Is it possible to sympathise in any way with the villains in the two dramatic monologues by Browning that you have read?

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read                                                                                                                           Strangers like you that pictured countenance”.

Although the Duke seems less frightening than Porphyria’s lover he still comes across as controlling, possessive (“My  last Duchess”) and selfish, and almost impossible to feel sympathy for. The same is true of Porphyria’s Lover, he is a character who is it virtually impossible to feel sorry for. Perhaps this is because both of these poems are a criticism of women’s position in Victorian society, women could not vote or hold political office and although attitudes were slowly beginning to change, women were still very much seen as objects, much like the Duke sees the Duchess as an object to be admired like his many paintings, and seen by many as being incapable of serious thought about anything.  Robert Browning was married to successful woman poet Emily Elizabeth Barret Browning, who was more successful than Robert Browning during their lifetimes, indicating that Browning clearly thought women to be capable of more than just housework, unlike many other Victorian poets, most notably Coventry Patmore, who wrote ‘The Angel in the House’ which described the perfect Victorian wife whose job it was to please her husband – “but him to please/Is woman’s pleasure”. Both of the men in the poems might be so villainous you are not supposed to feel sorry for them, because they represent a larger problem in society rather than just individual stories.

        Although the Duke and Porphyria’s lover are both clearly villainous characters perhaps it is impossible to feel no sympathy at all towards them. Both characters ultimately defeat their own desires; Porphyria ‘belongs’ to Porphyria’s lover for the short amount of time before her death is found out, and the Duke wanted the Duchess’ attentions to be focused only on him and his “Nine hundred years old name”, but how can this be achieved with the Duchess dead or locked away in a convent? It is only a small amount of pity felt towards them for this, but they both are very self deceived and unable to see the reality of their actions and the world around them – for example Porphyria travels through the rain to see her lover in his “cottage” and he thinks that she is “too weak” to set herself free “From pride, and vain tides dissever/ and give herself to me forever”, however this might be feeling sympathy towards the situation overall not the men, because if they had understood what was really going on there would be no need for the women to have been killed. Perhaps, also, before this episode their relationship was more normal, would Porphyria journey through harsh weather to visit someone she thought would not show kindness to her – however we cannot tell if she would as the story is told from Porphyria’s lover’s point of view. However violent and sinister the character of Porphyria’s lover is there is still a bit of sympathy felt towards him, he is consumed by jealous and wants Porphyria to be his alone, but because she has a higher social status than him this is not at all possible. With the Duke the image of him running after the envoy – “Nay, we’ll go/together down sir” for me sums up just how pathetic the Duke’s life is, he feels his world with pictures by famous artists – “Claus of Innsbruck” and “Fra Pandolf” but yet he is unable to get what he wants, for his money and “nine hundred years old name” could not give him the Duchess’ undivided attention that he so craved. His convoluted syntax, which is empathised by the frequent use of enjambment, and attempts to be subtle show very effectively how hollow his life is, which is most clearly shown when he is addressing the envoy about a possible marriage between himself and the daughter of another noble towards the end of the poem

The Count your master’s know munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretence

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object

 and perhaps this is the main reason that some sympathy is felt towards him. Overall, although both characters commit terrible deeds however some sympathy remains towards them, although this might be partly because the stories are told from the men’s point of view and we have to guess at the true events of each of the stories.

        Overall I feel that although both men are quite clearly villains, with Porphyria’s love strangling Porphyria and appearing to feel no remorse at all, and the Duke sinisterly hinting at his was able to get rid of his last wife, it is impossible to feel no sympathy at all for them because they both have such hollow lives, in the case of the Duke, and would never have been able to achieve what they actually wanted – especially Porphyria’s lover who, because of his lower social status would never be able to marry Porphyria perhaps leading to his all consuming jealousy that led him to commit the murder.