English Literature

Browning belonged to the Victorian Age, an age where love co-existed with confusion, religion, and unrest. At his best, Browning is a poet of love. His works depict the various shades of emotion, whether it is the smooth stream of ideal spiritual love in The Last Ride Together, or the complexities of mind and nature of love in Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess.

To draw a comparison between Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess, it is important to understand the common thread between these two poems. Both are dramatic monologues in which the lover narrates his tale of love and agony. While in Porphyrias Lover we find a rigid and abnormal man narrating how he made Porphyrias love for him eternal, in My Last Duchess we find a cultured and suave man boasting about his last duchess and how he controlled her.

Brownings genius is essentially dramatic. He creates a character and puts it in a particular situation, in which the character speaks out his mind and the whole worth of his being. This type of poetry traces its origin to Chaucer and is successfully practiced by John Donne in his innumerable love lyrics. Brownings monologues are addressed to a character or a group of characters and, the presence of a listener is suggested.
Porphyrias Lover is a poem of abnormal love. In the poem, Porphyrias lover lives in a cottage in the countryside. One stormy night, his lady love Porphyria arrives. She tells him that she overcomes the social pressures to be with him. He understands that she will give to the social pressures one day. Hence, to preserve her love, he strangles her with her own golden locks.

In My Last Duchess, the Duke looks at the painting of his last duchess and trails off to the past. He speaks about the admirers of the duchess beauty and the flirtatious reactions of the duchess of them. Then he speaks about how he ends all this by killing the duchess.

THEME - The central theme in both poems is love. Also, the need to preserve love for ones self. Both lovers wanted to keep their women just for them. While Porphyrias boldness irked her lover to keep her consisted within himself, the Duchess flirtatious nature forced her husband to control her. What other means could the lovers have adopted but to kill the women they loved This can very well be routed to jealousy and abnormal psychology, which very much forms the theme of the poems. In fact, when Browning explored the theme of jealousy and possessive male in these two poems, he very aptly has taken clue from Shakespeares character of Othello and Leontes.

THE LOVERS - What separates the lover in Porphyrias Lover and the one in My last Duchess is the nature of their monologue. While Porphyrias lovers decision to kill her is unexpected, the Duke performs a much planned murder. The similarity is that both murderers make the readers believe that their victims are still alive by propping them up or depicting them in a canvas, forcing the beloved into submission. However, Porphyrias lover is an abnormal man who does not realize the repercussions of his act he also conducts it without much afterthought. The Duke however is much more suave and composed. He kills the duchess in a cold-blooded manner and he boasts about how he preserves his ladys love. Also, he is ready for another marriage. Thus, his love is no less than a manifestation of his honor, which he is unable to preserve. We get a feeling that when Porphyrias lover realizes what he has done, it will be two late. The structure of the two poems is essential in differentiating the two characters.

BROWNINGS TREATMENT OF LOVE - Brownings treatment of love in the poems is very unique. In both works, he advocates death as the best way to preserve love and chastity. However, he does not necessarily abide by it. These two characters of Browning are very different. He has not dealt with jealousy or fierce will to possess love in any other of his works so strongly. Browning however hints at possessing love and going to any degree to do the same. What is important is that he gives relative thought to sexual love and the different repercussions it has. Browning never proves or strongly says that death is the only way to preserve love, as both lovers are in certain misery.

Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess are extremely interesting read in light of love, human complexities and insecurities. What makes both of them so effective is the manner of rendition. It is interesting to note how the lovers are speaking out their mind. While Porphyrias lover gives out blatant details about his feelings, thoughts and the act he commits, the Duke is far more poised and carefully selects his sentences. Again, while Porphyria gives herself to the lover and the lover is not able to understand how to preserve it, the Duchess gives herself to her own will and the Duke is not able to accept it. Both these relationships have something in common  the need to possess, punish and preserve.

Even Porphyrias Lover wants to punish her for her boldness. If his psychology is dissected, it can be understood that Porphyrias submission to him makes him think that she might do that for other men as well. Hence, his jealousy is well rooted in his insecurity and complexity of mind.