Male Image in Victorian Poetry Essay

In Robert cooks My lowest Duchess(1842), Porphyrias Love(1842), and Elizabeth Barrett Brownings verse clean Aurora Leigh(1856) we have two contrasting images of male person l all over and husband. The greed for wealth and force out drives the male characters in Robert Brownings poems to grow from despotic 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 dispatcher of love and marriage from her cousin Romney to be able to pursue art independently.Though the Brownings are non known as the typical representatives of their era, some of the characters reflect the dominating values of their time. The speed class male characters in these poems are vain and arrogant in their attitude, and condescending to women. Robert Brownings put one over in Porphyrias sports fan and My Last Duchess through the dramatic monologues. The Duchess, being a woman of a softer mood, be comes 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 all, she is smothered to death with aristocratic diplomacy This grew I gave commands/ Then all smiles stopped together. (ll.45-46) The Duke who gets rid of his last Duchess so inhumanly, shamelessly negotiates marriage with the daughter of a rich Count. He admires the beauty and the grandeur of the Duchess portrait, and it is the storied artist Fra Pandolf or Neptune taming a sea horse, the rare sculpture of Claus of Innsbruck to highlight his position and ensure masters known munificence/ Is ample ensu re that no just pretense/ of mine for dowry will be disallowed. (ll. 49-51) It is greed that drives the Duke to murder his first wife to make way for a to a greater extent profitable second marriage for a hefty dowry.The Duke represents the values of the rich upper class he overestimates his nine- hundred-year-old status and underestimates the priceless sweet disposition of his low-toned wife She had /a heart how shall I say? too briefly made glad,/ Too easily impressed (ll. 21-23) His typical male vanity is verbalised in his own words Whod stoop to blame/ This sort of trifling? (ll. 34-35) The male ego in the Duke is so domineering that it would not birth any kind of opposition to the custom and culture of his superior class. Marriage is a matter 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 even at the cost of murdering his last Duchess. The Duke stands for the ruthlessly ambitious capitalist of the dainty era who does not mind building his empire on the graveyard 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 pricey 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. Even after this diabolical act the male lover does not feel any remorse on the contrary, he gloats over the absolute surrender of his beloved Murmuring how she loved me she And spring herself to me forever. (ll. 21, 25) It is vanity that sustains the lover but he feels insecure from some unknown threat of an imaginary rival 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 blue 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 counter begins is fact of Victorian society. The death wish of Porphyria does not sound true, it seems to be her lovers wish-fulfillment. The sick lover takes stock with a calculate 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 idea Aurora who turns down the marriage proposal of Romney, she finally emerges triumphant in her profession of a poet and reformer as she proclaims Their sole work is to represent the age,(V. 200) She refuses to give up her profession of writer to complement the philanthropic work of her cousin with a bold assertion Y ou misconceive the question like a man,/ Who sees a woman as the complement / of his sex merely. (Bk. II. ll. 434-36) Though Aurora is deprived of her inheritance because of her refusal to marry her cousin Romney Leigh, she fares better than Robert Brownings women who are playthings in the hands of their dominating 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 auntie who is deeply 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 absolute majority 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 Aurora and Romney breaks off when he scoffs at the idea of her becoming a poet a trivial achievement. The superiority of the males is al ways highlighted in their conversations. Women are thought to be incompetent replete 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 helpmate, 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 trenchant comment made by Aurora on the need for individual identity is That every creature, female as the male,/ Stands individual in responsible act and thought/ As also in birth and death. (I. 337-39) She drives home 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 keep back I / who love my art, would never wish it lower/ To suit my stature.(I. 492-94) The men of Victorian age defini tely enjoyed more power over women and used 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 notice the beginning of a new dawn. Education help women struggle for emancipation at every level and achieve some freedom which means end of the era that handle 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 English Literature. 7th 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 Anthology of English Literature. 7th Ed. New York. W. W. Norton & Co. 2001. pp. 2028-29 OGorman, Francis (ed. ) Victorian poetry An Annotated Anthol ogy. Malden. Blackwell Publishing. 2004. 173-175