Dramatic Monologue:
Love, Death and Ambition
Lord Alfred Tennyson
and Robert Browning
Outline
– Dramatic Monologue: Definition
– “Ulysses”
– Lord Alfred Tennyson
– “My Last Duchess”
– Robert Browning as a Victorian
Poet
Dramatic Monologue
• A poem which involves a
speaker speaking alone to a
and an implied auditor.
• Through his speech, the
following is revealed:
– what, when, where and how of
“the story”;
– “a gap between what that
speaker says and what he or she
actually reveals” (reference).
Dramatic Monologue
& the Reader
• Browninesque dramatic monologue
has three requirements:
• The reader takes the part of the
silent listener.
• The speaker uses a case-making,
argumentative tone.
• We complete the dramatic scene
from within, by means of inference
and imagination.
(Glenn Everett reference).
Dramatic Monologue
in Historical Context
• The poets’ meeting the readers’
need for stories in Victorian society,
when novel was a popular genre.
• A device to explore the depth of
human psychology and the theme of
alienation– by assuming an
personae (often quite alien to the
poet’s own values and beliefs)
• e.g. The Waste Land, The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Ulysses
Odysseus or Ulysses was
a legendary Greek king of
Ithaca and the hero of
Homer's epic poem the
Odyssey.
Ulysses Returns Chryseis to her Father
1648 (source)
Ulysses
1. The who, where, when and why of the
poem? The listener”s”?
2. Ulysses– What does he think about his
present life (ll. 1-5), his past experience
(ll. 7-21), and future goals (ll. 22-32).
Are there contradictions in his selfperception?
3. Ulysses vs. Telemachus: "He works his
work, I mine." Do you find Ulysses
irresponsible or a-social?
4. a) blank verse -- rhythm (e.g. iambic
pentameter),
b) the arrangement of explosive and
mellifluous sounds in the poem.
Ulysses (1833)
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
give out by measure
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
Hyades = sisters,
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when The
daughters of Atlas,
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
who were turned into
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
a constellation of stars
by Zeus. They vexed,
For always roaming with a hungry heart
or tormented, the sea
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
with blowing sheets of
And manners, climates, councils, governments, rain ("scudding drifts"),
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,-just as the
constellation can
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
influence the sea and
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
weather.
Ulysses
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
unpolished
Ulysses –Stanza 2
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,-Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods, very proper
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
Ulysses –Stanza 3
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with
me,-That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Ulysses –Stanza 3
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Ulysses: young and old
1. Ulysses at an old age—first speaking in his
palace to no one (the wife does not seem to
listen) and then ("There lies the port" ), to the
mariners by the port.
2. Ulysses: a. present – a boring life in “barren
crags” with an aged wife and tedious duties
(mete and dole; not known);
past: -- seen the world, well known, a lot of
experience;
change – action, to strive with god, to find
something new.
destiny – dark broad sea  death (Happy
isle=Elysium)
Ulysses: ambition vs.
duty
Ulysses//mariners vs. his wife, people
and Telemachus  Is he
irresponsible? (“hoard, and sleep, and
feed”; “offices of tenderness”)
4. More question: Jerome H. Buckley
asserts that the poem does not in fact
convey
• a will to go forward . . . but a
determined retreat, a yearning, behind
allegedly tired rhythms, to join the great
Achilles (or possibly Arthur Hallam) in
an Elysian retreat from life's vexations.
[64]  Do you agree?
Ulysses with Three Desires—and
three possible readings
1.
2.
3.
Desire: for meaningful “living” but not mere
breathing; an eventful life, but not dull routine;
to “follow knowledge like a sinking star /
Beyond the utmost bond of human thought”;
for being a hero as he was before; --one
"braving the struggle of life."
Desire: to be a wanderer and break away from
the status quo (now known, or "I am become a
name“), in which he sees his wife ”aged,” his
people “savage” (sleeping, eating and
hoarding), and his son, Telemachus, who is
“soft” (or "discerning," "prudent," "soft," "good,"
"blameless," "centered," and "tender“) --one
dissatisfied with mundane life and thus
irresponsible
Desire: for “"There gloom the dark, broad
seas" and the Happy Isle.” – one yearning for
rest and death.
