Compare and contrast- My last Duchess to Porphyrias lover

The control also suggest that the two higher class people (the Duke and Porphyria) worry about there status and class. This is why in "my last Duchess" the Duke does not want to argue with the Duchess and tell her how he feels because he is afraid that she will put him down, which will embarrass him and scar his reputation. Also is "Porphyria's lover" we know that she comes in the early night so that she would not be seen, "the rain set early into the night". She us worried that if she is seen with a lower class person it will affect the way in which people see her in a society that demanded respect. This suggests that the Duke and Porphyria put pride and status above there happiness.

One can say can say that possession and obsessions are the most important similarities throughout these two poems. The duke is obsessed with the Duchess. He feels that because she is his wife she should treat him with more love than everybody else; she should rate him highly and show him more respect. Also the Duke feels that the Duchess is his trophy, or piece of art work; she is his possession. This is why he has her killed to keep her as his possession forever as a painting which can only be accessed by the Duke behind curtains. In "Porphyria's lover" the lover is obsessed with Porphyria and wants her for himself as his own possession, he wants to love her when it's the right time for him rather than her, he wants to be able to do it whenever he wants, he wants to be in control. He does this by killing her; after he kills her we know that he is control and that in actual fact the two men (at the end of the poem) are in control, we find this out as the poem progresses.

Another similarity is the fact that the murderers are both of the lower class. In "my last Duchess" we find out that the Duke did not kill her personally, he has a henchman of the lower class to kill her for him, we know this because it says "I gave my commands; then all smiles stopped altogether." This shows that she has been killed. The Duke also does not care about the consequences of his actions; this suggests that he is above the law. This shows that his character is very malicious and that he is very weak because he was not able to face her the first place and to kill her personally. However in "Porphyria's lover" the lover himself kills her, because of his lower class he has to worry about the consequences of his actions.

This poses a great difference. There are therefore different types of love within these two poems. In "my last Duchess" we know that it is materialistic love. To the Duke his wife is like a piece of art work, she is a trophy wife or something to have at social events. He does not love her because he freely tells the person whom he is talking to that he had her murdered. He expects her to love him above all else, while he only loves her like a piece of clothing. However in "Porphyria's lover" we know that he loves her out of passion. He lusts for her but he cannot have her because of her social status, so he kills her because he cannot have her and love her whenever he wants to. They both love each other as we can see by the way she walks into the room and try's to woo him by undressing; we know that he loves her because the lover says " she shut the cold out and storm, and kneeled and made the cheerless grate blaze up and all the cottage warm."

Another difference is the intentions of the murders. In "my last Duchess" the Duke kills the Duchess because he was treated the same as everybody else, so he has her killed unlawfully. The Duke thinks that because she is his wife she should have eyes for him, but he only loves her for being beautiful; she is a trophy wife. However in "Porphyria's lover" his intentions for the murder are that because he cannot have her, because of the class difference. Not because he did not love her or because he was jealous but because of passion for her. He loved her so much that he killed her himself so that nobody else could have her.

Another difference is that the rhyming pattern is structured differently. In "my last Duchess" the rhyming is consistent throughout the poem. One can say this is because the Duke is on control throughout the whole poem as he is telling the person what happened in the past tense. However in "Porphyria's lover" the rhyming is in contrast with the lovers emotions. When the lover is in control the rhyming is also in control, but when the lover is not in control the rhyming is not in control. We therefore get the idea that the rhyming goes along with the how the lover takes control of the poem and the relationship with Porphyria.

In conclusion it intrigues me that "Porphyria's lover", he kills her even though he loves her and he lusts for her and he will have to suffer the consequences of his actions. I liked that point because it makes u wonder what is going through their mind at the time, because they murdered the ones that they love. Also we can find many similarities and differences that are all routed from within a similar outline which in itself is a similarity.