scholarly journals Insanity and Murder in Robert Browning’ and Robert Lowell’s Dramatic Monologues

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maha Qahtan Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Robert Browning ◽  
Dramatic Monologues

Robert Browning, Augusta Webster and the Role of Morality

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-231
Author(s):  
Patrick Fessenbecker
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Robert Browning ◽  
Augusta Webster ◽  
Dramatic Monologues

It has sometimes been asserted that a refusal of straightforward communication is definitive of literature as such, or at least definitive of poetry. Such a definition is however not neutral; it reflects instead a preference for certain poets and poetic styles over others. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues have occasionally been presented as his greatest poetic achievement, highlighting the ironic distancing supposedly central to poetics. However, a look at Augusta Webster’s contemporaneous dramatic monologues reveals that Browning’s irony does not define the genre: Webster uses the form not to create distance between the speaker and the reader but to highlight the intellectual problem she is addressing. Looking at how both poets addressed the role of morality in human life, the chapter contends Webster’s poetry demonstrates that many poetic traditions have emphasized content just as much as form.

scholarly journals Insanity and Murder in Robert Browning’ and Robert Lowell’s Dramatic Monologues

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maha Qahtan Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Robert Browning ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Main Character ◽  
True Self ◽  
Dramatic Monologue ◽  
Critical Situation ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
Dramatic Monologues ◽  
The Mind

The study aims at fathoming Robert Browning’ and Robert Lowell’s intentions of choosing the dramatic monologue as a means of exploring human psyche. Significantly, the themes of insanity and murder are not ideal from an esthetic perspective, but for Browning and Lowell it provides the key to probe into human character and fundamental motives. This study examines Browning’ and Lowell’s dramatic monologues that address crime and the psyche of abnormal men. Browning’ and Lowell’s poetry in this regard unravels complicated human motivations and delineates morbid psychologies. Their monologues probe deep down into the mind-sets of their characters and dissect their souls to the readers. The main character of each of Browning’s dramatic monologues, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover; discloses his true self, mental health, and moral values through his monologue in a critical situation. Ironically, each monologue invites the reader to detect the disparity between what the character believes the story to be and the reality of the situation detected through the poem. In Lowell’s The Mills of the Kavanaughs, the monologue is delivered by the victim herself. Yet, the fact that the poem reflects Lowell’s individual experience and trauma indicates that the monologue is delivered by the poet-victimizer as well.

scholarly journals Insanity and Murder in Robert Browning’ and Robert Lowell’s Dramatic Monologues

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Maha Qahtan Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Robert Browning ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Main Character ◽  
True Self ◽  
Dramatic Monologue ◽  
Critical Situation ◽  
Human Psyche ◽  
Dramatic Monologues ◽  
The Mind

The study aims at fathoming Robert Browning’ and Robert Lowell’s intentions of choosing the dramatic monologue as a means of exploring human psyche. Significantly, the themes of insanity and murder are not ideal from an esthetic perspective, but for Browning and Lowell it provides the key to probe into human character and fundamental motives. This study examines Browning’ and Lowell’s dramatic monologues that address crime and the psyche of abnormal men. Browning’ and Lowell’s poetry in this regard unravels complicated human motivations and delineates morbid psychologies. Their monologues probe deep down into the mind-sets of their characters and dissect their souls to the readers. The main character of each of Browning’s dramatic monologues, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover; discloses his true self, mental health, and moral values through his monologue in a critical situation. Ironically, each monologue invites the reader to detect the disparity between what the character believes the story to be and the reality of the situation detected through the poem. In Lowell’s The Mills of the Kavanaughs, the monologue is delivered by the victim herself. Yet, the fact that the poem reflects Lowell’s individual experience and trauma indicates that the monologue is delivered by the poet-victimizer as well

CHANCE, PROVIDENCE, AND IMPERIAL ENNUI IN ALFRED DOMETT’S RANOLF AND AMOHIA: A SOUTH-SEA DAY-DREAM

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-341
Author(s):  
Hugh Roberts
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Close Friend ◽  
Robert Browning ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
South Sea ◽  
Partial Retirement

“I have read your poems – you can do anything” wrote Robert Browning to his close friend Alfred Domett on May 22, 1842, shortly after the latter had emigrated to New Zealand (Browning, Domett and Arnould 35). If this was in part friendly overpraise of Domett's verse, it was also a prognostication as to the effect of emigration. The idea (which also underlies Browning's poetic treatment of Domett's departure in the figure of Waring who “gave us all the slip”) was that “partial retirement and stopping the ears against the noise outside” would open up the possibility of something startlingly new: the little I, or anybody, can do as it is, comes of them going to New Zealand. . . . What I meant to say was – that only in your present condition of life, so far as I can see, is there any chance of your being able to find out . . . (sic) what is wanted, and how to supply the want when you precisely find it (35).

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