Poetry Compare and Contrast Love and Madness True love is the theme in the poem “Porphyria’s Lover,” by Robert Browning, and “Annabel Lee,” written by Edger Allen Poe. They were written in the same time period both having romantic notions, and share the same dramatic monologue style. Both are similar poems in their deranged views of love. However, the manner in which their beautiful lovers die and how they felt after their death, differ greatly. The men in both poems truly loved their women in the beginning, but by the end they had become obsessive, drove themselves to insanity, and slept next to the dead bodies of their lovers.
In addition to the tale's theme of sanity and insanity, Poe acquaints the readers with two others:Guilt and Innocence, and Time being the narrator's true foe, not Death. The Tell-Tale Heart details the story of a seemingly mad individual who kills his friend for no apparent reason other than the fact that he could not deal with the old man's silvery eye. After murdering the old man, the narrator still hears his beating heart from underneath the floor where he buried him. Overcome with guilt, he finally ends up confessing his heinous crime to the police. At first glance, a reader can assume that Poe meant this tale to be a straightforward parable about self-betrayal by one's conscience and guilt.
Moral Ambiguous Characters Throughout Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the moral ambiguity of the central character, Dorian Gray, becomes more and more distinct. The story starts with Dorian being venerated by the artist Basil Hallward, and throughout the story the reader learns of Gray’s several wrong doings. Meeting Lord Henry almost straight away negatively influenced Dorian. He had started out blameless and innocent, but by the conclusion had been the cause of numerous deaths, all because of his selfish wish to stay beautiful forever. “His actions show a character who insists the soul is real, but loves the gaping chasm between the beauty of his body and the corruption of his soul” [ (Wilde 105-123) ].
“To be or not to be, that is the question; whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer...” (Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 1). This quotation proves Hamlet becomes inferior to others and the environment through his madness, causing him to express himself explicitly towards others. Hamlet’s madness not only causes his loved ones lives but it allows his “end” to come because he accepts every challenge from his opponent. Hamlet’s madness not only affects him but Ophelia, who is mentally torn apart by Hamlet. Ophelia was once flawless, but since her encounter with Hamlet she has fallen into the same madness and wants to kill herself.
In the play, Hamlet is portrayed as a very philosophical character that thinks and analyzes every situation to the extreme. Hamlet undergoes many difficult situations such as the murder of his father, which causes him to act in a very mad and crazy manner, which plays a role in his relationship with Ophelia. Before the incident of Hamlet’s father’s death, Hamlet loves Ophelia and he demonstrates this by showing romantic gestures such as exchanging love letters with her. Hamlet sends her letters in which he refers to her as “the most beautified Ophelia” and his “soul’s idol” (2.2.109-110). Hamlet clearly demonstrates his expressions and feeling towards her through this letter and shows us that he does love her.
Along with the frequent use of rhyming couplets and enjambment, this makes it clear that the Duke was a suspicious and dominant man to his dead wife and also shows his control. The first evidence in the poem to support this is “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” and also “Sir, twas not her husband’s presence only, called that spot of joy into the Duchess’ cheek!” Both are said in reference to his wife to the Count’s envoy. These are effective as we are presented with the subjective viewpoint of the Duke. Like Shakespeare, Browning wrote plays as well as poetry which is evident as we see how he combined the techniques of play writing and poetry. Again, as the Duke talks about the Duchess
Robert Browning uses jealousy as a theme for most of his poems, claiming that the duke in the poem “My Last Duchess” was obsessed with the Duchess and kills her due to the fact that he does not want other men to be seduced by her appearance, and likeness. In relation to this in “Porphyria's Lover” Browning displays this theme in the poem by talking about how the Young man took this nice young woman into his house, and then strangled her and kept her corpse so he could be with her. In the poem “A Light Woman” Browning talks about a flirtatious woman who takes a man’s attention and then diverts her attention towards one of his friends who in the end wins her heart. The speaker unravels his jealousy as she changes her attraction to another man. He uses the characters portrayal in each of the poems.
(2011:97) Dramatic Monologue is a device whereby the poet invents a character to provide the voice and opinion represented in the text. Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”, addresses a rather complex character commonly found in the Victorian Era. The persona in this case, is the Duke of Ferrara. The poem, being a Dramatic Monologue, features a second character, the messenger, which the Duke addresses. Browning’s use of this Dramatic Monologue involves the reader in the process of assimilating and deconstructing the story of the Duke of Ferrara’s relationship with his ‘last duchess’ through his diction, style, structure and rhythmic pattern.
By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her. Ophelia made one decision and that was to love Hamlet, and now he is using her actions to make her feel inferior and sinful. Up to this point in the play, Shakespeare depicted Hamlet as a mad man hell-bent on avenging his fathers suspect death, however: his cruel outburst at Ophelia is not a turning point in the story in which he goes from being a hero to being a cold-hearted oppressor. Hamlet tells Ophelia that she will have to ‘marry a fool’ because ‘wise men’ would know better than to marry her; he yells at her ‘get thee to a nunnery’, and yet the way it fits into the plot makes it seem almost expected. As the plot progresses Ophelia begins to lose her mind, resulting in her eventually suicide, but at no point his Hamlet called out for his harsh words against her in a significant way.
Then all smiles stopped together.” What sort of commands did he give? Why did everybody’s smile turn upside down? This is the most revealing line in the poem. He might not have said he killed her but, as the reader, this line without a doubt, brings us to the thought of him having to do something with the murder of his wife. And the fact that everybody’s smile