Ulysses: Historical
Contexts
• In this poem Tennyson is
elaborating upon a conviction
he formed at his closest friend,
Arthur Hallam's death "that life
without faith leads to personal
and social dislocation"
(Chiasson 165). (source)
• In Memoriam (1850)
Alfred Tennyson
(1809-1892)
As a “twilight poet”
• Worried about poverty and contracting epilepsy
(a family disease) a twilight poet
• Deeply saddened by the death of his friend
Hallam. (1833)
• Shorted sighted and with keen interest in sound
effects, he created his poems in his head,
memorizing lines and then creating their
contexts.
• Many narrative poems about suspension and
languidness; e.g. "The Lotos-Eaters" “Mariana”
(a waiting woman); about dullness of
immortality: dramatic monologue: "Tithonus.“
As a a poet Laureate (1850)
• a philosopher-poet, dealing with contemporary concerns with
science vs. God: ’Nature, Red in tooth and claw’
• a narrative poet catering to popular taste
My Last Duchess
(image)
“My Last Duchess”:
Starting Question
1. The "who, where, when, and why" of the
poem?
2. The role the listener plays in this poem?
2. What is the last duchess like? (See ll. 2134) Why is she called the “last” duchess?
Is she a flirt or one with genuine kindness
to all creatures?
3. What is the duke's attitude to his duchess?
What happened to her?
4. What kind of person is the duke? What
does the ending reveal about him?
“My Last Duchess” (1)
Ferrara
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
“My Last Duchess” (2)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my Lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
“My Last Duchess” (3)
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
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.
Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool 過分殷勤
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -- all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
“My Last Duchess” (4)
Or blush, at least. She thanked men, -- good! but thanked
Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech -- (which I have not) -- to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark" -- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
“My Last Duchess” (5)
indeed
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
--E'en then would be some stooping, and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
“My Last Duchess” (6)
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for
me!
“My Last Duchess”
1. Time: the Italian Renaissance,
when the duke is negotiating with
an envoy over the dowry of his
next marriage.
2. Place: the grand staircase in the
ducal palace at Ferrara, in
northern Italy
3. His purpose: to boast and/or to
threaten.
4. silence of the listener = awe,
alertness?
“My Last Duchess”
•
•
•
•
The duchess – jovial and loving
equally to everyone and every being.
last – 1) not late; she may be killed,
but she may also be put in a convent.
2) will be another one.
The duke: 1) possessive and
arrogant, he treats the duchess and
the next one as “objects” to possess;
2) proud—choose not to stoop
His language: 1) implicit demand; 2)
uses grand rhetoric to assert his
power, disguising his lack of power.
“My Last Duchess”—
Dramatic Irony
•
Contradiction between what he says
and what he means:
–
–
–
•
•
•
double negative
says he has no skills in speech
says he refuses to stoop (Isn’t the
command a compromise of his
humanity?)
Between assertion of power and
powerlessness
Power -- none but me draws the
curtain
Powerlessness– repetitions of “all”
“not alone,” “it was all one.”
Robert Browning
(1812-1889)
• Eloped with and married the poet
Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861, writer
of Sonnets from the Portuguese),
and settled with her in Florence. He
produced comparatively little poetry
during the next 15 years.
• After Elizabeth Browning died in
1861, he returned to England.
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE (1864)
• THE RING AND THE BOOK (1869),
based on the proceedings in a
murder trial in Rome in 1698.
(source)
Reference
• “Porphyria’s Lover”-visual
presentation
http://www.scottmccloud.com/c
omics/porphyria/porphyria.html
Teach & Learn
• Explain one part of the poem
• Give a question for discussion
• Give one quiz question to test
understanding
• Within 10 mins
• Test the other group in 10 mins
• The last group in front of the
whole class 10 mins
• Group 1—Kate; group 2,3 David;
group 4, 5 -- Daphne
• By next Sunday – ppt and quiz