Robert Browning

     - Developed dramatic monologue after his long poem Sordello (1840) was widely criticized.  He wanted a method of allowing the reader to see behind the mask of the speaker in the poem.  If the speaker is talking to someone else rather than us, then we can get some insight into the person's viewpoint.

A dramatic monologue is a conversation between two (or more) people, but you only hear one side of it.   It's like listening to a friend on the telephone & trying to figure out the rest of the conversation.  Gives insight into personality of speaker because they aren’t tailoring conversation to please you, the eavesdropper.

     Developed this because he was criticized by John Stuart Mill for being too impersonal in his writing.
 

"Porphyria’s Lover"

• Storm is brewing.
• pathetic fallacy= events in nature parallel events in poem.  We think nature feels our pain.
• Porphyria comes in from the storm.
• He realizes she loves, worships him. She is willing to leave her family for him, which she apparently was not willing to do before.
• Decides to kill her to preserve this perfect moment.  Strangles her with her own hair, then tries to make her look as if there was no struggle.
• This story is similar to the one in the movie River's Edge, where a highschool boy kills his girlfriend.  Dennis Hopper later asked the boy, "Did you love her?"  "She was ok," he replied.
• Romantic hero because his outlook is so different.  This period was fascinated with the extremes of consciousness.  Edgar Allen Poe wrote many stories about people with altered perceptions of reality.

"Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"

• Everything about Bro. Lawrence bothers his fellow monk. How well do you get along with YOUR roommate?
• Speaker is a monk and has sworn oath to love his neighbor but is filled with hate. He’s a hypocrite.
• Doesn’t understand true meaning of Christianity.
• Monks go apart from the world to avoid being distracted from their worship of God.  This monk has only allowed himself to be distracted over pettier events.

 

 

Stanza 1

• He watches Bro. Lawrence tending his plants & finds him unsufferable.

 

 

Stanza 2

• Now he's complaining about Bro. Lawrence's dinner conversation. The things  Bro. Lawrence says are just typical small talk, but the monk can't stand it.
• "salve tibi" = "hail to you," the standard Latin greeting.

 

 

What's the Latin name for "parsley?"
What's the Greek name for Swine's Snout?  rugcoV, runchos

• The monk is upset with  Bro. Lawrence's tedious questions.  He thinks to himself the response about Swine's Snout.  Swine's Snout = dandelions, but it also means  Bro. Lawrence.

 

 
 
 

Stanza 3
• The monk also can't stand the careful way that  Bro. Lawrence washes his plate.  "Rinsed like something sacrificial."
• But St. Benedict had told his monks to treat pots and pans in the kitchen as reverently as they handled the crucifix in the sanctuary because this too is God's world.  So  Bro. Lawrence is doing what he should.

 

 

Stanza4

• Thinks  Bro. Lawrence is watching "brown Dolores" & Sanchicha" "steeping tresses in the tank."  Obviously it is this monk who watches them, who feels lust as well as hate.

 

 

Stanza 5

• He drinks orange juice in three sips to show his belief in the Trinity.   Bro. Lawrence drinks in one gulp.  Notice how the monk values legalism over love.

 

 

Stanza 6

• Snips  Bro. Lawrence's buds off out of meaness.   He hates  Bro. Lawrence so much, he'll miss getting a slice of melon just for the pleasure of making  Bro. Lawrence's plants not grow. He'll cut off his nose to spite his face.

 

 

Stanza 7

• Wants to cause Lawrence to commit a sin while on his deathbed so he’ll be damned to Hell.

 

 

Stanza 8

• We see more of the monks lust.  He has a "scrofulous" (immoral) French novel in his room.  What's he doing with it?
• He'll get the monk to read the good part & be condemned for lust.

 

 

Stanza 9

• Would make a deal with the devil to destroy Lawrence’s rosebush. How extreme is that?

"My Last Duchess (pg 1985)"

• Dramatic monologue between emissary and Duke. They’re arranging second marriage
• between Duke and a girl. The emissary represents her father.  Marriages were arranged.
• Indicates that he had first wife killed because he was jealous.
• Hated her because she was too nice, because she'd smile at anybody.
• Couldn’t stand her because she was too easily impressed. She liked simple things. Esteemed them as high as his "900-yr old name".
• Wants dowery to be paid for marrying second duchess. Considers women to be objects - possessions.

"The Bishop Orders His Tomb" (1987)

• This is at a church in Rome.  The bishop is dying & is telling what he wants on his tomb.  He has a nice spot in the church picked out for his vault & he wants it nicely decorated.
• 3 "Nephews - sons"  They are really his sons, but he's been calling them his nephews because as a bishop he's not supposed to have a wife.
• Seeks immortality through his tomb.
• 35 He stole lapis lazuli (a precious blue stone) from one of his churches, then burned the church to cover up the crime.  Tells them where to find it.
• 45  He fears they'll steal it themselves & sell it.  Reminds them that he's given them villas.
• 55ff His decorations will be a mix of pagan and Christian - Jesus preaching next to Pan ripping off a nymphs clothes.
• 99 "elucescebat" = he was illustrious.  Not very good Latin.  Should have been "elucebat."