Compare “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” showing how Browning conveys the characters in these two dramatic monologues and how he builds up their evil and sinister ways.
These two dramatic monologues lend themselves to an exploration of psychology. In both the speaker reveals himself gradually to an unnamed audience. In both cases the narrators have committed the crime of murder. A menacing premise for the speech itself. It is the tone in which they reveal their misdemeanors, the circumstances surrounding their actions and their responses to their crimes that make these poems particularly chilling.
In My Last Duchess the protagonist giving the dramatic monologue is the Duke. He is presented in many ways throughout the poem, one being self centered. This is shown when he says such things as ‘I chose never to stoop’, meaning that he would never lower himself to her level, demeaning her and putting himself on a pedestal. He is also seen as quite egotistic in that he arranges her death just so that she couldn’t smile upon another man apart from those he revealed the painting to. It is stated that he had killed her when he informs the envoy count; “This grew; I gave commands: / then all smiles stopped together”. He is also shown as extremely possessive. This is seen in how he keeps referring to her as ‘my’ last duchess. This emphasizes his desire to control her as a possession and not see her as a human being.
In Porphyria’s lover, the narrator is Porphyria’s lover. We are not sure whether the narrator could be a man, or a woman, and is one of the secrets of the poem. He is more emotional and thoughtful than the Duke is in that he always thought of what Porphyria would have wanted first, even if they did kill her, he thought it was what she would have wanted. They wanted to preserve the moment in which they truly thought she loved him and that she wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. What is also different from the two characters is that the lover sees Porphyria on the same level of importance. Porphyria’s lover has a true ‘love’ hidden within, whereas in My Last Duchess, the woman is just seen as an object.
In My Last Duchess, the aim of the murder was to remove the source of jealousy for the Duke. It was calculated and well planned, making it cold and bitter. It was fueled out of the Duke’s egotistic personality as he did not think of her, he only thought of himself. Although the murder in general was still quite horrific, the purpose of the murder was to preserve a beautiful moment that one lover thought was the peak of their relationship. It was a crime of deep passion, not out of cold blooded murder.
The Duke’s motive was to obliterate his jealousy by killing the source of it, this being the Duchess. Since he did not have full control of his wife, he took it upon himself to decide that no-one else should have control of her life, including the Duchess herself. He complained about her being “too soon made glad, too easily impressed.” Porphyria’s lover is different. There are two men in a relationship with this woman. Porphyria’s lover felt as if they were sharing her, and that sometime ‘passion would prevail’ meaning that their passion wasn’t expressed often, or not very often.
In My Last Duchess, the Duke uses a short and informative tone. He also expresses quite a proud and hubristic feel to his speech. He seems polite at times, but I think that he is just trying to point out the snob in him. It’s as if he puts everyone below him. He sees himself as the best, and that killing his wife would be below his level, therefore he gets someone else to do it for him. Porphyria’s lover is different, in that the tone right from the start of the poem sets a very gloomy, stormy night. We are given the impression of a storm brewing, not just outside the cabin, but inside also. When Porphyria and her lover snuggle up, we get a really tensile atmosphere brewing. He shows a really possessive side to his personality, giving a really creepy and eerie feel right from the start.
In both poems, the silent listener doesn’t say anything, but we have a slight idea on who the silent listener is. In My Last Duchess, we are sure that the audience is the count’s envoy, but with Porphyria’s lover, we do not know for certain. Two theories believe that it’s either Porphyria’s dead body, or it could be him telling the story to a friend or confessional box.
In My Last Duchess, the setting is a historic house in the renaissance period. We are given the mere image of The Duke’s Last Duchess, which in one way, he now has control of. My interpretation of where they are is a long Victorian hallway where loads of art is hung upon the walls or shown on a mantel piece all the way down, but the painting of his Last Duchess is the only one with a curtain and a chair in front of it. It’s the last one, and by far the most eye-catching. The setting of Porphyria’s lover is a lot different. I feel as if it gives a stormy atmosphere, not just outside the cabin, but also inside where we are given hints that tension is building, right from when the lover is upset that Porphyria was late, and she came inside really wet. We are told of a burning fireplace lighting up the room, revealing the two of them.
My Last Duchess’ form is written in rhyming pentameter lines. It uses enjambment which is where sentences and punctuation do not exist at the end of lines. The poem is a good example of a dramatic monologue where the protagonist reveals himself to an invisible audience. Porphyria’s lover has an odd rhyming pattern compared to the last Duchess, which could suggest the madness inside the lover. Browning also was the pathetic fallacy to describe the foul weather. In addition, like most of Browning’s poems, it is written as a dramatic monologue. However we are left to guess the invisible audience, perhaps the lover is trying to justify his doings and therefore is reciting what happened to himself, to justify what he has done.
I feel that overall Porphyria’s Lover is the better poem. I am more positive towards this dramatic monologue because I like the idea of the audience using their own imagination to reenact the composition in their minds. By this I mean that we are to guess who the audience is, and create our own setting in our minds. Also the way you can look at the murder, in that it can be seen from the love or just cold blooded murder.
