Porphyria's Lover And My Last Duchess

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.

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.

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.

First, in both “My Last Duchess” and “To His Coy Mistress,” both speakers have an intense desire power. In the former poem, the speaker shows himself to be jealous for the attention of his wife and, perhaps more accurately, the power this would give him over her. This is visible when he says he “gave commands” for her end, which he conveys to someone who represents a possible bride, revealing how he considers the power to do so an attractive feature for the representative to consider. The second poem’s speaker has placed all his stock in the power to have a relationship with this woman he “loves” so dearly. Read in this way, it becomes clear he is desperate for this false authority when he begins pointing out random things in nature and saying they should

“In order to gain his power back, he feels he must kill this seductress. In order to gain control over Porphyria, the speaker must take advantage of her at her weakest moment” (Marcus). During the Victorian era, the Patriarchy still lead a majority of the moral laws for individuals to follow. The rules, so to speak, are simply that the women are placed in a lower class than men and are to remain there and accept their place. Robert Browning is the author of two poems that are highly controversial to the modern reader for the sheer fact that the works of literature emphasis men overpowering women. While there are many types of ways for men to ruin female lives, and the ways keep expanding by the day, the poems My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s

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

How has love been presented by the poets in the poems: My Last Duchess, Porphyria’s Lover, Sonnet 116 and 18, A mother in a Refugee Camp and Mother any Distance? the true capacity of his obsession. The curtain in itself shows the Dukes craving for control as he wishes to restrict who is able to view the painting, instead of leaving it for all to admire. He didn’t want the Duchess, likewise the painting, to receive praise from different men because he didn't want the kind words of others to distract the Duchess from, what he viewed as, her main purpose of belonging to him and him only.

Often times we wonder why people write and say things. We wonder what will happen to those around us and how they might go. There are two poems about a love that has lead to people they love dying. Rivera has done research on Browning and she discovered many things, “Finding school irritating and uninteresting, Browning left formal institutional learning behind and was educated at home by a tutor.”(Rivera) This is surprising because every wrote some of the greatest poems in the Victorian age. Those two poems are called Porphyria’s Lover and The Last Duchess by Robert Browning.

He tells how she was charming and that this portrait could not recount her love of everything, her blushing at the attention of men. He then leads into how she never quite appreciated him and how unimpressed she was with his “nine-hundred-years-old name.” From this, the reader begins to see the distant relationship between the Duke and his wife. This essay will talk about the theme of “My Last Duchess” and how Robert Browning uses rhyme and other metrical devices that supports the overall meaning of the poem.

Browning is one whom many remember because of his brilliance in portraying the dramatic monologue. He arguably knows how to use the dramatic monologue better than anyone. Browning wrote two great poems, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover that are similar in plot but have subtle differences as their stories unfold. These two poems of Browning are most similar in the way that the speaker in both

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

Lastly in “My Last Duchess” at the very end of the poem, in line 54, he starts to talk about another piece of art, this makes it seem like just showing off his property (which he is). Showing off his property, further confirms that he views women as objects and not people (Objectifies). Then in the poem “To His Coy Mistress”, the speaker feelings at first seem very strong, but then prove to be only normal flirtations that are normally associated with the time period. He shows himself to possibly be a half decent character by saying, “Nor would I love at lower rate,” which refers to the lady and her virginity. By this line, he is telling her that he will still love her, regardless of whatever intimate or non-intimate relations they may pursue. But he only tells her this in order to

be seen in, "some-how I know not how as if she ranked/ My gift of a

One of the main similarities that can be found between “The Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” is the way the men are in each poem. Each man is very jealous and with jealousy also comes a low self esteem. Each man was significantly jealous of their lovers. For instance, in the poem the “ The Last Duchess” the Male character and speaker, talks about the beautiful wife that he had and really shows her off through a painting to man that is getting him a new trophy wife. What the man begins to explain is that his stunning wife would smile all the time, and too much in fact. She would smile at everything and everyone, wether it be male or female. He did not like or appreciate it, the way he saw it was, basically, “I have given you everything, all my great amount of riches everything that you are is because of me, how dare you smile at anyone other then me”? “Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er” (line 23, Pg,980). The narrator is extremely jealous and honestly he is used to getting and having everything that he wants, and to not have his wife's full and undivided attention, kills him inside. So in the end he kills her and hangs her painting up of the wall as if she is an object to him instead of a living