Have you ever fallen in love? Have you ever developed strong feelings for another? If problems arose between the two of you, were you able to overcome them? Well certain men in Robert Browning’s works couldn’t seem to. . . “overcome” these differences with their women. Browning grew up learning from his father’s huge library. His wife was much more successful at writing than him. Eight years after her death, his career turned around for the last 20 years of his life. During this time, he wrote many short dramatic monologues such as My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover. These two very intriguing and disturbing Monologues, My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover, by Robert Browning, involve two very messed up men whose actions are both alike in their idea of immortalizing their woman, but different in why they chose to commit the act between the two stories, and a conclusion may be drawn from this observation. To begin, the two texts by Browning are similar in their idea of immortalizing women. One of debatably the most disturbing lines in the dramatic monologue Duchess is found starting at the end of line 46, and is nothing but six words. “There she stands as if alive.” In this piece, the narrator is clearly proud of his picture, as he states he is the only one who gets to pull the curtain back to look at it. He tells the man he is conversing with about the story behind it but treats the picture just as any other artwork he owns, as made apparent by his gesture to a statue of his, the Roman god of the sea. In Prophyria’s lover, similarly, the man wishes to immortalize his woman. He becomes obsessed with the fact that she really does love him and in his madness decided to forever keep her that way. Lines 58-59 say, “And thus... ... middle of paper ... .../wife/significant-other even after the death of her. This man is the one you would want to watch out for. He didn’t even seem to act at all weird or put himself above her for the first three quarters of the monologue and then BOOM no more woman. This man is the more dangerous of the two: the silent killer who no one expects. That’s the kind of guy you’d want to share your lunch with every day so he wouldn’t kill you when he shot up the office. Obviously, based on these observations, the two men of Browning’s monologues are very similar in some ways but vastly different in others. They both attempted to find a way to make their women immortal by keeping them around. However, one did it as a possession, and the other wasn’t even planned at all beforehand, it just happened. Based on this, the second of the two guys is most definitely the more messed up of the two men.
The death of the female beloved is the only way deemed possible by the insecure, possessive male to seize her undivided attention. This beloved woman represents the "reflector and guarantor of male identity. Hence, the male anxiety about the woman's independence for her liberty puts his masculine self-estimation at risk" (Maxwell 29). The jealous and controlling males in Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" possess a fervent desire to fix and monopolize their unconstrained female beloveds. Due to a fear of death, both speakers attempt to achieve control and deny object loss; by turning their lovers (once subjects) into objects, they ultimately attain the role of masterful subject.
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a haunting poem that tells the story of a seemingly perfect wife who dies, and then is immortalized in a picture by her kind and loving husband. This seems to be the perfect family that a tragic accident has destroyed. Upon further investigation and dissection of the poem, we discover the imperfections and this perfect “dream family” is shown for what it really was, a relationship without trust.
In “My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning puts himself in the shoes of the Duke of Ferrara and tells the tale of how his last duchess came to be upon the wall. This work would best be described as eerily dark and morbid. In short, this poem is about the Duke of Ferrara’s conversation with a servant about how he (the Duke) had grown tired of his duchess’s heart that was “too soon made glad” (line 22) and had decided to have her killed. Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” depicts a malicious character through the use of iambic pentameter, enjambment and dramatic monologue. These three structural elements have a close relationship with the content and are used to help the reader to better understand what is going on within the poem.
Browning’s use of dramatic monologue in the poem reflects on his love of European culture and history. The poem is set in a private art gallery which is located in the palace of the Duke of Ferrara during the mid-sixteenth-century of Renaissance Italy. This was the time of the Victorian’s unjust and patriarchal society. The poem shows a Duke talking about his previous wife, who has now died. Within the social hierarchies during the Victorian Era, it is clear that the Duke’s power is authoritative as he can easily hire expensive artists due to his family name and his current wealth.
In essence, Elizabeth Barrett Browning dramatic monologue proved a powerful medium for Barrett Browning. Taking her need to produce a public poem about slavery to her own developing poetics, Barrett Browning include rape and infanticide into the slave’s denunciation of patriarchy. She felt bound by women’s silence concerning their bodies and the belief that “ a man’s private life was beyond the pale of political scrutiny” (Cooper, 46).
While the suggested insanity of the speaker would traditionally indicate the narrator's unreliability in a moral sense, Browning constructs the isolated scene such that the lover's emotional internalization is not only understandable, but divinely justified. The musings and actions of this unreliable narrator serve to illustrate the consequence of society's confines in a shockingly violent release. Through naturally flowing language, this poetic account of burning emotion within a setting of tranquil domesticity presents the all-consuming power of human sensuality in its bleakest attempt to override social structures.
Thanks to the incredible job that Browning did on these poems, readers are now more fully able to grasp the passion and the love that this woman had for her lover. Perhaps they can even connect if they have a lover of their own whom they adore with their "breath, smiles, and tears."
A relationship can be a blessing or a curse; depending on what you experience in your lifetime. Ask someone who has been cheated on, they will say that relationships are a load of crud. They will have a tough time trusting the next person that shows interest in them. There are people that are controlling in the relationships. Their significant other is a passive aggressive person that takes all the abuse that is thrown their way. Sometimes, however, relationships are equally balanced and almost nothing bad ever happens. In the texts, “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning the relationships are not equal and many horrible things are hinted in the two poems. Both of the men are controlling and jealous leaving the women defenseless in their choices. Three reasons that the two poems, “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning are similar and different are jealousy, love, and prizes.
Browning’s works were the primary model for the basic form of the standard Victorian dramatic monologue which was based around a speaker, listener, and a reader. Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” became a model for the dramatic monologue form primarily because of the strict approach he took while developing the poem. One of the aspects characteristic of this work is the authors level of consciousness. Each element in “My Last Duchess” is thoughtfully constructed with form and structure in mind. This poem is filled with dramatic principle that satisfied the Victorian period’s demand for an action and drama that were not overtly apparent in the work. In the case of “My Last Duchess” the drama of the poem is how his character, the Duke, is introduced. In dramatic monologues the character’s self is revealed through thoug...
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. In this essay I will compare these two poems to find similarities and differences.
In conclusion, Browning uses many different techniques of conveying the complexities of human passion, and does this effectively from many points of view on love. However, it does seem that Browning usually has a slightly subdued, possibly even warped view of love and romance ? and this could be because his own love life was publicly perceived to be ultimately perfect but retrospectively it appears his marriage with Elizabeth Browning was full of doubt and possessiveness, as seen in ? Any Wife To Any Husband? which most critics believe to be based on the troubled relationship between the Browning?s.
Robert Browning was considered one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century and is one of the major poets of the Victorian era. His major poems showed his mastery of the dramatic monologue, a poem written in the form of a speech by an individual character that reveals the character’s inner feelings and thoughts. According to John Algeo, Professor of English at the University of Georgia, “When discussing the poetic form of dramatic monologue, it is rare that it is not associated with its usage attributed to the poet Robert Browning.” This clearly suggests that most of Browning’s poems will be in the form of dramatic monologues. The poems My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning have many similarities as well as differences.
Browning's amazing command of words and their effects makes this poem infinitely more pleasurable to the reader. Through simple, brief imagery, he is able to depict the lovers' passion, the speaker's impatience in reaching his love, and the stealth and secrecy of their meeting. He accomplishes this feat within twelve lines of specific rhyme scheme and beautiful language, never forsaking aesthetic quality for his higher purposes.