Amy Baysinger
9/16/2012
Both poems are similar in that they revolve around the theme of lost or unrequited love. The speakers, a man and a woman, are different in sexes but similar in their plights. Both are bitter, jealous, and seemingly unbothered by their losses (but their aloofness is also what gives away their feelings). Each speaker is having a conversation with an assumed good friend and explains the demise of their respecting relationships. Both hint at the idea of their partners’ flirting and infidelity as the breaking point. Sprea says “How slobbishly he carried on affairs” almost as if the speaker’s husband was so blatant about his cheating that he didn’t even try to hide it—an absolute insult to the ex-wife. Browning, however, is a little more subtle. “She thanked men,--good! But thanked somehow—I know not how.” Both spouses knew and tolerated it at first, but not in the end. I find it interesting how both speakers have such a nonchalant and, at least on the surface, indifferent view of their relationships. Understandably, the speakers try not to reveal their hurt feelings and egos but the reader can infer the pain in their words. “My Last Duchess” is, in my opinion, much more of a dominating man teaching a woman a lesson versus “My Ex-Husband,” which is a woman scorned. Both relationships ended badly but had a different path based on the speakers’ point of view. I find it interesting both poems start in a very similar way. “That’s my ex-husband pictured on the shelf” and “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall” echo the same sentiment. The respective relationships are going to badly and those left behind will undoubtedly have harsh feelings in the end.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
In this essay I will be commenting on the presentation of relationships in two poems. The first poem is ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’, in which the speaker remarks on her life before marriage, where she was adored and worshiped by men, and how it has changed after marriage. ‘My Last Duchess’ is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker comments on his late wife and her character, suggesting that she was unfaithful to him and hinting that he may have murdered her because of this.…
- 928 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Immediately Browning titles the story with a hint that suggests the story will describe ownership of one of many Duchess'. It also suggests through the name 'Duchess' that it is coming from a royal background rather than simply saying 'woman' or 'wife'. The story is about a Duke who decides to remove his wife from his life out of paranoia and jealousy, by murdering her. Browning is the writer and the listener, the Duke is the speaker and the story is told in a dramatic monologe. Another device I noticed is that Browning uses enjambment, this gives the poem rhythm and flow.…
- 906 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess contain many thematic similarities, despite portraying different scenarios, primarily spoken through a possessive and jealous man. In Porphyria’s Lover a man waits in his cottage for Porphyria. Her arrival “shut[s] the cold out and the storm” both literally and metaphorically. Porphyria confesses her undying love for the speaker, who, “happy and proud”, that Porphyria…
- 824 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Both of the writers have made their speakers very proud of things in their life, the duke in My Last Duchess is very proud of his 900 year old name he has given her and all his power and riches. But he is also very viscous in the poem and seems to not care about women as he treats them like objects in the time of patriarchal society “My Last Duchess” and “is my object”.…
- 768 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The ways in which the poems begin are quite different. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ Robert Browning starts by setting the scene, the mood at the beginning of the poem is very cold and gloomy as he describes the weather outside, using a personification of the wind, ‘the sullen wind was soon awake,’ but then as Porphyria enters the room the mood changes at once bringing warmth to poem, ‘When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm,’ I think this contrast in settings is very powerful and gives the reader a vivid but simple picture in their head. Whereas in ‘My last duchess’ I think that mood is quite bleak and stays like that throughout the poem as the Duke begins by showing off a painting of his wife to a guest and says that she looks as if she were alive, this immediately tells us that she is dead.…
- 1071 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Browning’s “ My last Duchess,” is not a romantic love story about the sudden death of a Duke’s wife. Instead it’s about an insecure and psychotic Duke who feels entitled to everything including his wife and kills her. Browning explores the mind of a lunatic and presenting his audience how men with power can basically get away with almost anything. he analyses issues of feminism, domestic violence, and a disorderly structure of Victorian society through his work in “My Last Duchess.”…
- 1096 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
‘My last duchess, the poem is set during the 19th century. The speaker who is the Duke of Ferrara is giving the tour of his prospective second wife a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting. As they look at the portrait of the Duchess, the Duke describes her happy, cheerful and flirtatious nature, which had displeased him. He says, "She had a heart or how shall I say? Too soon made glad" He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that not only her husband's presence was that made her happy. Eventually, "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together." He now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, meaning that now she only smiles for him…
