'The Dramatic Monologue is the most
appropriate form by which an author can explore the human mind'.
(Discuss any three or four of Browning's
dramatic monologues in the light of this comment)
This essay will highlight how the
'Dramatic Dialogue' can be used to explore the most innermost thoughts that man
has within him. The dramatic monologue,
although, is not strictly a 19th century innovation (The Greeks and
Romans often used it to enhance mythical stories). Many Victorian poets such as
Alfred Tennyson, Dante Rossetti and of course Robert Browning extensively used
it. King (1968) says "Rather than
tell a whole story, as in a long poem or ballad, poets often gave the
reader/audience a small piece of the story, and let them infer the
ending". In the dramatic
monologue, the poet often creates a character, a persona or a speaker, who
plays some part in the larger narrative, either as a participant or an
observer.
Thus the dramatic monologue is characterised as a speech
by one character caught in a significant (dramatic) moment, the speaker is
often seen to address another character that does not speak (implied listener).
The advantage of all this is, that by removing the orator to one side, it
allows the poet to delve deeply into the workings of the mind, and to many
people the very 'soul of man'.
The
popularity of the dramatic monologue arose during what is now called the
'Victorian High Noon'. Gilbert (1976)
says, "This period (1800-1860) was a period of high religious revival.
Public entertainment was frowned on (even stage plays). There arose from this a
new type of Christian based family entertainment." These larger family
units were encouraged to entertain each other, within their own sitting rooms
with religious/patriotic songs, whilst the 'father figure' gave the dramatic
monologue. The poems of Robert Browning (1812-1889) with their deep moral
undertones, their expose of greed, avarice and subliminal sex, etc made them
ideal moral subjects.
The Victorian writer Orr (1892) (Friend of Browning) says
"The dramatic monologues of Robert Browning includes everything which a
human being can think and feel, and that he is realistic only in the sense of
never being a visionary". She goes
on to say "These men and women are usually in a state of mental
disturbance and conflict". Whilst
this essay is not really concerned with life and beliefs of Robert Browning, we
must be aware that Browning was loved and cherished within a Christian
'Dissenter' family, and as such had a deep religious belief in God, which often
surfaces in his poetry as questions to his God. Lawson (1974) says of this
"Browning's recognition of the role of the objective is at the heart of
his poetic theory -- and of his religious conviction. This fact in part,
explains the frequency with which his several characters speak of God. Through
them he objectifies elements of his faith, then subjects them to experiments in
living situations".
The first of four poems, chosen to
illustrate the thoughts, hopes, aspirations and fears of mankind is 'Childe
Roland to the Dark Tower Came' (1852).
Whilst this poem is often considered the most complex, (with over 200
lines), it is by far, one of the most significant and exciting poems of its
genre. Childe Roland embarks upon a
journey were there are no fairy towers, no sleeping beauties to rescue, no
giants to fight, in fact no victories to be won at all. Browning has reversed
our perception of the stereotypical hero to that of a victim, from external action
to internal self-realisation. King
(1968) says "That Browning changes the expected medieval quest into a
modern spiritual journey". This is
a clever role reversal, whereby Roland himself becomes a victim, hunted by a
greater power than he is; this allows Browning to externalise his fears.
This removal from realistic
objectiveness is surely a cry of a soul cut off from God, and should serve as a
lesson to those who seek to make their own path through life, ("Blind as a
fools heart" (182)). The desolation through which the journey takes place,
through the wastelands greatly reflects our own state of mind, cluttered up as
it is with our own ghosts, secrets and irrational fears. The introduction of an
iconographic image the "stiff blind horse" (76), whereby Childe
Roland says, "I never saw a brute I hated so -/ He must be wicked to
deserve such pain"(83-84). Hair (1972) says "That Childe Roland's
instinctive hatred for the horse's purported guilt, is actually revulsion from
his own guilt". Another interesting
concept of Browning's poem is that Roland also accepts the misdeeds of his
compatriots (Cuthbert and Giles) and treats them as his own sins, and it is his
duty to take them and expatiate them.
The use
of fire as a cleansing agent ("Sheet of flame"(201)), is a well known
'evangelical' concept often called the 'Refining Fire', and used here by
Browning to offer Childe Roland spiritual regeneration. His acceptance of the
fire shows his willingness to change, to accept all his faults, and go forward
irrespective of whether he has to accept death as the ultimate price to be
paid. "I shut my eyes and turned them on my heart" (85)…"Best
the present than a past like that"(103)…"This was the
place"(176). (This concept must have been close to Browning's heart). The
final blowing of the horn is Childe Roland's last act, almost of defiance or
even ecstasy before we assume he enters the 'Dark Tower'.
(It is interesting to note that Mrs
Sutherland Orr (1898) says "We are reduced to taking the poem as a simple
work of fancy…the thing we may not do is to imagine that an intended lesson is
conveyed by it".)
