Relationships Between Women and Men in Browning's Poems

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Relationships Between Women and Men in Browning's Poems

Robert Browning is described as ‘a love poet who was acutely aware of

how women and men can be separated by jealousy or the passing of

time’. In studying his poetry, what did you notice about the

relationships he explores? What is revealed about the time in which

Browning was writing?

The ‘Love Poet’ Robert Browning was born in London in 1812. In 1846

Browning married the poet Elizabeth Barrett and eloped with her to

Italy. After Elizabeth’s death he returned to England and continued to

publish a great number of poems and plays. His best poetry was

written, however, in the years that he spent in Italy with his wife.

He died in 1889.

Browning’s time period was a lot different than today’s culture and

social behaviour; this is obvious in his poems. The relationships

between a male and a female were much more formal. The male brought

money into the house, he would work and socialise. For the wealthy

men, it was often they had a pretty girl beside them. She would act as

a pleasant book cover, covering the intelligent dominant man. In

Browning’s poems, however, the characters are often men and women

caught at moments of anxiety and obsession. Since they tend to reveal

more than they actually intend, the interest of the poems lies in

discovering what lies beneath the words that are actually spoken. This

relates to Robert Browning’s description as ‘a love poet who was

acutely aware of how women and men can be separated by jealously or

the passing of time’.

I will be studying five of Browning’s poems including: My Last Duchess,

a dramatic monologue in which the Duke speaks to an imaginary listener

about a painting of his last duchess. Porphyria’s Lo...

... middle of paper ...

...s absence of a female

voice may suggest a representation of a specifically male identity

through the speaker. On the other hand, doubts remain whether he

intended to psychoanalyse the male identity for a particular poem, as

no female voice exists for a comparison.

The central problem in Browning's love poetry is invariably one of

communication between the sexes. The intangible influences that

encourage or destroy intimacy between men and women elicit all his

skill in psychological analysis; for love exists in and through human

intuitions. Reference has already been made to the poet's belief that

destined lovers recognize each other on first sight. But these moments

of full and perfect communion are precarious; and, save for the most

exceptional cases, the initial harmony does not survive social

pressures or the importunities of individual temperament.

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