due to her reaction towards the commands, he got the Duchess killed. From the Dukes actions taken
towards the Duchess the reader can tell the Duke feels quite bitter towards his last Duchess for what she
has or has not done. And by looking at who the quotation was said to, (maybe a messenger from the
father of the Dukes next Duchess), the reader sees that the Duke is being clever and giving the
messenger a hint that his future Duchess shouldn’t mess the Duke around. Similarly in “Porphyria’s
Lover”, Browning again uses actions taken towards the subject by the speaker to show the characteristics
of him or her. The speaker of Porphyria’s lover strangles his lover so that “she was mine, mine fair”. This
insinuates to the reader that he is obviously very possessive of his belonging, and in this case, especially
his lover, his reactions towards her seem to be that of a mere material or thing. Both poems show
themselves off to be dramatic monologues as Browning creates a character (speaker) who reveals him or
herself to the reader through what he or she has to say regarding the topic.
The use of creating atmosphere and setting also creates a mood that may also determine the
mood of the speaker. For example, from a poet creating a sunny day as the scene and setting, then the
reader assumes that the speaker is to be a jolly and upbeat character. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, Browning
creates quite a bit of atmosphere and setting, which is done by using thorough description. At the very
beginning of the poem, Browning almost instantly describes the weather with much detail and how” the
rain set early in to-night, the sullen wind was soon awake, it tore the elm tops down...” This quotation
gives the idea of a very cold, miserable and lonely atmosphere, which may reflect the mood at that
moment in time of the speaker. Porphyria’s lover gives the impression that he is quite cold in the sense
he shows no emotion as he tells us that when his lover called him “no voice replied”, he did nothing, he
just sat there. In contrast to this, “My Last Duchess” portrays less of an atmosphere as there is less
description present in the poem. Browning may be attempting to let the readers guess what the
atmosphere is like, and let them assume for themselves. This may be because Browning may not be
using the creation of setting and atmosphere as a main way to reveal character of the speaker in the
poem. One assumption of the atmosphere seems to be quite tense and awkward, but again quite cold as
the reader thinks about where the speaker and the character he is talking to is: a mass of empty, cold,
lonely space, a mansion or castle even. In both poems, description of setting can tell the reader what the
characteristics of the speaker are, but along with this aspect, the description also creates imagery.
Imagery of setting can also create a personal image of the speaker and the subject (if a person).
In “My Last Duchess” there is a very detailed image that the reader can get of the Duchess described
throughout the whole of the poem. The speaker starts off describing a painting of the Duchess, with a
“spot of joy into the Duchess’ cheek”. This quotation, of which there are similar in the poem, can give us a
very visual image of the Duke’s last Duchess. But not only does it tell us something about the Duchess,
the description itself suggests to the reader that the Duke has a liking for art, and beautifully crafted
things, for example the painting, or even the physical beauty of his last Duchess. However in “Porphyria’s
Lover” the imagery used is very different as it does not directly describe what the character of the speaker
is like; the reader has to make a view on the character from inference. For example the speaker
describes when Porphyria “glided in”, this creates a vivid image of physically how Porphyria held herself
as a woman and as a person. The word “glided” connects with noble and quite angelic beings-which tell
the reader that she seems quite proud. The poet also seems to have thought about individual word
choice, as not only could the word “glided” show us what Porphyria is like, but it also can show the
reaction of the speaker towards her-telling the reader a lot about the speaker’s character.
Individual word choice can quite often show a lot about a character, or even about the poet and
his/her feelings when writing the poem. As in “Porphyria’s Lover”, Browning used the word “tore” when
describing how the wind destroyed the trees. He used this particular word to insinuate how violent and
fierce the storm was. This could have described the speaker’s feelings at that specific moment in time,
either brought about by himself or they could have been feelings that his lover had caused. The speaker
also uses the simile “as a shut bud that holds a bee” to describe something quite shocking. Browning
probably chose this simile to show how the speaker, even though his lover was now dead, thought of his
lover to still be pure and how he uses a beautiful simile to describe a disturbing event shows the reader
that he still thinks of his lover as beautiful and most probably still loves her. Similarly in “My Last Duchess”
the speaker uses the words “I choose never to stoop”. By choosing these words, Browning has
manipulated the reader into thinking that the Duke is very arrogant and is too proud to argue back, which
is the case in this context.
Overall, in order to obtain the different aspects of character, all of these methods had to be used
by Browning. In some cases he used different methods for each poem as they were portraying a different
idea or just had nothing to do with one another. But in both cases, Browning used careful thinking while
also using all of these methods to make these well-structured and profound poems.
