The Dukes insecurity is shown to a greater depth when he states, “Somehow – I know not how”, further more the pause which is in the form of hyphens suggests anxiety and self-doubt, this clearly proves that the Duke greatly overvalues his authority. In addition it is ironic that the only time that he really can control her is when she is dead and in the form of a painting, this is shown when he states “The curtain I have drawn for you” this shows that he can open and close the curtain to reveal or hide her, this means he has control on when he sees her, but more importantly whom she sees, this is exactly the power that he wanted, but did not posses when she was alive.
The strong feminist views in “A woman to her Lover” however, are in total contrast to the prominent patriarchal ideas in “My Last Duchess”. Although at first “a Woman to her Lover appears to be a strictly feminist poem, it is in fact seeking equality between the males and females in this world. It also gives an idea that love can conquer all.
“My Last Duchess” conveys the views of a society which is ruled by high ranking men such as the Duke, on the other hand the poetic voice of “A Woman to Her Lover”, shows a totally different society or utopia in which both men and women are equals and are as “partners”. The Woman creates three hypothetical situations to portray this; each of the situations contains one of the many expectations that a typical 19th century man had towards his wife or partner. Within the first stanza of the poem, the woman examines how women were typically expected to be the “servant” of the household and how their main function was to “bear you children” Here she shows very strong resentment and hatred towards this type of society. . In the ending of the first stanza she states, “If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!” here she implies that she only wants a partner who thinks exactly like her.
We can see a great contrast with the attitude of the Duke, as he wants a partner who is inferior and compliant to himself as oppose to and equal, he wishes to control his partner, but in this poem the woman does not. Moreover in “A woman to her lover” the poetic voice has to explain and reject all of the ideas of the patriarchal society, whereas in “My last Duchess” the Duke believes that his view is the only view so he therefore does not have to reject any thing in order to support his views. The reader also realises that the poetic voice in “A woman to her lover” believes that equality between the two sexes is vital to insure the smooth running of a relationship. It is ironic that in “My last duchess” it was the equality that the Duke and the Duchess had between them which was the problem in their relationship.
The reader always feels that the poetic voice is very self-assured and confident. In the opening line she says “Do you come to me to bend me to your will”. Here she directly addresses the reader, which in this case is her lover. In 18th century Britain, it would have been shocking for a woman to speak to a man in such a discourteous manor – let alone publish her own material; this shows her bold and audacious nature. Her strong character is amplified by her use of powerful vocabulary, for instance, words like “bend”, “bondslave” and “drudgery”, show her fearless character and also how strongly she wants equality. Her tone and register is very similar to the Duke’s, as they are both confident, dominating and come across as very powerful. However the power they display isn’t their true nature, which is another parallel between the two characters. The Duke may appear to be powerful, but through a closer inspection we see his insecurity, and for the most part of the poem the woman may appear to be controlling but at the end she reveals her true self. She uses words like “Comrade” “friend” and “passion”, which is a completely different tone, showing her more affable side.
Like in “My Last Duchess”, “A Woman to Her Lover” also uses imagery (in this case celestial imagery) to emphasise her point:
“And our co-equal love will make the stars to laugh with joy
And we shall have the music of the spheres for bridal march”
The words “stars” and “spheres”, suggest how love with equality transcends other natures of love such as the Duke’s, and can be made into something greater. She also refers to God, an example of divine imagery, which can be associated with the purity of the equal match in the relationship. The different types of imagery help amplify and demonstrate the effects the power of love can have on people.
“A Woman to her Lover” displays feminist power looking for equality, however this is surpassed in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, where the female deceives and dominates the male. This poem was set in Dark Ages where knights, who guarded the land, were seen as valiant, heroic and defenders of the peace. However, in this poem John Keats portrays a totally different image where the knight is depressed, “palely loitering” and under the spell of a mysterious maiden.
John Keats belongs to a group of poets called The Romantics who believed in respecting women and often spoke of the beauty of the middle ages. Keats writes the poem in the form of a ballad. He does this because many people at the time were illiterate and so because a ballad can be sung it became popular more easily and was a lot more accessible to many. Another reason for the choice of Ballad is because it is a very romantic form of poem and with Keats being a romantic it is very fitting. The poem itself conveys a very negative side of love, the knight, who is the main character, becomes infatuated with a Faery who cast a spell on him. Although he almost instantly falls in love with the Faery his love for her is unrequited. The effects of the love not being a mutual feeling between the knight and the Faery are very drastic. When he realises after a dream that he was tricked into his irreversible love we see a lot of death imagery showing a contrast to the start of the poem and a clear and display of the effects the Faery is having on him. At first the knight was speaking of ‘love’ and ‘kisses’ which is the basic attitude at the start but when he awakes from his dream he speaks of people being ‘death-pale’ and ‘starved lips’ an other piece of death imagery we see is the ‘lily’, often associated with funerals.
The poem has a circular nature as it starts with a knight ‘palely loitering’, is then centred around two people apparently falling in love, followed by the knight again ‘alone and palely loitering’. The fact that the poem is circular creates an atmosphere of the knight being trapped and encompassed by his love for the Faery. In the relationship between the knight and Faery the night is almost passive as the Faery ‘lulled’ him and ‘took him to her elfin grot’. With the female character leading the male, we see her with all the power. The effects of the Faery not loving the man are very drastic and infer that, as a contrast to the stereotype in the medieval setting the man is weak whilst the woman is strong and dominant.
The Faery child is a very dangerous character; she seduces the knight with exotic fruits like ‘manna dew’ and speaks in a ‘strange language’. The way in which the Faery seduces the knight and then disposes of him, leaving him caught in her spell shows her immense power. These powers that she possesses demonstrate how she ruined other powerful kings and noblemen as we read, ‘kings and prices’.These enchanting characters that put spells on men and are very unpredictable, are very common in medieval poetry. The fact that this figure has ruined several powerful men’s lives we know that she has a vendetta against men and that through attacking powerful men she can vent her anger and gain revenge. We can also see that a hunger for power and dominance in a relationship is one of her motives and through gaining power against strong men she can in turn feel stronger.
If we look into the subtext of the poem and try to see what Keats was suggesting, we notice the fact that men’s fear of women is very predominant. A powerful woman is something a lot of men would be afraid of as they are seen as unknown threats and rebellious. The sirens were Greek mythological characters that were said to have seduced men through their song and then killed them. We see many similarities between the sirens and the Faery as both seduced men and both ruined them. As all Greek myths had an underlying story or message, in the case of the sirens it was a warning that women can be sly and manipulative towards men’s sexual weaknesses. The story of the knight and the Faery conveys the same message, and displays how women are not necessarily weaker than men, contrary to the stereotype at the time. The love in this poem is described very negatively. As we see the man tortured by love and is left on ‘a cold hill side’, we see the very damaging effect love had on him, from this we could say that yes it was presented entirely negatively but it was not. In the middle of the poem we actually see blissful love as the man was blinded by the amazing love he felt for the woman, ‘and nothing else saw all day long’.
In conclusion we can see that the idea of feminist power and dominance exists in all of them. However each writer portrays women and their power in different ways – Browning depicts them as inferior to men, Walsh seeks to show the competence of women while the woman in Keats’ poem possesses supernatural powers. The main thing that the three poems teach us is that the role of the sexes in a relationship can change, depending on the type and amount of power they posses – the male can be the one who is trapped and exploited while the women emerges as the dominant one.
