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. The plot line of “Porphyria’s Lover” starts off calm, but ends up to be quite gruesome. The woman, Porphyria, comes in from rainy weather and makes herself at home, “and let her damp hair fall,” / “And, at last, she sat down by my side” (Lines 14-15). It is apparent from just the beginning of the poem she is comfortable around the speaker. She lets herself in, started a fire, took off her wet clothes and sat next to the speaker. The beginning of the poem holds a seemingly romantic quality. There is a sense of familiarity between the two. He spends his time waiting in a cottage for her in more than one way. He is waiting for her to return to his cottage, as well as also waiting for her love. This romantic idea is seen
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.
The voice in Porphyria’s Lover is a dominant voice, and the reader becomes very involved in the thoughts of the narrator. There is a strange sense of satisfaction in his voice: “and give herself to me forever.” This could be ironic as in the end, she spends her last moments with him, and as he lies with her corpse, she is literally his forever now. However, although the reader could interpret the narrator as being perhaps psychotic, the calmness of his voice from the enjambment does not reflect this, as he describes the actions in a very matter of fact way: “in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around”, and “her darling one wish would be heard.” This creepily makes it sound as if he is doing
none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)' He acts like
look at but he feels as if the Duchess takes him for granted and she
The narrator of the poem is in love with Porphyria. He soon learns that love taken to the extreme is not much love at all. “I listened with heart fit to break” He was so attached to her that any emotion she shows greatly affects him. “To set its struggling passion free, From pride , and vainer ties dissever.” This is the beginning of his consciousness disconnection her from being a person to her being a construct of his obsession. She became just a figment that he could control. Nevertheless, turning from love into and overwhelming insanity. “And strangled her. No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain.” He thinks she felt no pain because he does not associate her with a living being anymore. Furthermore, she is just a side effect of a twisted individual's mind consumed by his extreme love for her. The extreme change in his mood shows his love changing from a feeling to an
The speaker in Porphyria’s Lover does things that make the reader believe that he is acting irrationally, but from his perspective the logic behind his actions could be seen as reasonable. He is in love with a woman who is love with him and everyone else. He makes a decision that can be seen as irrational but in the end, it works out and you see why he did it and what positive aftermath was after it. In this poem, the speaker is in love with Porphyria but he doesn’t receive the love and display of affection that he wants from her. He sees her withdrawing her clothes and this brings in even more passion than he already had for her.
Details in the poem “Porphyria’s lover” are used to convey The man’s deep obsession with Porphyria which eventually leads to the girls murder. As Porphyria and the man are lying next to each other she tells him how much she loves him. He is delighted with this news as he has been longing for her I assume for a very long time. He thinks that she worships him now but then thinks that this won’t last forever. He realizes that if he kills her then she can never leave him and they can be together forever. He decides to strangle her and “In one long yellow string I wound three times around her throat.” She is dead. He loved her so much and was convinced she wouldn’t love him forever so he killed her to change that. The details the author uses are so spine chilling that you can see how crazy he is. He has become so attached to her that he’s made himself crazy from it. The details of how he wound it “three times” and her “little throat” and her “yellow” hair you can tell that he has memorized every thing about that moment of killing her. It’s terrifying about how much he loves her and
Robert Browning’s two poems, Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess have similarities and differences. The the narrators of Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess are very similar as they are both jealous, unstable men. In the former, Porphyria, a beautiful young woman, meets with her lover. He is envious of Porphyria as she just came from a party without him.
Nevertheless, it is the only poem on the list containing dramatic irony. The title alone is misleading, as the poem is not about Porphyria’s lover, rather her murderer. The speaker is completely unaware that he has done something wrong, proclaiming in line 42, after strangling her, “I am quite sure she felt no pain.” He believes he made her happy, and that her love is his forever, whereas the readers know that he is insane and that he has just murdered this woman. There is a sort of detached madness in his belief that he has won her ultimate
Upon first glance, it would seem that the narrator in Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” is a male, when, in fact, that is not the case. Only by closely reading and analyzing the text and context clues would a reader come to the conclusion that the narrator is actually a female. It is astounding how many pivotal details of a story one can miss out on by not reading closely. Close reading is a style of reading something in order to analyze it and understand it better. This style of reading greatly differs from skim reading, which is a style of reading in which the reader’s eyes run across the page quickly in order to read only the most important parts. There are different instances in which a close reading would be more appropriate than a
The two Browning poems, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written to convey to the reader how women were treated in that era; as possession, as assets. Both of these poems can be read from different points of view and they also both are what is
Robert Browning’s poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” depict a mastery of the dramatic monologue style. Said style contains a narrative told by a character’s point of view that differs from that of the poet.The character’s monologue consists of them discussing their particular situation that they find themselves within, this is meant to convey their internal information to the reader or audience. This in turn allows the reader a glimpse into the personality of the narrating character. Within “Porphyria’s Lover” and My Last Duchess” these monologues are used along with poetic devices to develop unique male personas. Between these two personas there are evident differences in class and within each class social issues arise within each work.
good, I found a thing to do, and all her hair in one long yellow
The dramatic monologue “My Last Duchess” was penned down by Robert Browning. In this poem, the narrator is the Duke of Ferrara, and the listener is the count’s agent, through whom the Duke is arranging the proposed marriage to a second duchess. The poem is ironical and reveals its rhetorical sense, gradually. In the later part of the poem, the Duke claims that he does not have a skill in speech, but his monologue is a masterpiece of subtle rhetoric. While supposedly entertaining the listener by showing his wife’s portrait, he clearly reveals his character. Through his formalized tone of rhyme, he reveals his egoistic and jealous attitude.
A Comparison of the Dramatic Monologues of Porphyria's Lover and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning