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.
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