Comparing 'My Last Duchess And Porphyria's Lover'

Different But The Same
(Comparing and contrasting My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover) Robert Browning is one of the best writers when it comes to dramatic monologues. Dramatic monologue is a poem where a person is speaking to an intended audience about something that they feel strongly about. There are two questions that you ask when reading dramatic monologues they are: Who is the speaker? And who is the speaker speaking to? Robert Browning is known for some of the most influential dramatic monologues that we study today. Two of his best dramatic monologues are My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover which happen to have a lot of things in common and many differences. One thing Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess have in common is in both poems a man is talking about killing their loved one. In the poem My Last Duchess a duke is talking to a person who is talking to him about his next wife when, he shows him this portrait of a
There are many ways to interpret this poem many readers think that they are simply supposed to be poems about killing your loved one but, there are messages inside of them. “The actions of “Porphyria's Lover” unfolds through the recounting of the events of on night--culminating in the murder of Porphyria--by the speaker of the poem.” (Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale, 2002. N. pag. Literature Resource Center.) This is telling us that guys don’t know what they are capable of doing and how far they may go. In My Last Duchess we are told of a totally different message, in this poem we are told the duke kills his duchess because she smiles to much, it's a poem of how men want all control in a relationship. “Most Critics consider the central theme of “My Last Duchess” to be an attack on the arrogance and abuse of power on the part of the aristocracy.” (Detroit: Gale, 2009. N. pag. Literature Resource