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

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.

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

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

L’io nello sguardo dell’altra. L’arte del monologo di Claudio Magris

The current essay aims to highlighting a few aspects of the fine ‘art of the monologue’ practiced by Claudio Magris in his remarkable theatrical achievements (three dramatic monologues and two choral plays), in particular, on his most compelling play, Lei dunque capirà (2006). On one hand, the play highlights his masterly use of the stylistic/dialogic capacity of the monologue on stage and, on the other, it offers an unprecedented and extraordinary (parodic) re-actualization of the myth of Orpheus.

The Artist and her Work in Carol Ann Duffy’s Poetry

Abstarct The author analyses Carol Ann Duffy’s dramatic monologues and revisionist myths in Standing Female Nude and The World’s Wife that centre on speakers who are either fashioned into objects of art or that become artists themselves. In the process, the author demonstrates that Duffy deconstructs the practice of objectification and undermines humanist philosophy. At the same time, Duffy appears to reconcile the postmodern dispersal of the subject with a sense of creative agency and autonomy, unmaking archetypes while weaving together an inclusive plurality of voices engaged in both social critique and creative praxis.

Robert Browning, Augusta Webster and the Role of Morality

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.

Socio-literary Study of Robert Browning and Darwesh Durrani’s Dramatic Monologues: A Comparative Literary Approach

Previous literature is laden with research on Browning’s dramatic monologues from various perspectives. This paper will compare Browning’s dramatic monologues with Derwesh Durrani’s poetry from socio-literary perspective. Literary theories of analogy and variation will be used to find out similarities and differences in their poetry. Two poems from each poet have been selected for analysis through close reading technique on the model of theories of variation and analogy. Stratified sampling technique was used for taking the representative sample from the data. The findings reveals that Darwesh’s poetry exhibits most of the dramatic features of Browning’s dramatic monologues, but his poetry is more poetic, while Browning’s poetry is more dramatic; Browning invigorates the past, Darwesh recreates the present. In addition, Browning’s poems deals with domestic issues like gender violence, love and marriage, Darwesh’s poetry deals with social issues and patriotism, and contrary to Browning, he stands for women’s rights and sensibilities. This paper suggests further studies purely from socio-cultural perspective of Darwesh’s dramatic monologues, which will contribute to the existing literature on dramatic monologues.

Monologue and Dialogue

With the telling and retelling of stories by the narrator and characters, Homer’s Odyssey seems to invite the reworking of episodes and characters in new forms. Modern poets favour the dramatic monologue for entering into dialogue with a revered canonical text, often in an irreverent or subversive manner. Dramatic monologues are crucial to the revisionist mythology of women writers, often representing female characters who are peripheral and largely silent in classical texts in order to articulate some element of the story that was previously untold. Poets such as Linda Pastan, Carol Ann Duffy, Louise Glück, and Judith Kazantzis use monologue and dialogue to create reworkings of the Odyssey that relocate Odysseus to the margins of the story and question the importance of his heroic adventures.