Comparing Poems Porphyria's Lover 'And My Last Duchess'

communicates two interpretations concerning Both poems describe the behavior of people who are in loving, romantic relationships. There are several aspects common in both poems. Using the literary technique of dramatic dialogue, the author reveals the plot and central idea of each poem. Robert Browning tells each poetic story through a single speaker. Both poems reveal an account in which the admirer kills the object of his love. This paper will compare and contrast the following characteristics: the setting, the speaker, the mood and tone, and theme found "My

Robert Browning provides a critical view of gender and power relations in his dramatic monologues “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess.” The dramatic monologue, as S.S. Curry has written, "reveals the struggle in the depths of the soul” (11). Browning delves into the minds of characters to show their conceptions of women and ideas of power. He explores the mental processes of the characters, and invites readers to question societal ideas of power and gender. The mental pathologies of the speakers is emphasized, which forces readers to examine the sanity of their own notions of gender dynamics.

Poems consist of a variation of different techniques in order to convey a message or idea to readers. Wilfred Owen, Thomas Hardy, Adrienne Rich, Bruce Dawe and Robert Browning are great poets who explore these issues, conveying their emotions, which influences a perception of an issue. In each of their poems they express the hidden message of hope, along with their main message. They use similar techniques to express their ideas, which illustrates their purpose to the reader.

Robert Browning was an English poet who recognized himself as a Victorian poet. In his poems, Browning used to combine gothic elements as well as the introduction of social commentary and historical events that were taking place during that time. Two of his most famous poems are “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”. The gothic element is present in both of these poems. Habitually, a gothic tale is a story of horror that takes place in an old castle; such stories

Porphyria’s Lover is a typical dramatic monologue by Browning, where we get an insight into the narrator’s thoughts. In the poem, we get an insight into the thoughts of a man who kills his love interest out of jealousy: “Nor could to-night’s gay feast restrain.” This gives the impression of Porphyria living a very high status life, just coming from a party, and the narrator being her love interest that she is sneaking away from her life to see. On the other hand, Porphyria’s death could have been provoked by pure psychosis: “I am quite sure she felt no pain.” This is ironic, as the reader knows that Porphyria must have felt pain after being strangled by her own hair, leading the reader to believe that the narrator could be somewhat

Robert Browning uses descriptive details to portray a theme of how darkness rises from warmth and happiness by showing us on how a man’s love for someone makes him turn to savagery. The narrator of the poem has very deep feelings for his lover, but he only thinks of himself and he never wants the girl to leave his side so he does the unthinkable. In the times that the girl was not home or was not with the narrator then there was coldness and darkness, but when she was with the man then the house would “blaze up, and all the cottage warm”. She created hope and the narrator needed that constantly, so he realized that his love was too strong to put on hold everyday when she would leave. The fact that the narrator had to watch his lover leave everyday

none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)' He acts like

Porphyria’s Lover and The Laboratory “Porphyria’s Lover” and “The Laboratory” both deal with crimes of passion. Explore ways Browning explains ways of obsessive nature of his character and analysis the effects of literary techniques. “Porphyria’s Lover” is a poem about a crime and passion. Porphyria is a young, wealthy girl who seems to have abandoned her family’s tradition of choosing wealthy men as lovers. Her lover remains anonymous, this could be because he has murdered her and does not want his name releasing.

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

only way this is possible is to kill her. This occurs to him after he

The finest woks of Browning endeavor to explain the mechanics of human psychology. The motions of love, hate, passion, instinct, violence, desire, poverty, violence, and sex and sensuousness are raised from the dead in his poetry with a striking virility and some are even introduced with a remarkable brilliance.

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

Both of these works contain the unique ability, as portrayed by Browning, to create a deep fictional psyche that displays the strange relationship between man and woman. This relationship is displayed as one full of pain, jealousy, rejection and happiness, the majority of these emotion are contained in love and marriage. From this the reader can infer the nature of love being the conquering of class distinction and marriage involves sexist male inhibitions. Insecurities are seen in both poems and are evident in the perspective voices of the male protagonists, who are seen as incapable to handle their aggressive and possessive natures when it comes to love and marriage. Browning seems to be demonstrating the side of relationships avoided previously by Romantics and in doing so shows the negative implication on seemingly unruly

Browning wrote a volume of Byronic verse, titled, Incondita, at the age of twelve. He later destroyed it. In 1828, he enrolled at the University of London, but soon left, wanting to study and read at his own pace. In 1833, Browning anonymously published his first major published work, “Pauline,” and in 1840 he published “Sordello,” Browning published a series of eight pamphlets titled, Bells and Pomegranates from 1841 to 1845. Although, this work did not win critical esteem or popularity, it did gain the admiration of Elizabeth Barrett, who was a respected and popular poet in her own right. In 1844 she praised Browning in one of her works and received a grateful letter from him in response. They met in 1845, fell madly in love, and ignoring the disapproval of her father eloped to Italy in 1846. Their departure took place as planned on the morning of Sunday, 20, September, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, their maid Elizabeth Wilson, and their dog Flush, stepped ashore from the Southampton boat at Le Havre. They left behind them a very angry man (Karlin 169). In fact, Mr. Barrett returned Elizabeth’s letters unopened for the rest of her life. Her health improved in Italy and she gave birth to a son in 1849, Robert Wiedermann Barrett Browning. Perhaps, her best-known work, Sonnets to the Portuguese , a volume of poems to her husband was written during their years in Italy. She became ill in 1861, and after only fifteen glorious years together, she died