Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning Essay -- Rober

Compare the two poems Porphyrias yellowish brown and My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. What do they reveal most attitudes to women and relationships in the nineteenth century?Robert Browning was one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. In 1842, he published Dramatic Lyrics which included the two poems Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess. In Porphyrias Lover Browning dos the proofreader a dramatic insight into the twisted mind of an abnormally possessive passionatenessr, who wishes the moment of love to last forever. In this essay, Porphyrias Lover will be equald to Robert Brownings other dramatic monologue, My Last Duchess, where an Italian aristocrat reveals his cruelty to his new-fangled wife whilst showing off a portrait of her to one of his guests.Robert Brownings poems Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess were both written in the lay down of a dramatic monologue. Both poems show a similarity because they are both narrated from the male lovers point of view . As a result, the reader becomes more closely involved in the poems and can feel very strong emotions for the individuals portrayed than if the poem was written from the eye of an outsider. This form of write enables Browning to use irony, in which the real core is concealed or contradicted by the literal meanings of the words. For example, in My Last Duchess the Duke orders the death of his wife, though hides the true meaning in his words Much the same smile? This grew I gave commandsThen all smiles stopped together. My Last Duchess is also written in the form of a single stanza poem, which is the unit of a poem that consists of two or more lines of verse organised according to the content and form and usually repeated as a recurring pattern in the poem. By contrast, Porphyrias Lover does not follow this pattern, but has a different rhyming scheme. On the surface, the vote counters in each poem show completely different characteristics. In Porphyrias Lover, the narrator shows powerful emotions towards Porphyria, which demonstrate his strong romantic feelings. The reader acknowledges that the narrator is passionately in love, as the following extract demonstrates.Too weak, for all her hearts endeavour,To set its struggling passion freeFrom pride, and vainer ties disseverAnd give herself to me forever.By contrast, the Duke in My La... ...all night long we have not stirredAnd yet God has not said a wordYou can compare this to My Last Duchess where again, the Duke shows no remorse for ordering the death of his wife.The modern reader is given an insight into the way relationships between men and women were viewed in the last century, and earlier, during the measure of the Renaissance. Without doubt, men had the dominant role, and women had little personal freedom. Women were duty-bound to show unquestioning respect for the men in their lives, regardless of how they were treated. In Porphyrias lover, Browning shows us the vision of a woman who is not followi ng this role model. In fact, she is completely the opposite, and as such, she is fulfilling the role of a male fantasy by winning a dominant role, with obvious sexual intentions. In the nineteenth century this would have had the dual effect of being both sensational and revolutionary.In the eyes of a modern reader, neither poem is particularly shocking, as people are more accustomed to material of a revealing nature. This shows that when reading and sympathy texts, the reader has to bear in mind the times and context in which they were written.

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