My Last Duchess
(Comparative essay between Robert Browning "My Last Duchess" and Porphyria's Lover". Browning's "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover" have been very popular throughout the years because their dramatic monologue styles require interaction between the reader and the character. The audience's direct involvement in uncovering the speaker's character represent an evocative feature of these two well-known monologues. A closer look at the poems reveals their striking similarities of total love, intense jealousy, social pride, and madness. These shared features are enhanced by sophisticated poetic techniques, all contributing to the similar possessive love commonly found in both poems. The speaker in “My Last Duchess” is a haughty Duke who wants to control and possess everything, even his wife. The first indication of this desire is in the title and the first line, with the possessive pronoun “My Last Duchess.” Furthermore, the Duchess is not referred to by name throughout the poem; this belittles her individuality. Thus the audience is compelled to adopt the notion that the Duke is only concerned with women that can be his possessions. This is clearly supported by the fact that he killed his
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Porphyrias Lover, Duke Porphyrias, Duke Porphyria, Porphyria's Lover, Fra Pandolph, Metaphorically Duke, Furthermore Duchess, porphyrias lover, possessive love, Love Comparative, upper class, Duchess Porphyria's, duchess porphyria's lover, total love, intense jealousy, spot joy, value gift, social life, possessive character, speaker porphyrias,
Approximate Word count = 1476
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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