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Lost Love or Obsession
There are dark emotions explicitly seen in “My last Duchess” throughout. Glancing across the sea to the American poet Edgar Allan Poe, one discovers much of the same ghoulish obsession with obscurity observed in Browning's poetry. However, Poe's work seems to be deficient in the mockery found in Browning's work. Poe’s poem frequently disparate and is often admired as one of the most beautiful love poems of the English language. It may not attribute the same altitude of wickedness found in "My Last Duchess", but the aspiration to eternally preserve an obsessive relationship is on the other hand the same.
Robert Browning’s is a compelling dramatic monologue that evokes a sense of oppression, obsession, …show more content…
The duke is evidently a noble, who derived his power from family name and wealth. He wants to control everything and everyone, including his wife. His need for control his mirrored in his relationship with the count’s agent. He is a patriarchal figure, who views himself as the more significant of the two sexes. He is proud of his “nine-hundred-years name” (Browning 33) and is upset that his wife could only treat him like she treated other men. He could not comprehend how such a woman, from a lower social class, could possibly not be under his control. To him, she was an object for him to possess and when he fails to do so, he commands his juniors to execute her. This way, he can own her, in the form of a portrait on the wall. His place at the pinnacle of the social hierarchy is well-known, and he indicates his wealth, tied to status, in pointing out a painting of Neptune taming a sea-horse, “which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze” specifically for him (Browning 56). Although not much is explicitly revealed about the background of Poe’s speaker, a reader can gather that his social class background differed from that of Annabel. The difference in social backgrounds puts a strain on their relationship despite the fact that they “loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe 9). The speaker mentions that when Annabel died, “her highborn kinsmen came and bore her away …show more content…
The speaker in Annabel Lee contends that the neither angels nor devils could take away the love he shared with Annabel. He could still “feel the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 36). Every night, he performs the ritual of lying by her side “in her tomb by the sounding sea” (Poe 38). By doing so, the narrator convinces himself that their love is still alive, and it will never end. Similarly, the duke considers himself triumphant after the duchess’s death. His desire was to gain control over her; to make her his object. She is worth no more than the painting that he
Course:
Tutor:
Date:
Lost Love or Obsession
There are dark emotions explicitly seen in “My last Duchess” throughout. Glancing across the sea to the American poet Edgar Allan Poe, one discovers much of the same ghoulish obsession with obscurity observed in Browning's poetry. However, Poe's work seems to be deficient in the mockery found in Browning's work. Poe’s poem frequently disparate and is often admired as one of the most beautiful love poems of the English language. It may not attribute the same altitude of wickedness found in "My Last Duchess", but the aspiration to eternally preserve an obsessive relationship is on the other hand the same.
Robert Browning’s is a compelling dramatic monologue that evokes a sense of oppression, obsession, …show more content…
The duke is evidently a noble, who derived his power from family name and wealth. He wants to control everything and everyone, including his wife. His need for control his mirrored in his relationship with the count’s agent. He is a patriarchal figure, who views himself as the more significant of the two sexes. He is proud of his “nine-hundred-years name” (Browning 33) and is upset that his wife could only treat him like she treated other men. He could not comprehend how such a woman, from a lower social class, could possibly not be under his control. To him, she was an object for him to possess and when he fails to do so, he commands his juniors to execute her. This way, he can own her, in the form of a portrait on the wall. His place at the pinnacle of the social hierarchy is well-known, and he indicates his wealth, tied to status, in pointing out a painting of Neptune taming a sea-horse, “which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze” specifically for him (Browning 56). Although not much is explicitly revealed about the background of Poe’s speaker, a reader can gather that his social class background differed from that of Annabel. The difference in social backgrounds puts a strain on their relationship despite the fact that they “loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe 9). The speaker mentions that when Annabel died, “her highborn kinsmen came and bore her away …show more content…
The speaker in Annabel Lee contends that the neither angels nor devils could take away the love he shared with Annabel. He could still “feel the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 36). Every night, he performs the ritual of lying by her side “in her tomb by the sounding sea” (Poe 38). By doing so, the narrator convinces himself that their love is still alive, and it will never end. Similarly, the duke considers himself triumphant after the duchess’s death. His desire was to gain control over her; to make her his object. She is worth no more than the painting that he