The poems “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” are dramatic monologues written by Robert Browning in 1842. Browning was a writer that knew little fame while he was alive, but has since become an important and influential author. The short stories were part of a collection of poems, Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics, which were mostly ignored while Browning was alive due to previous failure earlier in his career. This collection, along with another Bells and Pomegranates No. VII: Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), “are often considered to be among the poet 's best work, containing many of his most well-known poems.”() “My Last Duchess” and “Porphyria’s Lover” contain similar context in which the social status of each speaker,
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The Duke in “My Last Duchess” comes from a long line of nobles which gives him a sense of authority and respect that should be admired and adhered to at all times, especially from his spouse. He displays his dismay at his late wife’s behavior to his guest. “She thanked men, -- good! but thanked somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift,” is a line in the poem in which a glimmer of the Duke’s anger is shown at the disregard his spouse has for him and his social standing. The Duke’s viewpoint shows that he cares much for his status, unlike the unknown speaker in Porphyria’s Lover. He seems to wallow in self-pity at the beginning of the poem, sitting in a dark and drearily cold room alone waiting for Porphyria. Also, during Porphyria’s speech to him, it is interpreted that she is from a higher social standing than he, which is why she is so torn about their torrid affair. This lack of social standing for the unknown speaker and the Duke’s obsession with his give each a sense of arrogance that can be interpreted as a symptom of narcissism. Narcissistic personality disorder, or “a …show more content…
Although each came from opposite ends of the social ladder, they both felt entitled. The narcissism that encompassed each speaker feels familiar even though the tone of the two stories is profoundly different, in which they feel entitled to the love of a woman, but have not earned
The Duke in “My Last Duchess” comes from a long line of nobles which gives him a sense of authority and respect that should be admired and adhered to at all times, especially from his spouse. He displays his dismay at his late wife’s behavior to his guest. “She thanked men, -- good! but thanked somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift,” is a line in the poem in which a glimmer of the Duke’s anger is shown at the disregard his spouse has for him and his social standing. The Duke’s viewpoint shows that he cares much for his status, unlike the unknown speaker in Porphyria’s Lover. He seems to wallow in self-pity at the beginning of the poem, sitting in a dark and drearily cold room alone waiting for Porphyria. Also, during Porphyria’s speech to him, it is interpreted that she is from a higher social standing than he, which is why she is so torn about their torrid affair. This lack of social standing for the unknown speaker and the Duke’s obsession with his give each a sense of arrogance that can be interpreted as a symptom of narcissism. Narcissistic personality disorder, or “a …show more content…
Although each came from opposite ends of the social ladder, they both felt entitled. The narcissism that encompassed each speaker feels familiar even though the tone of the two stories is profoundly different, in which they feel entitled to the love of a woman, but have not earned