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Porphyria's Lover And My Last Duchess Essay

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Robert Browning was a poet known for his incorporation of dramatic monologue in his poetry. Today, he ranks among Alfred Lord Tennyson as one of the greatest Victorian era poets. Of Browning’s greatest poems, his two most moved are by the names of “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”. These poems have both similarities and differences. Three similarities of the poems “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess” are: They both deal with murder, One addresses only one lover and the other addresses two lovers, and they both have main character who have obvious mental issues. The first similarity between Last and Lover is that they both deal with murder. In Lover, Porphyria, the girl, comes home to her lover who is sitting in the pitch dark, unlit cabin while there is a storm outside. Porphyria …show more content…

This one is a given. Both of these characters murder at will, szo there is something wrong with them mentally. In “Porphyria’s Lover”, on page 984, lines 44-45, it states: “I warily oped her lids: again laughed the blue eyes without a stain”. This quote is very creepy and perfectly portrays this man’s mental state throughout this poem. In a journal article by Catherine Ross entitled “Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover”, she expands on the main character’s mental state: “ Many of Robert Browning’s early poems were part of what Isobel Armstrong has called a “systematic attempt to examine many kinds of neurotic or insane behavior, and in particular the pathology of sexual feeling” There are many theories out there that lead to the things that went on in these two men’s brains. Another author addresses the Duke’s mentality in “My Last Duchess”: “Because the Duke draws a curtain to display the painting to his auditor, some critics have compared him to a theatrical producer.” The main character’s mental states in both of these poems say a lot about their similarities and

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