Browning, Robert My Last Duchess And Porphyrias Essay Example For Students

Browning, Robert: My Last Duchess And Porphyrias Essay LoverMike SobierajEnglish 203Roger GilbertThe Lover and the DukeThe creation of a plausible character within literature is one of the most difficult challenges to a writer, and development to a level at which the reader identifies with them can take a long time. However, through the masterful use of poetic devices and language Browning is able to create two living and breathing characters in sixty or less lines. When one examines these works one has to that they are quite the achievements for they not only display the personas of two distinct men but also when compared show large differences while dealing with essentially the same subject. A brief examination of the structural aspects of Porphyrias Lover is needed before further analysis is done. One can break the poem up into twelve stanzas with an ababb stanzaic rhyme structure, though it is most often printed as a block poem. This would make it an alternately rhymed quatrain with a fifth line attached to create a couplet ending. The majority of the lines contain four iambic feet, though a few are nonasyllabic. Five of the twelve stanzas spill into the next stanza, thus detracting from their free-standing integrity. These stanzas are not syntactically self-containing and therefore the end-couplet value is undercut. If we examine the end of the eighth stanza we see that there is enjambment into the ninth stanza. In one long yellow string I wound,Three times her little throat around,And strangled her. (Browning, Porphyrias Lover, Lines 39-41)This does detract from the couplet though it emphasizes the tone, making the understated nature even more sociopathic.This is one example of how this simple tool in itself masterfully accentuates the overall tone of understatement and the impression of lackadaisical unaffected speech. The majority of the words in this poem are monosyllabic which adds to the mood. However, what is more important is that the words that are polysyllabic are quiet and unassuming. They do not break the tense tranquility of the piece. Burrows points out that, Much of the force of the narrative lies in its almost naive simplicity and in the corresponding quiet, matter-of-fact tone of voice, a tone which in effect is not shouting Horrible murder! Read all about it! but murmuring, I am going to tell you a nice little bedtime story. (Burrrows, page 53)Despite the fact that the metrical pattern is often strayed from, some lines contain 3 or 5 stresses, the poem is rhythmically appealing. According to Burrows, the poem suggests the accents and modulations of speech and also remains quietly unemphatic. (page 56)A similar analysis of My Last Duchess is also needed before the two can be compared adequately. The frigid decorum of the Duke is established by the imperceptible, but unfailing, rhyming couplets. The inability for the reader to notice these during recital of the poem is due to the extreme prevalence of enjambment within the work. According to Burrows, It is decidedly the open couplet that he uses, and there are many run-on lines since syntactical pauses rarely coincide with couple-endings or line endings. (page 116) The meter of the poem is iambic pentameter though the rhythm feels more irregular due to the deliberate disregard for the formal couplet pattern. This also creates the sense or beat of regular s peech and helps to create the tone of the Dukes voice. The Duke does not seem as formal in this poem (as his created persona suggests him to be normally). This laxness is done in a coldly calculating way creating a visible facade. Burrows realizes that,The quiet, casual conversation tone prevails throughout the except for one brief moment when the Duke reaches the understated climax of his last duchesss history and his phrases harder into a lapidary laconism. Before it was written, The Iliad was a poem told o EssayPorphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess are two of Brownings impressive monologues that, through the use of poetic devices, develop unique male protagonists. Evident class differences and social issues arise from these works. Porphyrias Lover contains the detail and development that would normally be found in a short story while the much denser My Last Duchess could be said to encompass an entire novel. Thus we can see that these brief works both show a unique mastery by Browning of creating the fictional psyche. The bizarre interrelationship between man and woman is fully captured within these works. There is pain, jealousy, rejection and happiness. The majority of the spectrum of emotions associated with love and marriage is contained by these pieces.From them we can learn the nature of love should allow people to conquer class distinction and that marriage should avoid sexist male tendencies. Inadequacy is a feeling that perva des both poems, and is evident through the voices of their protagonists. One can see its horrifying effect immediately. Men need to learn to deal with their possessive and aggressive natures in a way that creates a love that is beneficial to both partners not to just one. Browning, in these works, is painting the side the Romantics before him neglected to. Works CitedBrowning, Robert, Robert Browning: Selected Poetry, (London: Penguin Books, 1989), pp. 17-8 and 25-6Burrows, Leonard, Browning the Poet, (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 1969), pp. 51-61 and 115-121 DeVane, William Clyde, A Browning Handbook, (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1955), pp. 108-9Category: English