This imagery brings a sense of passion and love, a story you would hardly expect to end in the murder of a woman who brings such warmth. This abstract approach serves to surprise and contradict all the expectations of mutual love, culminating in murder as a spontaneous crime of passion.
In contrast to this, the death of the female in “My Last Dutchess” is a cold, bitter act of function. Having ‘betrayed’ her husband’s expectations, he has her brutally murdered. The mood is dark and cold, no remorse is shown from the duke for the death of his wife. Heartlessly he values her more as a painting than a person;
“That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.”
The imagery that is created by this passage, ‘women are like art’ begins to unravel the question if how anyone can commit a murder of a spouse without remorse.
In “To His Coy Mistress”, there is no actual death, which differs from the other poems. Death is used in the second stanza as an argument, and an effective argument by use of bold, quite daunting imagery. The mood swings violently from the blatant sycophancy of the first stanza and the calm argument of the third;
“But at my back I always hear
Times winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.”
The imagery of ‘time’s winged chariot’ and ‘deserts of vast eternity’ reminds the mistress of her own mortality, trying to convince her that the lack of copulation in their relationship is purely wasting their finite amounts of time as conscious beings. The argument continues by trying to intimidate the ‘coy mistress’;
“My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.”
Course imagery is used to portray the futility of clinging on to virginity. Although crude, it is effective – not in the sense that the coy mistress is finally conquered, as with all of the poems we never hear the female response, but that the imagery serves to portray the obvious in the most dramatic way.
Emotions, powerful and dominating, surface in all three poems. For example, in “Porphyria’s Lover” Lust, vanity, passion and love, a mutual love for each party are represented. All these are factors that conclude in the death of Porphyria. The love and lust he has for her, his overwhelming desire to keep her at all costs and the fact that he can’t have her;
Are the reasonings behind the spontaneous actions of Porphyria’s lover. Porphyria’s own vanity and pride make the fact that she is strangled by her own hair ironic. This is a last resort action of a man blinded by love.
As a stark variation on this reasoning, the murder in “My last Dutchess” Is no act of passion, it is a pre-meditated act of “necessity” in the eyes of the duke. The feeling that emotions are not involved here is an easy mistake to make, but there is, and surprisingly, love and passion are involved. The duke does have a love – his status, his prized heritage, and as a passion to keep it intact at all costs. Lust, although not directly referred to, would likely to be present, for the Dutchess, as the Duke sees women purely as objects.
“To His Coy Mistress” does have some obvious similarities to “Porphyria’s Lover”, such as the presence of lust, and possibly love. Although impatient, the man is still present, trying to convince his mistress, rather than leave her and looking for a substitute, the feeling surrounding the approach of death in this poem are in an effort to convince, showing persistence and some form of devotion. Devotion to the ‘coy mistress’ or to the prospect of sex – That is open for debate.
Social status and its restrictions are present in different forms. In “To his Coy Mistress” the woman is hanging on to her virginity, her honor, living up to the notion of the purity and pride found within this. In an effort to slay this aspect, the man continues to remind her or her own mortality and that honor is nothing once you are buried.
“My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust”.
In “Porphyria’s Lover”, Porphyria’s elevated status above her lover is the reason they cannot be together; although she loves him, she cannot give up what she has, she cannot be free “From pride, and vainer ties dissever,” She has just confessed her love for him,
So in an attempt to preserve this moment forever, he strangles her, believing that it is for the greater good. Separated by lifestyles and Porphyria’s own pride, he feels righteous in his decision to murder the one he loves.
“My Last Dutchess” is also motivated by this, but not by the desire to hang onto status, but by the fact that the Dutchess “stooped” below hers:
“For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart . . . how shall I say? . . . too soon made glad,”
&
“Or blush, at least. She thanked men,--good; but thanked
Somehow . . . I know not how . . . as if she ranked”
Shows the dukes contempt for the fact that his wife would thank or even communicate with those lower than themselves. This discrepancy causes him to seek a way to dispose of the Dutchess. Murder.
In conclusion, the way in which death is approached and dealt with in each poem is overall very different, but often motivated by similar primal urges. In “My last Dutchess” a cold-blooded murder is the result of a mans preposterous pride for his status, the poem, like the duke, shows no remorse or compassion, it is cold and bleak, much like the preconceptions of death. “Porphyria’s Lover” approaches death via love, an act of pure passion. Pain, suffering, revenge – none of there where meant, it was an act of unadulterated infatuation. This approach is confusing; it’s not the expected expression of true love you would expect. The casual tone of the monologue is unsettling, creating atmosphere and tension, a sense of unease, uncertainty and fear, effective in portraying death in an unbefitting sense. “To His Coy Mistress” approaches death as a reasoning, an argument, a logistic. It is used as an incentive to “get a move on” as it where. But although this may seem extreme, the poem comes across as satirical. Rather than writing to his coy mistress, Marvell is mocking the male’s ‘all consuming’ desires, by illustrating the boundaries, and crossing them. Reminding someone that their time is somewhat limited just because the remote chance of sleeping with them may occur could not have been taken seriously even then, and in a contemporary context it is just comical.
Each poem shows that there are so many ways to approach death, through love, hate, fear and even satire, but it is many means to the same end.
Emmy Cooper