Jealousy in Three Dramatic Monologues by Browning Essay -- Robert Brow

Jealousy in Three Dramatic Monologues by Browning The poems My Last Duchess, Porphyrias Lover and The Laboratory be three dramatic monologues, theatrical tales of bitter green-eyed monstertold by anonymous, murderous lovers.My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover use the simple idea of cruelmale domination to portray the storytellers jealousy, as these two mendo non know any other way of dominationling their seemingly flirtatiouslovers behaviour. They try to completely possess their women asobjects, and such a need for provide seems to be a pure statement ofirrational jealousy.The following quotations show this idea clearly and, although thelater is not direct to the murder of his lover, it is plain that thenarrator is cruel, objective possessiveness.I propped her head up as before.This quotation clearly shows that Porphyrias lover did not seem tounderstand the full consequence of murdering this woman, an idea whichis alike quite unornamented in my last duchess, as the Duke certai nlyappears to brag about his wifes flirtatious behaviour, and itstopping. Returning to the idea of cruel male domination, though, thisis obviously apparent in My Last Duchess when the Duke suddenlyproclaims the followingNotice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse.I would argue that Neptune is representative of the Duke, tamingthough I would suggest imprisoning, brutally dominating a beauty ofnature, which is representative of the Duchess, whom the Dukeviolently tamed also.This idea is not so apparent in The Laboratory because the narratoris female. We do, however, see her plotting the murder of heradulterous husband, so in a way is trying to tame him too. Cruel,male domination... ...ithee?The woman has bought a poison to kill her husbands lover with, whichis a typical murder weapon of women, and also the most culpable of thethree murders, as it would be the most painful for the victim.Murder, therefore, is the main presentation of jealousy in the threepoems, and gives us considerab le insight to the point of the narrator,because the poems are dramatic monologues. The narrators cannot seethat their jealousy has overridden natural behaviour because theysimply couldnt control and dominate their lovers behaviour.In conclusion, therefore, jealousy is presented throughout the poemsas an ultimate need for control and brutal domination, leading to theirrational behaviour of the narrators, and unprecedented murderthrough inability to control their own behaviour, let alone anyoneelses, and of course, their own jealousy.