2. Comment in detail on the attitudes towards human relationships demonstrated in at least two of the poems from the selection.
Both ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are poems which were written by the poet Robert Browning who was one of the great poets of the Victorian age. Both of these poems were written during the years 1812 – 1889. I feel that the era in which they were created in is extremely important, as I have frequently noticed the similarities between the attitudes towards human relationships and women which are illustrated in both of these poems and the attitudes towards human relationships and women which we know about during the Victorian age. I have therefore come to realise that in fact, the attitudes towards human relationships and women illustrated within these poems may be symbolic and may also be a reflection of the beliefs and attitudes during this certain period of time. This may also justify some of the rather strange actions taken by the personas Browning has created in the poems. I do believe that one of Browning’s main intentions when composing these poems was to create a strong sense of era which was easily recognisable to the reader. He was then able to in a sense ‘mock’ these views towards human relationships in different ways throughout the poems and portray to the reader just how very wrong they were and how very wrong he believed them to be.
It is easy to see the attitudes, views and opinions towards human relationships at that time coming through clearly throughout these poems. One obvious example from ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is when the persona states the line “From pride and vainer ties dissever”. This particular line certainly implies that the ‘lover’ of the persona may be of a different class than he is. The particular word “pride” gives the impression that she is of a higher class. We know that during the Victorian times, men and women only married if they were of the same class and that two people from different classes were not allowed to marry due to societies expectations and so called ‘rules’. The way in which the persona has expressed this line definitely shows just how important societies rules were and how much of a difference they made to people’s lives. This simple fact meant that they were not strictly allowed to see eachother or have any kind of relationship which may be what drove the persona to murder his lover, as he does during the climax of this poem – as she then would be his forever. During ‘My Last Duchess’, the persona talks about “[his] gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” which his Duchess was supposedly meant to be thankful for. The “nine-hundred-year-old name’ of the personas’ most definitely tells us that he is of very high class and status and we know that this would certainly not be such a large issue today. The persona in this poem is therefore used to getting power and indeed attention, which he does not receive from his ‘Duchess’ and he subsequently, kills her. The examples I have given above demonstrate how the relationships portrayed in these poems are products of the Victorian views and attitudes of this time period. These two lines are perfect examples of how Browning begins to create a sense of era for the readers. We as readers are instantly able to estimate roughly the time and era these poems are written in and certainly the era they are set in. I believe that the poet wants the reader to feel that these attitudes and ‘rules’ of society and of the personas in these poems are improper and unjust.