The second choice poem has to be 'My
Last Duchess' (1842). Nearly every Browning poetry book puts this poem as the
penultimate dramatic monologue. Litzinger (1970) classes it "As one of the
most representative dramatic monologues, and a prime example of its
genre". In My Last Duchess,
Browning uses externally, the forthcoming marriage between the 'Duke' and the
assumed beautiful daughter of a wealthy 'Count' as a vehicle with which to
explore the innermost debased thoughts of the Duke. These debasements range
from simple greed, through obsessive possessionalism, to sexual jealousy and a
rather veiled but highly suggestive murder of his last Duchess
Even the title 'My Last Duchess' has
a possessive pronoun (My), and 'Last Duchess' removes the fact that the
previous duchess even had a name. We are equally led to the fact that although
the Duke had power, knowledge, breeding "…a nine hundred years old
name" (33), and culture, he is shown by Browning to be devoid of natural
love. The Duke sees the possession of 'object d' art' as the firm stepping
stones to a better life. The painting of the last Duchess painted by a famous
painter (Fra Pandolf) is treasured by the Duke as more valuable than the living
woman. "Painted on the wall…Their she stands/As if alive". The Duke
tries to justify this fact by denigrating the value and behaviour of the woman
herself. "…the white mule/She rode with around the terrace - all and each
/Would draw from her alike the approving speech, /Or blush at
least"(29-31). (Here Browning allows the Duke to seek sympathy from the
listener by suggesting that the Duchess gave her favours too freely to others,
for little return, thus demeaning his gift to her of the 900 yr. lineage he
offered. His sexual jealousy runs even
higher as he suggests more secret things. "Her looks went everywhere"
and "She thanked men, - good…I know not how"(32). (He repeatedly refers to the "blush",
or "spot of joy" that should have been his alone.) Thus by keeping
her picture behind a curtain for viewing only by selected people, he is in fact
satisfying his sexual jealously whereby he and he alone is responsible for who
sees her, the state of suspended beauty is thus preserved forever unsullied.
Although the listener has no input
into the monologue, Browning in many of his poems allows the listener a degree
of licence to change a previously conceived notion. The following lines, "gave
commands; /Then all smiles stopped together"(45), are rather chilling
lines. From this we are allowed to guess, did the Duke kill the Duchess, was
she placed into a convent for life (common in this era for erring wives), or
did she actually run away with a lover etc.
Even after mentioning the dowry due
to him, the Duke cannot help boasting, referring to yet another treasure, the
bronze statue of Neptune. "Which
Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me"(56). Robert Browning, in this
poem has really put man in his place.
He leaves a sting in the tail by allowing us to wonder, how the father
of the bride to be, could possibly allow his daughter to marry this monster.
(Unless, the Count himself has something to gain - thus the circle
continues). This really is a beautiful
thought-provoking poem.
The third selection is "The
Bishop Orders his Tomb at St Praxed's Church" (1845). One wonders that
when Robert Browning wrote this poem, he was in fact looking at all of us when
we reach the end of our lives. It certainly delves deep into all our hopes and
aspirations when death is inevitable to us all.
This poem is a series of inter
linked stories. Firstly the dying Bishop reveals that his celibacy was
compromised by his affair with a mistress, who bore him seven sons "Nephews - sons mine…ah God I know
not!"(3). Although he boasts that he won their mother (his mistress) from
his archenemy 'Gandolf', whom, he accuses of taking the best burial site in the
church. He knows in his heart that these sons would strip him of his wealth and
bury him as a pauper if they could. (And who is to blame them after his
treatment of their mother, and themselves). Therefore he offers them his villas
to placate them if they carry out his burial instructions, or "Else I give
the Pope my villas"(102/3).
The Bishop's robbery of his church's
valuables is treated very lightly. "Draw close: that conflagration of my
church/ -What then? So much was saved if aught was missed!"(19-20). Shattell (1999) puts it well when she says,
"One of the major themes of the 'Bishop' is Physicality (or materialism)
versus spirituality, and the Bishop's inability to separate the two states of
being". It is obvious that a man
holding a position of religious significance does not mean he is a devout holy
man. The 'Bishop's' obsession to create
the most expensive and beautiful tomb from, "antique-black
basalt…to…jasper-green as a pistachio nut…all Lapis all" plus the wish to
place a previously 'liberated' lump of Lapis "Some lump, ah God, of lapis
lazuli, - Big as a Jew's head" (42). Even the stone relief is described as "As into great laps and
folds of sculptors-work"(90). Does Browning here, mean that man who may
leave this earth naked and poor, needs to leave some monolith (grave/building
etc.) to mourn his own passing.
Browning allows the 'Bishop' to
contemplate the possibility of life after death, or even that death. "Do I
live, am I dead"(115) is a transient thing. The placing of his tomb means
to him, that to his muddled mind "One sees the pulpit o' the
epistle-side/And somewhat of the choir…The angels, and a sunbeam's sure to
lurk"(21-23). The Bishop believes
he will "hear the blessed mutter of mass…feel the steady candle
flame…taste…incense smoke"(81-82). By this stage the Bishop loses all
sense of reality. One interesting
question asked by Browning through the Bishop is "Swift as a weaver's
shuttle fleet our ears…Man goeth to the grave, and where is he?"(51-52).
