Porphyria's Lover And My Last Duchess

Murder, mystery and intrigue all describe Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess." From the speakers' indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader is easily lead to think that the speaker committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy. His elaborate speech confuses and disguises any possible motives, and the mystery is left unsolved. Even if he did not kill his wife, he certainly has something to hide. Based on the poem's historical references, style and structure, the Duke's controlling and jealous nature becomes evident.

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

Comparing and Contrasting the Theme of power and control between Porphyrias Lover, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and My Last Duchess

Written by Robert Browning, “My Last Duchess” is a poem about an egocentric Duke who has a painting of his last wife upon the wall and is trying to impress an ambassador who is negotiating his next marriage. Although it is obvious that the Duke is trying to persuade this ambassador, however, this is where the first mystery is created. It is almost as if he is trying to persuade no one more than himself.

“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

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

“My Last Duchess” can be seen as diverse when compared to the poem “Porphyria’s Lover”. In this poem, Robert Browning tells of a story of a man who is searching for a new wife after the death of his old one. The only dilemma is the minutiae of how this prosperous Duke felt of his last lady. “It’s precisely her heart (effusive) and her gaze (delighted) that infuriates the Duke” (Guthrie). The Duke who speaks in this poem, implies the idea that because his last wife was so happy, he had no other option other than to kill her. In the poem, it says “A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er Sir” (line 21). The Duke feels that because this woman was ecstatic from all things, it took her attention away from him. Because this idea overwhelmed him, he was filled with fury and told her to be cautious in what she expressed. She must not have complied, as she did not live to continue out the life they planned to spend together.

Romans 12:9,10 states, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good” (hubpages). The idea of truly loving someone for who they are and what they have to offer has been something that mankind has been drilling for centuries. In Robert Browning’s poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” the narrators take this level of complete and utter acceptation and love to a completely different level as they base their love on the purity of the women in their lives.

Within the poem My Last Duchess, the speaker of the poem differs his problems from the speaker within the poem Porphyria's Lover. The man, of which is the speaker, in this poem is a very rich man whom is looking for a new wife. This man lives in a larger house and is considerably wealthy. “Somehow- I know not how- as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-year- old name with anybody’s gift” (lines 33-34). This man had a long held family name that he felt intensely proud of. The speaker of this poem killed his lover because he had the desire to. He claimed to have stated the rules and she chose not to follow them.

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

My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning represents the sense of powerlessness in women through the dominating aspect of patriarchal power. My Last Duchess portrays the Duke who possesses patriarchal power over the Duchess and establishes himself as the more important of the sexes. The iambic pentameter in ‘That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,/Looking as if she were alive. I call’ reinforces the Dukes status through his rhythmic speech, indicating his confidence and superiority. Patriarchal power is demonstrated as the Duke seems as though he possesses the Duchess through the first person possessive adjective 'my'. This possessive adjective metaphorically demonstrates the powerlessness of the Duchess as she has suffered a lack of freedom

The poem, “My Last Duchess,” written by Robert Browning, is constructed as a monologue in which the speaker details a portrait of his deceased wife to a visitor. As the speaker converses, he is able to convey more about himself than the portrait itself. By referring to his wife by certain words, such as “it” and “my”, the speaker is able to convey himself as a possessive and materialistic human as he objectifies his late wife. The flow of the speaker’s monologue follows an iambic pentameter which showcases his controlling nature. He perceives his monologue as a conversation when in reality he is the only one speaking showing how deluded he is. The tone of arrogance and ignorance is able to capitalize how the speaker doesn’t realize that his

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 is 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

Within “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess,” Robert Browning suggests couples do not have fully expressed and healthy relationships because of male dominance and an individual’s psychotic state of mind.