark is quoted as saying, “I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever.” (Collins). Coincidentally, that is what the unnamed lover in Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “Porphyria’s Lover” aspires to achieve when he murders his beloved Porphyria, in hopes of preserving their intimate moment for eternity. At the start of the poem, Browning seemingly shows his audience a loving, romantic scene of Porphyria affectionately tending her inert beau. As the dramatic monologue progresses, it is learned that the originally envisioned romantic love story has transformed into a disturbing tale of a cruel lover’s massacre of his significant other. The moment the nameless speaker finally glances into his love’s eyes, he fully abandons his passive nature and reveals his true personality. The persona of Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” reveals himself as a sadistic and covetous lover who views Porphyria as a mere possession, and further illustrates himself as a delusional and selfish person. Browning overtly reveals the speaker’s character through proficient word choice, explicit imagery, and the clever use of irony in the poem.

    Read More

  • The Lady of Shalot

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The Lady of Shalot" tells the story of a woman who lives in a tower in Shalott, which is an island on a river that runs, along with the road beside it, to Camelot, the setting of the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Every day, the woman weaves a tapestry picture of the landscape that is visible from her window, including Camelot. There is, however, a curse on her; the woman does not know the cause of the curse, but she knows that she cannot look directly out of the window, so she views the subjects of her artwork through a mirror that is beside her. The woman is happy to weave, but is tired of looking at life only as a reflection. One day, Sir Lancelot rides by, looking bold and handsome in his shining armor, and singing. The woman goes to the windo...

    Read More

  • Response to Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice by a Modern Audience

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    == == == == ==

    Read More

  • My Last Duchess

    488 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Duke of Ferrara was made jealous by everything the duchess did, no matter how unimportant it was. He was especially jealous of Fra Pandolf, the man who painted the duchess in the poem. A woman should be pleased only by her husband, as was not the case with the duchess and Fra Pandolf. She was “too easily impressed'; by the painter (line 23). Fra Pandolf was not the only man that made the duke jealous. Everyone who passed the duchess received “much the same smile'; as the duke (line 44). The duke expected to be the only man to receive a smile from his wife.

    Read More

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

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Human Impact on the Environment

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    == == == == ==

    Read More

More about Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess

Open Document