TO LOVE OR NOT TO LOVE? “The most interesting aspects of texts written in different times is seeing the difference in what people value.” Possibly one of the best known piece of American prose fiction of its time, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, develops an ironic but ultimately pessimistic point of view on the materialistic and superficial society presented in the 1920s which prevented the ideas of pure love. The form of a prose fiction does not have a structure which makes the novel unique. Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, presents a more idealistic and optimistic view about love and hope. She portrays her personal voice through the use of sonnets, specifically Petrarchan.
So I’m here today charged with the task of convincing you that an English poet, writing in the 1800’s, wrote poetry so memorable and unique that it is still worthy of critical study today, over 150 years after it was composed. Now the poet is Robert Browning and the first of his poems I’ll look at is the dramatic monologue My Last Duchess. What is it that makes My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover so worthy of critical study today? The answer lies in the way Browning has raised concerns about the attitudes to women so common in the Victorian patriarchal times in which he lived and of sex and violence that is still happening today. In My Last Duchess the aristocratic Duke of Ferrara, from Renaissance Italy, is speaking to an ambassador who is from another state there to arrange a marriage between the Duke and the Daughter of the master his Count.
There are also many ways this novel resembles some of the ideas expressed during the Victorian period. Therefore, the two major themes in the novel are dual personalities and ideas of the Victorian period. These are the things that make this novel one of Stevenson’s best selling stories. Stevenson gives the main character two identities in order to show moral duality. “It’s use of duality as both a structural and thematic device suggests that its application goes beyond a simple antithesis of moral opposites or physical components.” (Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Article).
Allen Ginsber’s affinities in “Howl” with “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg are two poets that have comparable poetic tendencies despite living almost a century apart from one another. Walt Whitman can claim many literary descendants including writers of prose as well as poetry. He is considered a midwife of modern poetry and poets between two wars in 20th century. One of the most known poems in of his book “Leaves of Grass” is Song of myself.
Comparing Hap by Thomas Hardy and The Second Coming by Yeats Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was one of the great writers of the Late Victorian era. One of his great works out of the many that he produced was his poem Hap, which he wrote in 1866, but did not publish until 1898 in his collection of poems called Wessex Poems. This poem seems to typify the sense of alienation that he and other writers were experiencing at the time, as they "saw their times as marked by accelerating social and technological change and by the burden of a worldwide empire" (Longman p. 2165). The poem also reveals Hardy's own "abiding sense of a universe ruled by a blind or hostile fate, a world whose landscapes are etched with traces of the fleeting stories of their inhabitants" (Longman p. 2254). The poem's major theme seems to be this sense of the world being ruled by a hostile and blind fate, not by a benevolent God pushing all of the buttons.
Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” vs. Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg have been said to be two of the most influential poets in English Literature. Though separated apart by almost a century, both poets have been said to have more similarities than differences in their literary style of writing. Both lived during times of unforgettable cultural and political revolutions in America, and each poet expressed their thoughts, views, and opinions of their America in their poetry. Walt Whitman was a major influence on the writing of Allen Ginsberg so much so, that Ginsberg’s “Howl” has been argued to be either a continuation or, an actual response to Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. Starting out with their literary style of writing, both poets have written descriptive, non-rhyming poems broken down into a lengthy amount of stanzas.
He continued writing and publishing many more poems, making a name for himself as a prominent Victorian poet. Of his major works, My Last Duchess was a direct illustration of his dramatic writing style for it was loosely based around Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara. This poem is written in the perspective of a Duke who is speaking to the intermediary for his prospective wife and stops to show him a painting. He tells the story of his late Duchess whose flirtatious character displeased him to the point where he decided to get rid of her. Now, the Duchess is merely a painting that is concealed by a curtain that can only be drawn by the Duke himself.
[8] The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923,[9] and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged[10][11][12] in the United States and other countries for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst. It also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation. Contents [hide] 1 Plot summary 2 History 3 Writing style 4 Interpretations 5 Reception 6 Controversy 7 Attempted adaptations 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 References 10.1 Notes 10.2 Bibliography 10.3 Further reading 11 External links [edit]Plot summary The majority of the novel takes place in December 1945. The story commences with Holden Caulfield, the seventeen-year-old narrator and protagonist of the novel, addressing the reader directly from a mental hospital in southern
Alonzo Booth III IB English Due: November 8, 2013 Porphyria’s Lover Analysis Robert Browning was a famous English Poet who mastered the use of dramatic verse expecially dramtic monologues. One of his famous pieces was Porphyria’s Lover. Robert Browning use situational irony, personification, imagery, iambic tetrameter, juxtaposition, rhythm, and enjambment to complicate the notion of truth throughout the poem. Robert Browning uses situational irony to depict the love portrayed by Porphyria’s lover but it ends up going awry when he took, “ in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around and stranged her.” (lines 39- 41) It displays the irony of a person saying a whole lot of good things about that person that they love and cherish but they end up killing them. Browning uses that to throw the readers off from the suspecting romantic love poem or love story to a romantic tragedy that ends up leaving the reader wondering why did the man kill the woman he loved so dearly?
Critics view The Rocking-Horse Winner as an example of Lawrence's most accomplished writing. Lawrence is considered a modernist, a member of a literary school opposed to the literary conventions of nineteenth-century morality, taste, and tradition. Evident in The Rocking-Horse Winner is Lawrence's disdain for conspicuous consumption, crass materialism, and an emotionally distant style of parenting popularly thought to exist in England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Thus, the story is considered by many to be an example of modernist prose. Author’s Biography David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D.H. Lawrence.