Tuesday, January 21, 2020
How does Browning show the balance of power between men and women in :: English Literature
How does Browning show the balance of power between men and women in My Last Duchess and Porphryria's Lover? In these two poems Robert Browning shows the balance of power in male-female relationships. Both are very similar in the way that they portray the women having more power than they should have, and the men not having the power they think they should have. In the first poem, 'My Last Duchess', Browning shows the Duke not having full control over his wife, the Duchess. In the second poem, 'Porphyria's Lover', the narrator does not have control because she is in a higher class and cannot be with him and she would lower her class and she is not ready to give it up. In 'My Last Duchess', the Duke is talking to someone about the dead Duchess. He first refers to power over the Duchess in the poem when he says about the painting of her behind the curtain, and if anybody wants to see it they would have to ask him first, 'Since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I' This shows that he still has control over her even though she has passed on. After that he writes about how every little detail seemed to please her, 'She had A heart how shall I say... too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.' The Duke gets quite angry at this point, 'The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her,' This is about how a man broke into the orchard, took a bunch of cherry blossom and gave it to the duchess, and made her very pleased, which as you can understand he can give her far better things than a common man can give, 'As if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift.' He gave her his old and important family name which most women would give their happiness to have, when she married him, which in the Duke's eyes is better than anything else in the world. He says that to comment on this behaviour is stooping down to a lower level, 'And I choose Never to stoop' The Duchess's behaviour becomes beyond tolerable next, 'Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, When'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.' This greatly suggests that the Duke thought he had the power over the Duchess, and used it to order someone to kill her, although he doesn't directly say but he strongly hints it. But Browning cleverly wrote the
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