Dramatic Monologue: Love and Death

Christina Rossetti

and Robert Browning

Outline– “Song” (“When I’m Dear, My

Dearest”)– Christina Rossetti – Dramatic Monologue: Definition– “Song” as a Dramatic Monologue – “My Last Duchess” – “Porphyria’s Lover” – Robert Browning as a Victorian

Poet

Song

When I am dead, my dearest,Sing no sad songs for me;Plant thou no roses at my head,Nor shady cypress tree.Be the green grass above meWith showers and dewdrops wet;And if thou wilt, remember,And if thou wilt, forget.

Questions: • Repetition,

Pattern and Contrast?

• Meanings of the last two lines.

• Tone?

Song (2)

I shall not see the shadows,I shall not feel the rain;I shall not hear the nightingaleSing on as if in pain.And dreaming through the twilightThat doth not rise nor set,Haply I may remember,And haply may forget.

• [1st stanza]• No sad song,

roses, • shady Cypress

tree• Green grass

wet with rain and dewdrops

A Song version: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/plockinger1.html.edit 羅大佑’ s version

“Song” –Multiple Meanings

1. Release: Death as a release; no need for mourning ritual or obsession;

2. Reluctance: Death being an eternal midnight, the speaker rejects what she knows she cannot enjoy, and her enumeration of them reveals her love (e.g. nature and natural cycles);

3. Both. 4. A woman talking about her own death,

but not used as a symbol by men.

Christina Georgina Rossetti in Context (1830-1894)

• Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sister but not accepted as a member of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood;

• serve as Dante Gabriel Rossetti's model for virgin

• contradictory images produced by DGR:

• (top to bottom): an innocent girl, tempestuous one, a serious and aloof woman.

• vs. the Pre-Raphaelite Women

CR as Virgin

Ecce Ancilla Domini,1850  Dante Gabriel Rossetti,

CR as a Writer• Seen as a ‘simple’ writer by her

brother William Michael R and other male critics (e.g. "at best a spontaneous and at worst a naive technician.")

• Writer of religious poetry and children’s nursery rhymes.

• Like Dickinson, hers is poetry of reticence (沈默寡言 ), deals with loss and death a lot. The language, only apparently simple, is rich with ambiguities. (They also have a lot of religious poems.)

Dramatic Monologue • A poem which involves a

speaker speaking alone to a and an implied auditor.

• Through his speech, the following is revealed: – what, when, where and how of

“the story”; – “a gap between what that

speaker says and what he or she actually reveals” (reference).

Dramatic Monologue & the Reader• Browninesque dramatic monologue

has three requirements: • The reader takes the part of the

silent listener. • The speaker uses a case-making,

argumentative tone. • We complete the dramatic scene

from within, by means of inference and imagination.

3. (Glenn Everett reference).

“Song” as a Dramatic Monologue• Dramatic Situation and listener

(my dearest): unknown

• Contradiction between the speaker’s intention and what she actually reveals.

• We can write the story in many ways.

Dramatic Monologue in Historical Context• The poets’ meeting the readers’

need for stories in Victorian society, when novel was a popular genre.

• A device to explore the depth of human psychology and the theme of alientation– by assuming an personae (often quite alien to the poet’s own values and beliefs)

• e.g. The Waste Land, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

“My Last Duchess”: Starting Question 1. The "who, where, when, and why" of the

poem? 2. The role the listener plays in this poem? 2. What is the last duchess like? (See ll. 21-

34) Why is she called the “last” duchess? Is she a flirt or one with genuine kindness to all creatures?

3. What is the duke's attitude to his duchess? What happened to her?

4. What kind of person is the duke? What does the ending reveal about him?

“My Last Duchess” (1)FerraraThat's my last Duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive. I callThat piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's handsWorked busily a day, and there she stands.Will't please you sit and look at her? I said"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never readStrangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance,But to myself they turned (since none puts byThe curtain I have drawn for you, but I)                      

“My Last Duchess” (2)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,How such a glance came there; so, not the firstAre you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas notHer husband's presence only, called that spotOf joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhapsFrà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle lapsOver my Lady's wrist too much," or "PaintMust never hope to reproduce the faintHalf-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

“My Last Duchess” (3)

For calling up that spot of joy. She hadA heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,Too easily impressed; she liked whate'erShe looked on, and her looks went everywhere.Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,The dropping of the daylight in the West,The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white muleShe rode with round the terrace -- all and eachWould draw from her alike the approving speech,

“My Last Duchess” (4) Or blush, at least. She thanked men, -- good! but thankedSomehow -- I know not how -- as if she rankedMy gift of a nine-hundred-years-old nameWith anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blameThis sort of trifling? Even had you skillIn speech -- (which I have not) -- to make your willQuite clear to such an one, and say, "Just thisOr that in you disgusts me; here you miss,Or there exceed the mark" -- and if she letHerself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

“My Last Duchess” (5)

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,--E'en then would be some stooping, and I chooseNever to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,Whene'er I passed her; but who passed withoutMuch the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;Then all smiles stopped together. There she standsAs if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meetThe company below, then. I repeat, The Count your master's known munificenceIs ample warrant that no just pretence     

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;           

“My Last Duchess” (6)

Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowedAt starting, is my object. Nay, we'll goTogether down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!          

