Compare the two poems ‘Porphyria’s lover’ and ‘my last duchess’ by Robert Browning. In what way do they form part of a literary tradition?
The two poems ‘Porphyria’s lover’ and ‘my last duchess’ by Robert Browning shows a dramatic monologue.
Dramatic monologue is a story that is told by one person; which means you only get one point of view; in the two poems they are based on the narrator’s crisis, his feelings and his way of thinking; and you have to believe it because that is the only view your going to encounter.
In dramatic monologue because you only get one person telling the story, you have to trust his judgements and criticisms and believe or not believe what is being said. It is hard to trust what the narrator says, because in ‘my last duchess’ his wife could of acted completely different to how he was describing her, but you wouldn’t have known; so we have to speculate about other issues we do not encounter and also contemplate about controversies that can occur about only one side being said.
Robert Browning makes the poems very similar in the way he uses poetic devices like similes ‘As a shut bud that holds a bee’ which was used in ‘Porphyria’s lover’ and in ‘my last duchess’ the use of simile is used ‘Looking as if she was alive’; other poetic devices used are rhetoric device which is used when in ‘my last duchess’ the duke is trying to persuade the ambassador that he is a decent person and in ‘Porphyria’s lover’ he is persuading himself that he should kill her so that he can be with her for ever because he loved her so much; crime for passion, ‘A sudden thought of one so pale For love of her, and all in vain’. Also in the poems the narrator likes to control ‘That moment she was mine, mine’ and in ‘my last duchess’ the narrator says ‘I gave commands’ this showed he had complete control over his wife, and he made it clear he did not like to me messed about. This shows Browning’s fascination with control. In ‘my last duchess’ the duke wants total control over his wife and for is wife to pay full attention to him and cherish everything he gets her and he doesn’t want her to pay any attention to any one else she knows or comes across. This is in comparison with ‘Porphyria’s lover’ when the narrator wanted the women to marry the narrator, but the women is in a higher class than him socially and in heritage and he is not In a high class, he just has a house and he is insanely in love with her; which comes between them both from the perspective of a proper relationship. She didn’t want to get disowned by her parents because she likes the life she leads ‘Nor could to-night’s gay feast restrain’ which shows she goes to dinners and how she gets money, presents and everything she wants and she would loose that if she married him. This did not break their love for each other in her eyes because she visited him and wanted a sexual relationship not only based on marriage; but he didn’t think that was enough like the Duke in ‘my last duchess’ he wanted his wife to pay full attention on him and in ‘Porphyria’s lover’ he wanted her to marry him and have a sexual relationship and not get married was not enough for him; he wanted her to have full attention on him and marry him. That’s the way it was in the 19th century if you marry someone of a lower class you get disowned; she liked her wealth ‘and vainer ties dissever’.
