Thematic Disparity in Arnold's "Dover Beach" and Browning's "My Last Duchess"

            As two prime examples of the genre of dramatic monologue, Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" and Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" adhere in similar ways to the conventions of the form.  By paying special attention to situation and addressing a silent listener, the single speaker of a dramatic monologue inadvertently relates details about himself through the poem.  The monologues are set in specific situations and settings that play a vital role in the interpretation of the monologue. Arnold's speaker reflects upon the cliffs of Dover, while Browning's speaker is surrounded his impressive art collection.  Each of the speakers relate their thoughts to the silent listener.  The speaker of "Dover Beach" reveals to his listener his insecurities and doubts of society, while the duke of "My Last Duchess" reveals the cruel nature of his personality.  While their forms share similarities, the two differ radically in thematic style.  Arnold's dramatic monologue adheres more to the reflective manner of romantic poets such as  William Wordsworth, shedding light upon the speaker's thoughts and concerns, while Browning (as with many of his other dramatic monologues) serves the purpose of exposing the speaker's dark and morally corrupt personality. While very similar in their adherence to structure and form, the poems differ radically in the personality and the development of the speaker.

            By giving special care to crafting the scene, the convention of the dramatic monologue is followed by both poets.  "Dover Beach" begins by noting that "The sea is calm to-night" (1), setting up a meditative mood.  Arnold's setting implies a vast world full of wonder.  The image of the sea cliffs of Dover brings a slow contemplative mood to the poem.  A calm sea becomes a place of thinking.  The speaker suggests there is much to contemplate within nature as the tide hits the "cliffs of England" (4) that are "Glimmering and vast" (5).  The mention of the "moon-blanched land" (8) implies a cosmic connotation, while the light from the French coast gives a sense that even in nature society still looms on the horizon. 

            The action of "My Last Duchess" begins in a place of manufactured beauty.  The scene immediately gives clues into the character of the duke.  He walks though the gallery showing off his collection to a visitor he appears to barely know.  It is a place the speaker believes to be of the highest quality in art, beauty, and culture.  The gallery is a place that makes the duke proud and reflects upon his personal character.  His grandiose claims that the painter "Worked busily a day, and there she stands" (4) indicate his belief that his gallery is one to behold.  Claiming that "none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I" (9-10) creates an air of exclusivity and privilege.

            Intertwined with setting is the way in which the speaker interacts with the listener of the poem.  Arnold's softer, more reflective speaker turns to his listener who is likely a new bride: "Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!" (6).  His invitation shows his willingness to share his experience with her.  He implores her to listen to the "grating roar / Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, / At their return, up the high strand" (9-11).  Not only does he include her in the action of the monologue, but he finds in her a kind of solution to his mental conundrum: "Ah, love, let us be true / To one another!" (29-30).  In this way the presence of the silent speaker of "Dover Beach" is cathartic to the speaker.

            A radically different kind of interaction occurs between the duke and his guest.  His invitation holds a more stern, almost commanding tone: "Will't please you sit and look at her?" (5).  He assumes that his guest is interested in what the duke is trying to show him.  He brings the listener in further by addressing a question: "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" (11-13).  While it is implied that the duke's guest has asked specifically about the painting of the Duchess, the duke is eager to display the painting and equally eager to speak about it.  Because of the duke's eagerness, the air of exclusivity he attempts to create is false.  The guest's presence is simply that of another guest, and he would be proud to flaunt his art collection to any visitor in an attempt to make a grand impression.

            The interaction between the speaker and the listener creates the most substantial portion of the dramatic monologue that reveals aspects of the speaker's character through their dialogue.  The speaker of "Dover Beach" gives insight into his character by speaking of his concerns and deeply held feelings.  He is conflicted.  The speaker's inner conflict with Victorian values is compared to the incoming and outgoing tide on a pebble beach.  He is a man whose religious faith has been shaken, comparing it to the sea: "The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled" (21-23).  His uncertainty is depicted as somewhat hopeless as he claims "And we are here as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night" (35-37).  He is locked in an internal mental struggle.

            This hopelessness becomes a point of contemplation for the speaker.  The belief he may have held in mankind has ebbed like the sea he describes.  His concern and worry is exemplified as he compares himself to Sophocles: "it brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery" (16-18). The speaker believes that this ebb and flow was once a reality, but now regards this cycle as having deteriorated into a slow decline.  His old beliefs have little power to move him as he claims "But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating" (24-26).  These feelings have left him feeling dejected and led him to believe that the world "Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light" (33).  As he remarks about the "naked shingles of the world" (28), he shows that he believes the world is vulnerable and frail.

            The speaker of "My Last Duchess" presents a stark contrast to the speaker of "Dover Beach."  The character traits revealed through the monologue are not those of a man searching for answers, but of an over privileged man who takes pleasure in boasting.  The duke shows himself to be a selfish man who believes he can do what he pleases without repercussion. He begins by relating his opinion of his "Last Duchess'" misdeeds: "Sir, 'twas not / Her husband's presence only, called that spot / Of joy into the Duchess' cheek" (13-15).  His expectations of her treatment toward him were overly selfish, and he did not approve of her friendly demeanor: "She had / A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad, / too easily impressed" (21-23).  The duke's expectations not only govern his deceased wife, but also to the standard which he holds himself.  His pride is on display as he puts an over-emphasis on his family name: "as if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody's gift" (32-34).  He refuses to sink down to the level of "stooping": "—E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose / Never to stoop" (42-43), unknowingly proffering an image of a man with an exalted opinion of self. 

            As a privileged man who makes his own rules, the duke continues to stain his own image by taking pleasure in boasting about the murder of his wife and casually inquiring about his next marriage.  Clearly having nothing to fear, the duke bluntly admits, "I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together" (45-46).   He states quite plainly that he had ordered his wife killed without shame or fear of retribution.  As he is to be married again so soon, he clearly has no sense of right, wrong, or timing.  He is conducting negotiations for a dowry from the listener's Lord and worried about the conditions of the dowry: "The Count your master's known munificence / Is ample warrant that no just pretence / Of mine for dowry will be disallowed" (49-51).  His arrogance becomes fully illuminated as he flagrantly moves on to the next piece of art: "Notice Neptune, though, / Taming a sea-horse" (54-55).

            As the duke continues his monologue, it becomes evident that he is someone who cannot be trusted.  He speaks clearly and with confidence, but his reference to "skill / In speech—(which I have not)" (35-36) is clearly meant to mislead.  The duke believes he is fooling the listener not just with this lie, but with his justifications for the murder of his own wife.  The duke makes plain the differences between "Dover Beach" and "My Last Duchess."  Both adhere to the dramatic monologue, but Browning deviates from the classic formula.  Browning's style is one that sheds negative light on the speaker, allowing him to inadvertently reveal his own hypocrisy and morally reprehensible behavior and feelings.  By contrast, Arnold's style stays faithful to his romantic predecessors.  Instead of a boastful tyrant, the speaker is an introspective character searching for answers.  Unlike the duke, who unknowingly provides self damning information, he gives no allusions to being distrustful.  He is fully aware of what is related to the listener.  His concern for his listener is greater than that of the duke, who is only interested in the grand impression he tries to relate.  Arnold's speaker has much more in common with William Wordsworth as he searches and eventually finds a solution in human contact,  seeking his own personal truth.