Robert Browning Poems: My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover Essay

Robert Browning is one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian age. His cardinal poems I am working from, My death Duchess and Porphyrias Lover, are merely samples of his eminent work. Browning wrote a range of monologues when living in Italy with his wife, Elizabeth Barret. spectacular monologues are the basis of the essay. I will discuss whether (or not) each poem creates a character who reveals himself in what he has to say. My Last Duchess is a monologue spoken by the Duke. He talks about his kindred with his recently deceased wife. Through the records of the poem, he reveals the true transfer of the Duchess and the reader is shown the Dukes feelings and opinions of this woman. Porphyrias Lover is excessively about the death of a woman. It involves a possessive lover who wishes to enshrine a moment of love. Though his order is everyaffair but normal. Both poems are filled with rhyming couplets, however with the proficiency of enjambmen t, they are almost undetectable. This is a clever and subtle insinuation to the homicidal deed in hand. I would first like to comment on the titles of both poems. My Last Duchess can give many hints to what the poem regards. The word My can symbolise the Dukes wish to own the Duchess and using My creates this image. Last may make the reader think that she is the latest in a broad line of wives, or that she is the last wife once and for totally. Porphyrias Lover is leftfield unnamed. Using Duchess the reader can imagine that the male character is a Duke and therefore he has a title and a label. The Lover is anonymous he has no name, but uses Porphyria to describe himself. This makes him very... ...anonymous Lover is possessively insane. He is driven still by his love for Porphyria. He feels restrained by smart set and feels that the moment she declares she is his he cannot let it slip away. Time is against him and he had to call back some way of k eeping her perfectly preserved and unchanged. The Lover also reveals his rebellion against religion and God, thinking that God will not destine him, as his deed was not wrong. I prefer Porphyrias Lover to My Last Duchess, as the Duke is terribly arrogant and pedantic. The Lover, I believe, truly loved Porphyria with all his heart, though it is baffling why he felt death was the only option. Whereas the Duke, did not love his wife but saw her as a possession to show off in front of people. The painting mustiness surely work the way he wants it, as it is another thing to show off.