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Both these poems were written in the mid-1800s, by Robert Browning, and are examples of his earlier works. He was one of the pioneers of the dramatic monologue form, which is used in both the poems. Browning described the dramatic monologue form as Action in character, rather than character in action. He means that the personality and thoughts of the character are revealed in the poem, and it is not centered on their actions. The form allows the poet to hide behind a fictitious first person speaker. In these poems, the persona reveals aspects of his life through suggested and hidden narrative, rather than directly spoken.
Porphyrias lover is the monologue of a man, in love with a woman named Porphyria. The man knows he cannot keep Porphyria for ever, and so takes drastic steps in order for Porphyria to always be his. My Last Duchess is a monologue by a 16th century Italian Renaissance Duke, showing the emissary of a count around his court, and subtly conveying the emissary a warning about his previous duchess.
The two speakers that Browning uses, the Duke, and Porphyrias lover, are distinctly different. Browning accentuates this difference with the settings of the poems. The lover lives in a seemingly small cottage, with a cheerless grate. The setting is not described extensively, apart from the weather. Browning describes the weather outside the cottage first
The rain set in early tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake.
He uses pathetic fallacy to indicate to us the lovers mood. The use of human, angry adjectives such as sullen and a verb to vex means that the lover is in a tempestuous mood, even before Porphyria arrives.
The duke obviously lives in grand finery. He invites the emissary to look at My last Duchess painted on the wall. The Duke in My Last Duchess was modelled on Alfonzo II, the fifth duke of Ferrara in Renaissance Italy. He would certainly have been a patron of the arts, as was the custom for the upper classes of society at the time. He points out a work of art to the Counts emissary at the finish of the poem
Notice Neptune, tho,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity.
He is obviously proud of his works of art, just as he expected to be proud of his wife. We are also reminded, as Neptune was taming a sea-horse, that the duke managed to tame his wife, only in death. The Duke was also constantly suspicious of his wife, as is shown by the line;
Sir, twas not
Her husbands presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess cheek.
The Duke unreasonably suspects his wife of having been flirtatious even with the painter, so bad were her flirting tendencies. As the painter, Fra Pandolf, is a friar, this is very unlikely. The line serves to reinforce the idea that the Dukes obsession is not completely based on real incidents, rather mostly in his mind.
The relationships the characters themselves had with their fictional lovers were completely different. Although Porphyrias lover does kill her, there is still a tenderness and emotion in his monologue that is not apparent in My Last Duchess. The lover seems capable of more emotion than the duke. It was the lover who sat in the cold cottage in a storm, and listened with heart fit to break for Porphyrias return. The Duke, however, only has the faded memory of his anger and jealousy towards the Duchess. The poem does not serve as a picture of the Dukes emotions, just to show us the warning to the emissary, the silent listener of the poem
These differences of outlook also show themselves in the way that the Duke and the lover murder their respective women. The Duke kills his duchess out of hatred and jealousy. He tells the emissary
I gave commands
And then all smiles stopped together.
This method of murder, simply giving commands to another man is extremely impersonal compared to that of Porphyria. Porphyrias lover killed her with emotion, and debatably, he killed her out of love. He simply found a thing to do
All her hair.
In one yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around
And strangled her.
It is done almost tenderly, and it seems, without any form of guilt or remorse. The line lengths are between five and seven syllables, making the verse seem light-hearted. At the end of the verse, the lover tells us
All night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word.
It is as if the lover feels that God has condoned his actions, so made them acceptable to the speaker.
The relationship that the lover and the duke had with their women was also very different. The Duke is very explicit over what he feels the Duchess did wrong, that she
…Ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybodys gift.
My Last Duchess is in fact a study of obsession. The Duke is obsessed with the idea that the Duchess was being overly familiar with other men, because She had a heart… too soon made glad.
Porphyrias Lover, however, is very different. The relationship between Porphyria and the un-named man seems to be illicit, held back by family or social ties of Porphyria that are hinted at but never actually discussed. The lover is upset and angry because he wants Porphyria, and these ties are holding her from him
She
Too weak, for all her hearts endeavour
To set its struggling passion free.
From pride, and vainer ties dissever.
And give herself to me forever..
The lover knows that Porphyria will not giver herself to me forever, but at that moment she was mine, mine, fair, and he felt he had to have some way of capturing it. While the Duke killed the Duchess out of jealousy and pride, the lover killed Porphyria through misguided love, and a need to have her close.
Porphyria and the Duchess, however, are more similar than the males. They both seem like beautiful, charming people. The sensual description of Porphyria making her smooth white shoulder bare gives the reader the impression that she is beautiful. The Duchess is described as being overly familiar with men from the court by her jealous Duke, but in fact she seems like a charming person
All and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech.;
The Duchess especially seems innocent, as the Duke tells the emissary that The white mule/She rode with round the terrace. A white mule is symbolic, as white represents purity, and a mule is sterile, and so represents chastity. This subtext reinforces the idea that the murder of the Duchess was not necessary. On a similar note, when Porphyria enters into the lovers cottage, she removes her soiled gloves. This indicates that Porphyria, unlike the duchess, lacks purity. It also highlights the fact that this may be an illicit relationship. There is not much more revealed about the women in the poetry than what has already been mentioned. This is because the main focus of the poems is the actions and mentality of the men, and so it is easier for the women to be simple but charming creatures.
Due to the form of these poems, we do not learn anything about the views and attitude of Robert Browning, the poet. He has, however, used literary devices such as pathetic fallacy to help convey the hidden subtexts of the poems to the readers. The differences of language are also used to highlight the differences in character of the two speakers.
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