“That’s my last wife painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive, I call
That piece a wonder…”
The duke tells of his late wife’s giving nature, which makes him jealous for his own failings.
Both poems deal with similar themes, the conflict between the innocent and the corrupt, and good and evil. Each poem explores fully how someone who feels spontaneously is therefore vulnerable. In Porphyria's lover Browning highlights Porphyria’s love and humanity by describing her as ‘smiling’, ‘rosy’, ‘bud’. And he also describes her as ‘happy and proud’.
In stark contrast to the psychopath whose failings Browning describes as a ‘bee’. Browning also creates a sense that the murderer is insecure which leads to sadistic domination.
“Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Proud, very proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.”
My Last Duchess is also concerned with this theme. Browning reveals to the reader the process by which the Duke stifled his wife’s will to live. Browning illustrates how his wife’s spontaneity and innocence repels the Duke.
“A heart … how shall I say? … Too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed, she liked what’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ‘twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace – all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least.”
He feels cheated by her delight in all-living creatures and is jealous of this he sees this as infidelity.
In both poems the murderer and the duke do not seem to realise that their behaviour is wrong and they justify they’re actions by believing they are acting appropriately. Both do not realise the cruelty of they’re actions, “No pain felt she; I’m quite sure she felt no pain.” And …
“She thanked men, - good! But thanked
Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked
My gift of a nine hundred years old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop too blame
This sort of trifling?”
Browning does not openly condemn in either of the poems but merely presents the personality and conduct of the individuals. In each poem the final lines make it clear. In Porphyria’s lover the ending highlights the condemnation, “And yet god has not said a word!” In My Last Duchess browning states that to the duke a human being must be possessed like a bronze statue.
“Together down, sir! Notice Neptune, tho’,
Taming a sea-horse, though a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.”
The social context of both poems differ, in Porphyria’s lover the setting and characters are both of a lower social class,
“And kneel’d and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;”
However in My last duchess the character and setting are both of upper social class, their titles ‘duke’ and ‘duchess’ shows this. But Browning still maintains the central theme
In conclusion I believe that Browning has illustrated very effectively that society, as a whole has been corrupted by stronger, more insecure domination. However by domination they are destroying everything that is worthwhile.
“And then all smiles stopped together”