- 813 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In these poems, both men are jealous of what their women were doing. In Lover, there are many reasons as to why he killed her, and jealousy is one of them. When she arrived at the cabin, he thought that is was a possibility that he had cheated on him. That is why, then, he murdered her. In Last, the Duke was yet another man who was jealous of his woman. In the poem, he says, “Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, whene’er I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile?” (Lines 43-45) Basically, he killed his wife because he was jealous that she was smiling at other guys. As William Penn once said, “the jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.” This quote relates to this essay because both of the jealous men were troublesome to their…
- 606 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“My Last Duchess” is told in first person with the narrator being a participant in the story. A painting of an ex-wife influences the narrator to tell the narratee of his ex-wife. As the narrator discusses the painting of his wife, he paints a picture of the woman for the reader. This gives the reader insight into the narrator’s emotions. What we know about the narrator is that he is a wealthy duke about to get remarried. By the duke’s tone of voice and choice of words when he rants on about the painting of his last duchess, the reader also can assume that duke’s jealously has driven him to murder his last wife. For example, the duke states “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands As if alive.”(Browning 418). This point of view and how the story is told is interesting and shapes the story. As the duke ponders and speaks of the painting it is as if his emotions of love, jealously, and anger are provoked just as if she was still there. Also, this point of view allows the narrator too slowly, and maybe accidently, revile his madness to the reader and the narratee. What motivates the narrator to tell the story is unknown. We know that the narratee is associated with the narrator’s soon to be wife, so we have to wonder why the duke is…
- 872 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Browning was an author of two very eerie and dramatic monologues known as, Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess. Although both poems have very related themes, they still contrast in ways that are too apparent to go unnoticed. You clearly recognize the similarities of both writings in the way that oddly enough, both point of views come from insecure men and they both irrationally kill the women they claim to love. Similarities are also found by the way both men react to the psychotic crimes they have committed. Obvious differences of both writings are found by taking a more in depth look into the stories. In doing so it is found that the class…
- 1223 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Worthwhile literature has four basic elements, or characteristics that help to qualify a work as a worthwhile piece of literature. The four characteristics that help determine a piece of literature to be worthy of reading and studying are that it creates a lasting impression, it stretches the reader’s imagination, it is an aesthetically pleasing experience, and finally, it communicates across cultural boundaries. According to this perception of worthwhile literature, if the piece does not achieve these goals, then it would be fair to say that it is not a worthwhile piece of literature. In this essay, the piece of “My Last Duchess” will be explored and it will be determined whether or not this work is a piece of worthwhile literature.…
- 1490 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Browning presents the relationship between men and women in the two poems in a number of ways. Such as mans power over women, women as possessions/belongings/treated like children, women in their traditional role, the death of the women, men as inhuman/ uncaring and how the male character feels about the death of his wife/lover. All of these points are shown and used by Robert Browning in the two poems, Porphirias Lover and My Last Duchess.…
- 1345 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Browning sets the tone of "My Last Duchess," by using three significant poetic techniques, one of which is imagery. Browning uses the Duke's monologue to sketch out images in the reader's mind of the Duchess herself, and the sinister personality of the Duke. Browning also uses another key device, which is diction to illustrate the darkness in this poem. Browning's careful word choice adds to the description of the Duchess and perhaps her disgraceful behavior, as well as the Duke's terrifying jealousy, and expectations. Finally, Browning also uses symbolism, which is instrumental in showing the Duke's jealousy, which possibly could have led to the Duchess' demise. Robert Browning is able to achieve a haunting, mysterious, and eerie tone…
- 869 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The poems I chose, “Havisham” and "Love After Love", are comparable, with their common subject of how a person responds to the end of a relationship, but they are very contrasting in the paths they take. The persona in “Love After Love” talks about returning to yourself and loving who you are: without the need for someone else, “You will love again the stranger who was yourself” as if you lose yourself in a relationship so much that you need to learn how to look after yourself again. Whereas “Havisham” shows the result of not letting go and dwelling in old memories, “Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall”, the decay of the relationship is shown in the desperation of the character. Firstly, the structure of the two poems represent the anarchy of love: its unpredictable nature and lasting devastation.…
- 550 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Browning is the author of the poem “my last duchess”. He is a son of Robert Browning, a Bank of England clerk, and Sarah Anna Wiedemann, of Scottish-German descent, Browning received little formal education. His learning was gleaned mainly from his Father's library at home in Camberwell, South London, where he learnt something, with his Father's help, of Latin and Greek. Though he attended lectures at the University of London in 1828, Browning left after only one session. Browning lived with his parents in London until his marriage of 1846.…
- 754 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays