Male Image in Victorian Poetry Essay

In Robert Br haveings My utmost(a) Duchess(1842), Porphyrias Love(1842), and Elizabeth Barrett toastings verse novel dawn Leigh(1856) we have two contrasting images of antheral caramel and husband. The greed for wealthiness and power drives the male characters in Robert Brownings poems to grow from predominate to domineering psychopaths and destroys the object of their affection in contrast morning time Leigh, a woman of substance, ref applys to play the second fiddle and spurns the offer of respect and trades union from her full cousin Romney to be able to pursue art independently.Though the Brownings atomic number 18 not known as the typical representatives of their era, some of the characters reflect the rule values of their time. The upper class male characters in these poems atomic number 18 sleeveless and arrogant in their attitude, and condescending to wowork force. Robert Brownings view in Porphyrias L everywhere and My Last Duchess through the dramatic monologu es. The Duchess, being a woman of a softer mood, becomes the soft target of her hard-hearted husband. She lacks the education and federal agency to choose her path of freedom.The two male characters the obsessive fill inr in Porphyria and the Duke in My Last Duchess reveal the dark motives through the successful use of dramatic monologues. In My Last Duchess it is an exaggerated view of his well-disposed stead that leads the Duke to neglect his wife first, then as she obdurately follows her natural inclinations of artlessness and equanimity to all, she is smo in that locationd to death with aristocratic diplomacy This grew I gave commands/ then(prenominal) all smiles stopped together. (ll.45-46) The Duke who gets rid of his last Duchess so inhumanly, shamelessly n self-importancetiates conjugal union with the daughter of a rich Count. He admires the beauty and the grandeur of the Duchess portrait, and it is the noted artist Fra Pandolf or Neptune taming a sea horse, the r are sculpture of Claus of Innsbruck to play up his position and ensure masters known munificence/ Is immense warrant that no just pretense/ of mine for dowry forget be disallowed. (ll. 49-51) It is greed that drives the Duke to kill his first wife to make room for a more profitable second marriage for a kempt dowry.The Duke represents the values of the rich upper class he overestimates his nine- hundred-year-old status and underestimates the invaluable sweet disposition of his humble wife She had /a heart how shall I say? too soon made glad,/ Too easily impress (ll. 21-23) His typical male vanity is expressed in his own terminology Whod stoop to blame/ This assortment of trifling? (ll. 34-35) The male ego in the Duke is so domineering that it would not brook any diversity of reverse to the custom and culture of his superior class. Marriage is a be of convenience and a passport to accumulation of wealth.As soon as he realizes the incompatibility of his first marriage, he is ready for the second flat at the cost of murdering his last Duchess. The Duke stands for the ruthlessly ambitious capitalist of the twee era who does not mind building his empire on the necropolis of his hapless victims. His criminal nature is camouflaged by his high social status. Robert Brownings Porphyrias Lover bares the psyche of a lover obsessed with jealousy. The dramatic monologue focuses on the central character of the male lover who kills his beloved on the ground of suspicion.This abnormal act of murder exposes the deeper recesses of his soul. In a cold and stormy night he makes love to his lady after she returns from a sortie and then strangles her with her hair. withal after this diabolical act the male lover does not come up any remorse on the contrary, he gloats over the absolute nightfall of his beloved Murmuring how she loved me she And give herself to me forever. (ll. 21, 25) It is vanity that sustains the lover simply he feels insecure from some unk nown threat of an imaginary vie Porphyria worshipped me surprise/ Made my heart swell and still it grew (ll.33-34) He kills her with a desire of immortalizing the consummation of their love. The sadist manipulator of woman delights in the unconsolable eyes, blushed burning cheek and the smiling rosy head of the corpse. This may be an extreme case, but the absolute domination of the male over their female counterparts is fact of Victorian society. The death wish of Porphyria does not toilsome true, it detectms to be her lovers wish-fulfillment. The sick lover takes stock with a calculating mind And I, its love, am gained instead (l.55) The women in Robert Brownings poems pay with their lives for trusting their men. Elizabeth Barrett Brownings Aurora Leigh(1856) explores the fate of a progressive thinker Aurora who turns down the marriage proposal of Romney, she in the long run emerges triumphant in her profession of a poet and reformer as she proclaims Their sole work is to r epresent the age,(V. 200) She refuses to give up her profession of writer to equilibrise the philanthropic work of her cousin with a bold assertion You misconceive the question like a man,/ Who sees a woman as the escort / of his sex merely. (Bk. II. ll. 434-36) Though Aurora is deprived of her inheritance be courtship of her refusal to marry her cousin Romney Leigh, she fares better than Robert Brownings women who are playthings in the hands of their despotic men. She represents the New Woman who struggles against the male domination and finally emerges successful. Aurora notes that she faces opposition not only from the Victorian males but also from her aunt who is deep conditioned by patriarchal culture as she describes her She had lived/ A sort of cage-bird life, born in a cage,(Bk. I.305-06) Such expresses the lot of the vast mass of Victorian women I only thought/ of lying quiet there where I was thrown/ Like sea-weed on the rocks, (I. 378-80) The relationship between A urora and Romney breaks off when he scoffs at the idea of her becoming a poet a trivial doing. The superiority of the males is always highlighted in their conversations. Women are thought to be incompetent enough to be singers. She sums up her objections to male proposal of love and marriage What you love/ Is not a woman, Romney, but a cause/ You want a alleviatemate, not a mistress, sir/ A wife to help your ends, in her no end. (I.400-03) Only a clear-headed and intelligent woman could see through the male pretence which is part of Victorian culture. The most decided comment made by Aurora on the need for case-by-case identity is That every creature, female as the male,/ Stands single in amenable act and thought/ As also in birth and death. (I. 337-39) She drives sign of the zodiac the truth to her fiance that she is unwilling to regard his work as her own and concludes I too have my vocation. work to do, (I. 455) It is no mean achievement for a financially dependent woman to have the courage to produce I / who love my art, would never wish it lower/ To suit my stature.(I. 492-94) The men of Victorian age definitely enjoyed more power over women and utilize this power to suppress their potential. As we see the women of Robert Brownings poems are victims of male sadism and manipulation. But in Elizabeth Barrett Brownings Aurora Leigh we card the beginning of a new dawn. Education help women struggle for liberty at every level and achieve some freedom which convey end of the era that treated women as their helpmates and as exclusive properties. Barrett Browning is regarded as an avant-garde writer of her age.Work CitedBrowning, Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh in The Norton Anthology of incline Literature. seventh Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 1898-1912 Browning, Robert. Porphyrias Lover in The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 2025-26 Browning, Robert. My Last Duchess in The Norton A nthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 2028-29 OGorman, Francis (ed. ) Victorian poetry An Annotated Anthology. Malden. Blackwell Publishing. 2004. 173-175