True Love
(A Discussion on Robert Browning's My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover.)
Robert Browning wrote many amazing dramatic monologues during his time in the 1800’s. “The English poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) is best known for his dramatic monologues. By vividly portraying a central character against a social background, these poems probed complex human motives in a variety of historical periods”(Gale). Browning was super influential with his monologues during the Victorian period and even still today. Several of Browning's work are about love. Two of his most notable love monologues was My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover. Browning’s two monologues My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s lover share several similarities, but also differ severely.
In Browning’s readings My last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover share several similarities. Both the men in these monologues kill the women they are supposed to love. The main part of these monologues is the men killing their wives. Both kill their wives because they are both jealous men, who want complete control over the woman. They feel as if the women should be their property, and only theirs. Another Similarity of these monologues is they are wrote in the man's point of view, and not the women. “Both poems show a similarity because they are both narrated from the male lover's point of view. As a result, the reader becomes more closely involved in the poems and can feel very strong emotions for the individuals
Robert Browning wrote the two poems, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover." Both poems convey an thoughtful, examination profound commentary about the concept of love.
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
none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)' He acts like
"Porphyria's Lover" is one Browning's first dramatic monologues, published 1836 in a magazine using the title “Porphyria”. This form of his dramatic monologues is a first person narrator who presents an exceedingly subjective perspective on a story, with Browning's message isn’t seen in the text but through the ironic disconnect of what the speaker rationalizes and what is apparent to the audience.
The poem Porphyria's Lover written by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue told in first person. The title is ironic, making the reader think the poem will be about two happy lovers. Although the poem is, in fact, about two lovers, we learn that Porphyria's lover is psychotic and the ending reflects this. The poem ends with the narrator murdering Porphyria with her own hair and does it seemingly easy. He doesn’t change his tone when speaking of the murder, making the reader do a double-take when he/she first reads it.
Porphyria's Lover also demonstrates several of Robert Browning's defining characteristics as a poet. It contains his criticism towards the beliefs and practices of self-restraint and his traditional use of dramatic monologue to expose a single character's personality, which in turn often provides an additional depth to his works in coordination with his use of unpoetic language. Also taking into account the author's own personal experiences with his wife, the poem can also be perceived as a representation of the development of their relationship. Browning's criticism of the idea of self-restraint is evident throughout the poem "Porphyria's Lover" as it was shown in the internal debates both characters underwent as they decided whether or not they should consummate the love between them.
“My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” are two mind boggling tales that relate in many ways. Two of which, they are both written by Robert Browning and from a male’s point of view. The Duke in “My Last Duchess” gives off a controlling, jealous, and arrogant vibe towards the Duchess which results in her death. The man in “Porphyria’s Lover” is angry and irritated because the woman he loves will not divorce her husband which also ends with her death. The poems “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” demonstrate two different relationships with women while both men view women as objects.
The speaker’s in Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess have many similarities and differences apparent in the poems. Both poems are dramatic monologues about love, essentially they are about a man speaking his mind about his lover, expressing the possession he wants and what he felt was wrong with her, in the end the poems reveal that the man kills his lover in order to preserve the love he wanted. Although there are many similarities there are many differences in the men themselves, while in Porphyria’s Lover the speaker may not have been the richest man, considering he was living in a cottage the duke in My Last Duchess would have been quite wealthy showing off the painter and the beauty the painting portrayed. Furthermore, the duke had already
Robert Browning is an English poet and playwright who make dramatic monologues. A dramatic monologue is a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently revels aspects of their character. Robert Browning is the author of both dramatic monologues “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover”. In those poems, Duke of Ferrara and the speaker are the main characters of the poem. The speakers of both poems have the same character traits because they both are murderers, self-fish, and reminiscent.
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.
Porphyria’s lover by Robert browning, made in 1836 is one of browning’s most famous monologues. The monologues is about the speaker who lives in a countryside with his lover named porphyria who worships him. Since his lover worships/loves him very much he decides to keep it that way and in order to do that he takes her life by rapping her own hair around her neck and strangling her. He does not bury her but he uses her corps, laying it by his side and playing with her eyes. He then stays with her corps all night proving that god hasn’t touched him yet. In “Porphyria’s lover” by Robert Browning, Browning attempts to convince the reader that the speaker is sad and unhappy but as his actions show, he is very aggressive,
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 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
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