Comparing My Last Duchess 'And Porphyria's Lover'

In "My Last Duchess," the speaker describes a specific painting to the reader. It is a portrait of the Duke's late wife. The speaker directs the reader's attention to the Duchess's passionate responses given not only to the Duke, but also to many other men who admire her beauty. The artist conveys this lady's charming and flirtatious personality. The Duchess had many admirers that competed for her attention. Her rare beauty and flirtatious manner attracted many admirers. Her facial features express her passion and gratitude towards the men that competed for her attention. She had a teasing and playful quality, which she used to make the Duke jealous of the men attracted to her beauty. The Duke spoke communicated his displeasure about her improper behavior. She continued to smile and attract the attention of

In the story “My last Duchess,” the Duke is speaking to the envoy of another nobleman of his second bride to be. The Duke describes the circumstances of his last duchess in which it was painted and boasted how Fra Pandolf the painter made her “look as if she was alive”. The Duke continues speaking about the unfortunate fate of his former wife. It is evident that a crime has been committed; He was jealous and annoyed of his easily impressed wife so he murdered her. His tone and demeanor is one of extreme arrogance and it is clear he is a dangerous man who poses a threat to any and all women he claims to love.

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

The Duke is going on and on and we only have one point of view. He is controlling what the audience perceive the characters as. Browning uses enjambment to make the rhyming couplets flow better in order to make the speech of the Duke more realistic. The easiness of the speech and the fact that it is flowing, shows that the Duke seems to have rehearsed everything that he is now saying to the agent. So he has had to think about what to say and wants to be able to manipulate the agent into taking his side and, indeed, wants to have control over the agent’s opinion of both him and his last Duchess. The duke's loss of control is also depicted through the rhythm of the poem. The enjambment in the poem reveals that the Duke is almost at ease with his wife's murder, because it is so flowing and he doesn’t get upset and almost doesn’t have to stop. Except for once; this is shown by the use of caesura, however as he only stutters once it seems as if he is just doing it for show. Near the end of the poem, the duke loses control. You can imagine the horrified agent rising to go and the duke's uneasiness as he loses control, and his desire to regain control of the situation as he says, ‘Nay we'll go down together, sir’ There is a caesura between ‘Nay’ and ‘we’ll’ which shows the Duke does not want to lose control but then has to pause as he thinks of a reasonable explanation for him saying ‘Nay’ to the agent leaving without him.

They both insist on the objectification of their female spouse so that they will remain dominate and in control. In “My Last Duchess” the duke praised his “last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive” [1-2]. The duke has a preference to whether his last duchess was alive, of course, he wanted her dead, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together” [45-46].

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.

The characterization of the Duke in “My Last Duchess” and the characterization of the speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” further establish Browning’s messages about love. In “My Last Duchess,” the Duke is portrayed as arrogant and believes he is superior to others. Because of his status as Duke, his arrogance becomes prevalent, as he brags about his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name.” He also believes he is superior to others, especially the Duchess, as

According to a writer specializing in Victorian Era literature, “Browning returned to the motives of Pauline by ironically exposing a male speaker’s inadequate attempts to mentally possess a Female Other,” suggesting that the male narrators of both Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess both seek to dominate their female lovers (Knoepflmacher). In the former text, the speakers gains the upper hand over Porphyria by murdering her. When Porphyria sits down and puts her lover’s arm about her waist, she is showing her own independence. Furthermore, she places his head on her shoulder, making him have to look up to her. This symbollic action is enough to make the narrator strangle her with her own hair and then reverse their positions.

In “My Last Duchess”, The Duke is concerned with all his possessions as he talks to the servant who is in his gallery. He was so self-serving that he would become jealous if the Duchess was shown any attention whatsoever. The Duke thought that she caused all the attention because of the “spot of joy” and smiles that she gave others. He eventually could not take it any longer and murdered her. In “To His Coy Mistress”, the man who is the speaker asks the woman to “show your heart” because he is only concerned about having sex with her. The fact that he spends so much time talking to her about having sex indicates that he is only after

In “My Last Duchess,” the Duke becomes envious when his wife looks at other men. “My Last Duchess” states “she likes whate’er She looked on” (Line 23). In addition, the Duke did not like his wife smiling or blushing at other men as shown in lines 30 and 31. In “Porphyria’s Lover” the man also becomes jealous because he did not want her with any other man.

This wronged situation being Porphyria not assuming her womanly position when she arrived late to meet with her lover. When she came in she started to assume the typical male role, such as placing his head on her shoulder, whereas traditionally this would have been the other way around. In the poem this was the final blow that causes him, Porphyria’s lover, to explode and reveal the abundant amount of power that he has over Porphyria. “I [Porphyria’s lover] found a thing to do, and with all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around and strangled her” (Browning np). He thought that this was the only thing to do, to kill Porphyria because of her non-traditional actions.

“My Last Duchess”, by Robert browning, is a dramatic speech delivered by the Duke of Ferrari which highlights the covetous and cruel nature of his personality and the questions which surround his bride’s death.

In both of these poems the man has felt like less of a man. In My Last Duchess the man felt like he wasn’t in charge because his woman would disrespect him when she would smile at everyone else but him. As a result of his hurt ego, he killed her then quickly started looking for a new wife. Robert Dunbar has said, “After all, the male ego was a horrible thing.” In the poem Porphyria’s Lover, the man was almost jealous when it came to the girl.

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.

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.