“My Last Duchess”

1. Time: the Italian Renaissance, when the duke is negotiating with an envoy over the dowry of his next marriage.

2. Place: the grand staircase in the ducal palace at Ferrara, in northern Italy

3. His purpose: to boast and/or to threaten.

4. silence of the listener = awe, alertness?

“My Last Duchess”• The duchess – jovial and loving

equally to everyone and every being.• last – 1) not late; she may be killed,

but she may also be put in a convent. 2) will be another one.

• The duke: 1) possessive and arrogant, he treats the duchess and the next one as “objects” to possess; 2) proud—choose not to stoop

• His language: 1) implicit demand; 2) uses grand rhetoric to assert his power, disguising his lack of power.

“My Last Duchess”—Dramatic Irony• Contradiction between what he says

and what he means: – double negative – says he has no skills in speech – says he refuses to stoop (Isn’t the

command a compromise of his humanity?)

• Between assertion of power and powerlessness

• Power -- none but me draws the curtain

• Powerlessness– repetitions of “all” “not alone,” “it was all one.”

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

• Eloped with and married the poet Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861, writer of Sonnets from the Portuguese), and settled with her in Florence. He produced comparatively little poetry during the next 15 years.

• After Elizabeth Browning died in 1861, he returned to England.

• DRAMATIS PERSONAE (1864) • THE RING AND THE BOOK (1869),

based on the proceedings in a murder trial in Rome in 1698. (source)

“Porphyria’s Lover” Starting Question• How would you describe the

speaker? From which details can you tell the way his mind works?

• How about Porphyria? How are the two set in contrast with each other?

• Where is the turning point in this poem? How are the two changed, or not changed, before and after the turning point?

• Who is the listener? Why is the listerner silent?

“Porphyria’s Lover” (1) THE rain set early in to-night,  The sullen wind was soon awake,It tore the elm-tops down for spite,  And did its worst to vex the lake:  I listen'd with heart fit to break.When glided in Porphyria; straight  She shut the cold out and the storm,And kneel'd and made the cheerless grate  Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

“Porphyria’s Lover” (2) Which done, she rose, and from her formWithdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,  And laid her soil'd gloves by, untiedHer hat and let the damp hair fall,  And, last, she sat down by my side  And call'd me. When no voice replied,She put my arm about her waist,  And made her smooth white shoulder bare,And all her yellow hair displaced,  And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,  And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,Murmuring how she loved me—she  Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,To set its struggling passion free  From pride, and vainer ties dissever,  And give herself to me for ever.

“Porphyria’s Lover” (3) But passion sometimes would prevail,  Nor could to-night's gay feast restrainA sudden thought of one so pale  For love of her, and all in vain:  So, she was come through wind and rain.Be sure I look'd up at her eyes  Happy and proud; at last I knewPorphyria worshipp'd me; surprise  Made my heart swell, and still it grew  While I debated what to do.That moment she was mine, mine, fair,  Perfectly pure and good: I foundA thing to do, and all her hair  In one long yellow string I wound  Three times her little throat around,And strangled her. No pain felt she;  I am quite sure she felt no pain.

“Porphyria’s Lover” (4) As a shut bud that holds a bee,  I warily oped her lids: again  Laugh'd the blue eyes without a stain.And I untighten'd next the tress  About her neck; her cheek once moreBlush'd bright beneath my burning kiss:  I propp'd her head up as before,  Only, this time my shoulder boreHer head, which droops upon it still:  The smiling rosy little head,So glad it has its utmost will,  That all it scorn'd at once is fled,  And I, its love, am gain'd instead!Porphyria's love: she guess'd not how  Her darling one wish would be heard.And thus we sit together now,  And all night long we have not stirr'd,  And yet God has not said a word!

“Porphyria and her Lover”

• Porphyria – – cares about the norms of society and

its "gay feast" – dominates over him.

• The speaker – isolated; quiet; gloomy, listens "with heart fit to break.“

• His language: repetition, nasal sound to show his sulkiness.

• The lack of communication: "no voice replied."

Turning Point & the Listener(s)• turning point –When the

speaker believes that Porphyria loves her, he takes the initiative to “possess” her forever.

• The ending: an attempt to ‘rejuvenate’ her.

• the listener – Porphyria, God, or us sympathy + horror

Reference

• “Porphyria’s Lover”-visual presentation http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/porphyria/porphyria.html