Is this a question that Browning himself, worries about? (He frequently
questions God through his poetry). Another point one must ask oneself is if the
denigration of the Bishop, is Browning's Broad Church's reaction to 'Apostolic
Succession'.
The final choice is "An Epistle
Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, The Arab Physician
(1855). As an avid Christian Browning would be fully aware of the biblical
story of 'Lazarus' (John 11:1-43) and the story of his Incarnation by Jesus.
The
essential key or message lies in the two last lines of the poem, "But love
I gave thee, with myself to love, /And thou must love me who have died for
thee!"(310-311) (The very belief of Robert Browning). To begin with we are presented with
'Karshish', a medical scientist of his day, who is portrayed by Browning as
"Karshish, the picker-up of learning's crumbs/The not incurious in Gods
handiwork"(1-2) whose inherent disbelief of Incarnation, draws him to
travel to Jerusalem to meet Lazarus. Karshish in his report says "That he
was dead (in fact they buried him)/That he was dead and then restored to
life/By a Nazarene physician of his tribe"(97-100) Karshish goes on to say
how healthy Lazarus is upon meeting him. "Sanguine, proportioned, fifty
years of age, /The body's habit wholly laudable"(110-111) The subsequent
meeting causes us to at first take sides. Hair (1972) says, "The listener,
I think tends to feel patronising towards Karshish because he is so obviously
wrong and Lazarus so obviously right" Karshish accuses Lazarus of being
blasphemous because Lazarus talks of the doctrine he holds about Christ. "And
after all our patient Lazarus is stark mad - should we count on what he says?
Perhaps not - though in writing to a leech… etc. (263-290). Karshish also sees
that Lazarus has absolute knowledge of all things, therefore this preclude
moral choice. (There is no need to think). Thus Browning introduces 'faith' as
a concept. Karshish slowly comes round to the Christian idea that 'faith is a
belief which cannot be proven, and therefore has become the basis of all our
moral actions'. "…He will live, nay it pleases him to live/ So long as God
please, and just how God please. /He even seeketh not to please God
more"(209-211) this is the basis of Browning's Evangelical 'Free Will'. In
this poem Browning argues that 'faith' in Christ, is more important than
factual proof of the existence of Christ. Whitla (1963) says "That
Browning faced the complex religious and scientific situation of his day by
stressing the central importance of the Incarnation. It was the 'mystery of
life' to him".
To
conclude, we must remember that Browning's poetry records the development of
his own soul, and that Browning's ideas where never static, that they were in a
constant state of change, and development. Whilst his beliefs remained sound,
he frequently used his poetry to pose as many questions about God, as he does
answers. Browning himself said "…my stress lay on the incidents in the
development of the soul: little else is worth study" (Sordello 1863) .
REFERENCES.
Browning,R.
(1855). Men and Women, (Everyman Press.
London, 1998 Edition.)
Hair,D. (1972). Browning's
Experiments with Genre.(Oliver & Boyd. Toronto.
King,R. (1968). The
Focussing Artifice. (Ohio University Press.)
Litzinger,B. (1970) Browning
- Critical Heritage. (Routledge, London)
Lawson,L. (1974). Very
Sure of God. (Vanderbilt Press, Nashville)
Orr,S. (1892). Handbook
to Browning's Work.(Geo. Bell, London)
Whitla,W. (1967). The
Central Truth. (Univ. of Toronto Press)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Hair,D. (1972). Browning's
Experiments with Genre.(Oliver & Boyd. Toronto.
Honan,P. Browning's
Characters. (Yale Univ. Press, London. 1961)
Jack,I. Browning's
Major Poetry. (Clarendon Press, London. (1973)
King,R. The Focussing
Artifice. (Ohio University Press. 1968)
Lawson,L. Very Sure of
God. (Vanderbilt Press, Nashville.1974.)
Litzinger,B. Browning-Critical
Heritage. (Routledge, London. 1970)
Orr,S. Handbook to Browning's Work.(Geo. Bell,
London. 1892)
Raymond,W. The
Infinite Moment.(Univ. Toronto Press. 1950)
Ryals,C. Life of
Robert Browning. (Blackford Press, Oxford. 1993)
Slinn,W. Browning
& the Future of Identity.(Barnes, NJ. 1982)
Sullivan,W. Browning's
Voices. (Univ. of Toronto Press. 1969)
Thomas,D. A Life
Within Life. (Weidenfeld,London. 1982)
Tracy,C. Browning's
Mind & Art.(Oliver & Boyd, London, 1968)
Ward,M. Robert
Browning, His World. (Cassell Press, London.1967)
Whitla,W. The Central
Truth. (Univ. of Toronto Press. 1967)
Woodford,J. Browning,
The Visionary.(St. Martins Press, NY. 1988)