Victorian Paper Assignment 1: Robert Browning, His Poems and Dramatic Monologues

Robert Browning is an acclaimed Victorian poet born in 1812 in London. Though he did not enjoy the wild popularity of Wordsworth or Dickens, he is appreciated for his mastery of the dramatic monologue. While growing up, his disinterest in formal education led to him being home schooled where he tapped into his fathers vast and remarkable literary collection and was particularly influenced by the radical Shelley. His poems greatly reflect the social and moral upheaval of the Victorian Era. Moving away from the dramatics of the physical realities of the poor and downtrodden of Victorian England, his poetry is more influenced by the inner struggle of morality in scandalous urban England. What I enjoyed about Brownings writing style is his extensive use of dramatic monologue that through its first person narrative gives the readers an intimate insight into the minds and workings of his characters. As readers, we grow closer to his characters and begin to understand what motivates them to behave in a certain manner, providing us a different dimension from conventional thought, causing us to question on the nature of right and wrong, truth and falsity. This is a greater social commentary on the fragile nature of truth: that it can be interpreted in different ways by different people with different mental maps. The pursuit of truth thus requires rigorous considering of multiple perspectives. Take for instance Fra Lippo Lippi and Andrea del Sarto two separate dramatic monologues written by him place characters in similar situations but effectuate different reactions, thereby providing multiple perspectives to the reader. Both put forth a debate on art: should art be connected with morality and intention? Andrea del Sarto laments that while his art is physically and technically perfect, it cannot reach the level of other artists (Rafael! rub it out! Still, all I care for, if he spoke the truth, What he? why, who but Michel Agnolo?) who err but have soul and intention in their art. On the other hand, Fra Lippo Lippi declares This worlds no blot for us, Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good and believes that the world in all its physical beauty is more important to an artist that the soul and meaning asserted by the Church. Through dramatic monologue, Browning achieves the remarkable effect of intimate insight into the heads of artist with contravening perspectives on art and engages us in considering all viewpoints before arriving at any conclusion especially on morality and art. The next thing I enjoyed about his writing are his jabs at his Victorian audience through shocking characters such as the duke in My Last Duchess and the anonymous lover/murderer in Porphyrias lover. The duke has killed his last wife for a trivial reason. Similarly, Porphyrias lover murders her by strangling her with the lock of her own hair with such complacency and calmness that serves two things: to reinforce the happenings in urban England where scandals and crimes was a normal occurrence or to elicit any sort of reaction from a supposedly numbed Victorian audience. In Robert Brownings poetry, typical concerns were thus the struggle of morality and art and a reflection of urban England.