The Last Duchess 'And' Porphyria's Lover

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

Similarly to the father of English’s, Chaucer’s, literary critique of his time period the Canterbury Tales, Browning critiques the treatment of women in his time period known as the Victorian Era. Robert Browning was self-educated through his father’s grand library. By the time he was a teenager Browning had decided to make poetry his life’s pursuit. Robert Browning’s work was controversial for his time and didn’t gain any real success until after the death of his wife. The two poems addressing most directly the treatment of women in Browning’s time are My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover. My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue spoken by a Duke about his last wife. The Duke is

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.

“My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” are two poems that go together in many ways. For instance, Robert Browning wrote both of the poems and the men are very psychotic. The many similarities and differences of the two poems show how women are treated as objects, how the women are killed, and how the men felt about their women. The many similarities in the poems are what connect the two. In both poems, the two men each get jealous very easily.

Duke and the speaker are both murders. They both are murderers because they kill or have their ladies put to death. In the poem “My Last Duchess”, Duke says “I gave commands then all smiles stopped” (985).

Both poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert browning and “My ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera are focus on ended relationships; both poems start with one of the partners referring to a painting of their former lovers. Both the duke and the ex-wife are very similar, they both think very high of themselves. The Dukes is more open about with his personality “E,en then would be some stooping; and I choose never to stoop” (Browning 848) The ex-wife is a little more reserve when she talks about herself, but she makes sure to leave clear that she is too good to put up with her unfaithful husband “who’d lower herself to put up with shit like that?” (Spera 851) Or when she seems to criticized others whom had put with cheating “You’d still be on the short end

These two dramatic monologues by Robert Browning there is Porphyria’s Lover and the Dutch of My Last duchess. These dramatic monologues are similar in the ways that the two lovers of the women each kill their lover. They are also similar in the way that the lovers talking are both giving this story after it has happened. The contrast that this story has is that Porphyria’s lover killed Porphyria because he wants to spend forever with her, and My last duchess killed his wife because he gets jealous because she gives attention to other men. Theses two dramatic monologues have a very similar story yet have two very different men that act in such ways that cause there to be two different story lines at the same time.

"Porphyria's Lover" is a poem during England's Victorian society about an adoring husband with hopes of equality for women. According to Masterplots II, “The title can be very misleading causing one to expect a perfect love relationship, perhaps two lovers in a cozy cottage retreating from the storm described in the opening lines. However, the perceptions reported by the lover soon alert the reader to his unbalanced perspective (Dickinson 3068).” A major theme occurring in “Porphyria's Lover” is love. The poem is about a women who having an affair which appeals to some people in Victorian society. Madness is a theme Browning uses in two of his works. The lover’s love makes him go crazy. He decides that in order to control what Porphyria does is to kill her. He knows she will not stay so he kills her. After killing her he shows no emotion. According to Dickinson, “A possible additional thread of meaning may be derived from the knowledge that the poem was first published with another poem, "Johannes Agricola in Meditation" and that the two poems were later grouped under the heading 'Madhouse Cells’ (Dickinson

“Porphyria's Lover” and “My Last Duchess” were just two of Robert Browning’s short dramatic monologues. In this poem, “My Last Duchess”, a husband talks about a portrait of his deceased wife. He tells how she was far too happy with everybody, and nothing could change that. “Porphyria’s Lover” is a short poem involving a man and his wife, they seem to be getting along until the husband strangles her with her own hair. These two Browning poems will be compared and contrasted in these next few paragraphs.

‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. In this essay I will compare these two poems to find similarities and differences.

Love is at the center of how we go about things. In high school most people experience their first love. Some last and high school sweethearts go on to get married, but most end after several months or even a year or two. Robert Browning wrote many dramatic monologues on the subject of love. Two of his stories My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover are two of his best known dramatic monologues.

Both Robert Browning in “Porphyria’s Lover” and Andrew Marvell in “ To His Coy Mistress” explore the theme of obsessive love through their use of imagery, metaphors and personification. Robert Browning was born in 1812 in London, England. He lived with his parents until he was thirty-four years old and secretly married his wife Elizabeth Barrett. “Porphyria’s Lover” is one of Browning’s early dramatic monologues” (Maxwell 27).

It was the spring of 1812 when Robert Browning was brought into the world. He was born in the small town of Camberwell, London, England. His father, a highly educated man, had a very distinguished library which Browning was influenced greatly by, especially by his father’s collection of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s works (Horneker). Browning is accredited with being the mastermind behind the sect of poetry known as dramatic monologue. Dramatic monologues can be defined as, “a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character, it compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speaker’s history and psychological insight into his character” (Dramatic Monologue). Browning’s two most famous of these poems are “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My last Duchess”.

First, women in both of the poems of My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover were greatly objectified by the men who were talking about them. In My Last Duchess, the woman is referred to as the Duke’s “last wife.” You can infer

Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue My Last Duchess was written as an appraisal of the cruelty of men and the sub-human treatment of women in the Victorian period as well as criticising the patriarchy. But why, nearly two centuries later, are we revisiting this poem? Browning uses his poetry, specifically works like My Last Duchess to explore the dark, rather evil side of the human condition – an ever relevant topic to suit a contemporary audience.