A Comparison of the Dramatic Monologues of Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

around and he needed to be sure that his followers understood that and they would not

Both poems have similar themes and both speakers describe a particular character found in both stories. Both poems have a beautiful woman as its main character and their themes describe the relationship between two lovers. In "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover," Robert Browning conveys two distinct portraits depicting the love shared between two people. The qualities of beauty, selfishness, and jealousy appear in both poems. In both works, the author explores the hidden influence death has upon the relationship shared by two lovers.

look at but he feels as if the Duchess takes him for granted and she

It seemed as though he preferred to write from the perspective of psychopaths and murderers, and that contributed to the label he was given as a writer of dramatic monologues. Porphyria’s Lover best illustrates his use of madness. Not only is the main character murdered, as death is definitely a consistent theme in his work, but it shows the scary desire of the killer and essentially makes use of the saying “if I can’t have her, no one can.” As he kills her the speaker’s voice shifts to a rhythmical description of his crime, “one long yellow string I wound, three times her little throat around.” Also, this work is written in Petrarchan styling, meaning ABABB, which gives it the consistently over the top word choice to illustrate the speaker’s madness. My Last Duchess also follows a similar pattern, but instead it is a royal duke that sentences his wife, the duchess, to death for merely having a friendly disposition. The duke detailed his observations that she was, “Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.” His jealousy of her shared attention came from a place of insanity, as no sane man kills his love over a

“Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” are both very dramatic poems. The author for both poems are written by Robert Browning. The speaker for both poems were very dramatic, insane, crazy, and controlling over their particular lover. Both poems has similarities in killings in their lovers over jealously. Jealously also plays a huge, important role in both poems.

As a result of these poems being published in a collection, the structure of the two poems shares many attributes. Although the rhyme scheme is different to add a unique feel to the poem, they both consist of 1 long stanza. Doing this, Browning added a sense of suspense to each poem by having the reader continuously read without any real transitions. Rhyming couplets show control and the rhyme scheme in My Last Duchess, is rhyming couplets the whole way through, which shows that the Duke evidently had controlled the whole poem. In Porphyria’s Lover, there are only rhyming couplets in the end, as he kills her, this is the only time in the whole poem where he has control. Both poems contain a multitude of caesuras within

Explore the ways in which Browning portrays male characters to powerful effect in ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’? Throughout ‘My Last Duchess’ Browning illustrates the Duke's obsession with controlling the people around him; both past and present. One way the Duke exerts his dominance is by not allowing the emissary to talk.

Browning is known to write in dramatic monologue and have characters talk in unusual ways. Dramatic monologue is literally “one person’s speech”, or the audience is implied has no dialogue and there is an assumed voice (Poetsorg). For example the monk in "The Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" can be an example of any ones hatred of another, such as a "goody to shoes". Another example of Browning's characters is the Duke in the Duchess; this character displayed how jealousy can inrage an individual to go the extreme. Both characters are of how emotions can drive someone to the very edge and is assumed by the narrator.

The two Robert Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written in the infamous Victorian Era whereas the two Shakespearean Sonnets were written in the Elizabethan Era. The styles of the poems differ in accordance to the difference of the time in which they were written. Pre-Romantic Era poems moved away from the idealistic concept of love towards a more realistic consideration of it, taking into account the social

Browning varies in how he describes the fate of the women in his writings. In My Last Duchess, the killing itself is not detailed; truely, it requires a reading between the lines, as it were, to interpret the narrators true meaning. Conversely, in Porphyria’s Lover the act of murder is very blatantly depicted. A pattern begins to emerge in the writing of the two stories: the former being more subtle in nature, the latter being rather literal, even in its

There are two poems by Browning that pertain specifically to his ‘lovely ladies’ which include My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover. In these two dramatic monologues it can be deduced that Browning treats his women as initially having power over the men, as the

During the nineteenth century people were under a strict patriarchal rule, especially the women. In those times, women were seen as ornaments “a momentary toy of passion” to the society and properties to be traded within marriage, therefore, Victorian moralists repressed female sexuality. As a result, for a woman to admit she even had sexual desires was considered sinful, let alone acting on those desires - like Porphyria did - was borderline criminal. Moreover, when Porphyria “glided in” she “untied her hat and let her damp hair fall”. Victorian moralists referred to female fornicators as ‘fallen’ women. Additionally, committing adultery was also a sin as it went against one of the Ten Commandments “Thou shall not commit adultery”, therefore, Porphyria ‘letting her hair fall’ could symbolise the boundaries she had willingly chosen to overstep by coming to meet her lover.

Dramatic Monologue in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess and The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church

​In the poems, “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”, both written by Robert Browning, each speaker mentions a woman whom they had once known. The poems, being considered as dramatic monologues, depict a particular role that women have through the eyes of speaker. Browning keeps the speakers mysterious, but lets out their true characters through the use of the women in each of their lives. Each speaker brings their own eerie tone to the poem which adds to the mysteriousness of their characters. Browning uses the women as a way for the obsessive qualities of both speakers to shine through. These women are not very important actors in the poem, but Browning uses these women to create a sense of the speakers by how and what they say pertaining to these women.

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright who mastered dramatic poems, which made him one of the most influential Victorian poets. Browning was born in Camberwell, United Kingdom and died at the age of 77 in Venice, Italy. Throughout his life he wrote many poems including “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover”; he also wrote some plays including “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” and “Pippa Passes”. Robert Browning was a much underappreciated poet until later in his life; he wrote very dark and dramatic poems that people did not give credit to until after his death.