Paper Topic:

British Literature of Victorian Era

Male Image in Victorian Poetry

In Robert Browning 's My Last Duchess (1842 , Porphyria 's Love (1842 , and Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's verse novel Aurora Leigh (1856 ) we have two contrasting images of male lover and husband The greed for wealth and power drives the male characters in Robert Browning 's poems to grow from dominating to domineering psychopaths and destroys the object of their affection in contrast Aurora Leigh , a woman of substance , refuses to play the second fiddle and spurns the offer of love and marriage from her cousin Romney

to be able to pursue art independently . Though the Brownings are not known as the typical representatives of their era , some of the characters reflect the dominating values of their time . The upper class male characters in these poems are vain and arrogant in their attitude , and condescending to women

Robert Browning 's view in Porphyria 's Lover ' and My Last Duchess through the dramatic monologues . The Duchess , being a woman of a softer mood , becomes the soft target of her hard-hearted husband . She lacks the education and confidence to choose her path of freedom . The two male characters - the obsessive lover 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 social status that leads the Duke to neglect his wife first , then as she obdurately follows her natural inclinations of innocence and equanimity to...

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