This document discusses Robert Browning's portrayal of women in two of his poems, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover". In "My Last Duchess", the Duke has a chilling personality and admits to killing his last wife because she did not give him complete admiration and control over her. In "Porphyria's Lover", the narrator strangles Porphyria after she shows him affection, seeking to possess her even after death. Both poems portray men as wanting total domination and ownership over women, even to the point of killing them if they cannot exert full control. The document also analyzes how Browning used these poems to portray the unequal status of women in Victorian society

1. The portrayal of women in “My Last Duchess” and
“Porphyria’s Lover”.
Robert Browning, significant English writer of the Victorian age, noted for his dominance of sensational
discourse and mental representation. He was by all accounts not the only professional of the sensational
speech. He picked characters out of history or created them and made them verbally process in order to
show their particular mindsets. My Last Duchess, Porphyria’s Lover, Fra Lippo Lippi etc are some of his
famous poems. In this essay we are going to discuss about the portrayal of women in Robert Browning’s
two poems My last duchess and Porphyria’s lover. In the poem My Last Duchess, Browning makes a
character of chilling coldness and cruelty. The speaker is a rich, devastatingly handsome Duke of Ferrara,
flowing dark hair, bright blue eyes,a velvet jacket, a walking cane adorned with jewels. The Duke is leading
dealings for a lady of the hour, another duchess. He is conversing with an envoy, a man shipped off meet
the Duke, a lesser man, intelligently dressed however doesn't have the Duke's cash and the Duke knows it.
The representative is come from his would-be father in law. The Duke takes the envoy around his home to
flaunt his specialty assortment, including a representation of his late spouse, the Last Duchess. Almost
casually, he shows him the picture of the ‘last’ duchess whom he had killed because he could not dominate
her. “A heart—how shall I say? Too soon made glad, too easily impressed; She liked whate’er She looked
on, and her looks went everywhere” in these lines, the Duke denounces her (the last duchess) for not seeing
any differentiation between being the life partner of an uncommon man or some other essential pleasure.
He accepts she gave all men the sort of regard that lone a man with his family's rank merits. In our society,
a woman’s personal identity often came second to her talent for social graces and her ability to decorate her
husband’s life. Porphyria’s lover is a dramatic monologue. This poem is about Porphyria a young woman
with yellow long hair, from a background of high status who has become part of a relationship with a man
from low status foundation, who has a fanatical love for her. In spite of the fact that she says pretty much
nothing, has the ability to shut out the tempest outside. She manages to change her lover’s melancholy into
joy. Unfortunately, because of her status, she must keep her relationship a secret as her family would not
approve. But her lover does not want to be a secret and it may seem to him that she is ashamed of him and
it makes him feelinsecure. So, he sees the only way he can have control her and keep her is to kill her. She
has an innocent honesty with her darling, particularly in the manner in which she lays her head on his
shoulder and trusts him without hold. She lays her "yellow" hair on his chest,as though to cover him with
guiltlessness. Porphyria represents as virtue and goodness “Perfectly pure and good: I found a thing to do,
and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around”. In both poems, men
want complete control of their relationships and almost ownership, possession of their lovers. The men
need to control so seriously they are eager to have the women killed. The woman’s power is also seen in
her decision to attend the feast rather than be with her lover. This asserts a sort of dominance in the
relationship (Saminsky,2010, para:8). Robert Browning also wants to convey that women have more
importance in the society. He is presenting both genders in such a way that women are feeling as a slave of
men and they had not high statusin societies. That’s why they killed women to gain more control to improve
their higher status in the society.