My last dutchess and porphyria's lover
I found My last dutchess and Porphyria's lover to be very similar. Both texts shared the same concept of a controlling man killing their lovers in an effort to keep them forever. Both men shared the same concern of having their lovers be with other men. I also found it interesting how each of them held onto to some form of their lover after they had killed them. In porphyria's lover he held her body and in the last dutchess the man had a portrait made of his loved one. The 2 texts showed a dark side of love, or maybe they're showing the line of when love becomes obsession. One of the symptoms of obsessive love is extreme jealousy and misinterpretation of innocent actions. For instance a person who is obsessively in love with someone will see them interacting with another person as cheating, and they might feel that they're significant other is trying to leave them. An obsessive lover will also put their needs before the needs or care of their loved one. Both narrators clearly showed this by putting their need of being together forever above the lives of the ones they loved. They also showed signs of jealousy and worries that their lovers were with other men.
I agree with this analysis and that a lot of the poems revolves around the two men and how they are not interpreting their partners correctly. This is especially in Porphyria's Lover, where the entire poem focuses on the narrator, who decided what his partner wants and carried it out for her. It is definitely possible that these men are examples of when love goes too far, and both poems thus illustrate that too much of a good thing can be bad.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that there are some similarities between the obsessive and needy natures of both of the narrators in Browning's poems. I actually believe that that narrator in "My Last Duchess" is even more cruel than that of "Porphyria's Lover" because the narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" seems to regret killing her, whereas in "My Last Duchess" the narrator is already trying to marry his next victim. For example, in "Porphyria's Lover" the narrator admits that he "debated what to do" (35) before ultimately deciding to kill his love to preserve that moment. However, in "My Last Duchess", the narrator is so delusional that he believes his painting is a living person as he speaks to her directly to tell her that he draws the curtains for her privacy. In addition, he is telling the story of her death as he meets with the messenger of the Count who will provide his next bride.
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