Hintze



Robert Browning: a person with an universal mind; by contemporaries his work has been called obscure, and Browning himself was described –though he was outspoken and liked by his friends— as odd, and much like a puzzle of his century. Growing up, his parents opened him the gates to immense amounts of knowledge about music, horsemanship, boxing, foreign languages, and he also read multitudes of books. This knowledge not only makes his works appear as foreign and out of the time, but it also targets cultural issues and displays them through his way of encoding. After the harsh critique he got on his confessional piece, Browning decided to swap over to dramatic monologue. The dramatic monologues he wrote, mainly for theatre, helped him to place his feelings into imaginary characters. Through the dramatic monologue he was also able to masquerade himself so that the readers would have to figure out what kind of relationship the speaker has to the author. Unfortunately his writings did not receive much of applause because they were thought to be unfitting for the time he lived in. By some he is described as one of the people who formed the 20th century’s poetry. For a while he has been known as “Mrs. Browning’s Husband”, as his wife’s poetic work was much more famous than his was. Even though he started out as misunderstood and his poetry seen as unstable; he worked his way up to the day where he was called to be the rival, or even recognized as an equal to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

One theme in Browning’s poems is the decay of urban life. In his poem [|“Love Among the Ruins”] that theme peaks out most. He describes the once proud and powerful city that has dropped to the status of a ruin. This poem has a song-like rhythm to it. Adding to that it is upbeat and seems to be like a nursery rhyme in its style. But eventually future will grow over the destroyed past like ivy over a gravestone, and as he says: “With their triumphs and their glories and the rest! Love is best.” Another very disturbing theme used in some of his poems is murder out of love, or jealousy. For example in his poem [|“My Last Duchess”], and [|“Porphyria’s Lover”]; the story seems to have a normal beginning but then the story shifts drastically and one character either strangles a woman with her hair, or tells another character why she left this world—because of not pleasing her husband, and doing everything the way he wanted it to be. The disturbing image in //Porphyria’s Lover// reminds me of the readings of Jekyll and Hyde where crazed persons killed their victim for pleasure.

The usage of a dramatic monologue is a technique in his repertoire that he is known for. A dramatic monologue seems to be similar to a soliloquy, but it is somehow different. In his poem [|“My Last Duchess”], he uses that technique to display the character’s past and the behavior of the character. In a soliloquy a character would display his or her feelings to himself, in a lonely room while also ignoring the audience; much like in Shakespeare’s //Hamlet// where he started to talk with Yorick’s skull. But in the dramatic monologue the actor or the character reveals his or her self to the audience. This helps to create some sort of bond between the audience and the character.

Monographs:
Gibson writes in her article that Robert Browning’s work has been mostly studied for “historical reconstruction and textual editing of Browning’s presence in twentieth century literature and film.” Some collections of criticism on the poems and also revisions are helpful, because they make us understand some phrases written in Browning’s poems. The studies on his poetry uncover details that have not been understood by Browning’s peers back in the 1800’s. There is a Yale edition of collections on criticism& interpretation, and there are others like for example the Oxford, and also an Ohio version. This monograph might be helpful to those who do not understand certain intentions of the author and want to find information about it. Knowing that there are interpretations and revisions of Browning’s poetry present in credible sources, like the volumes that were published by Oxford are edited editions on the first third of Browning’s “//The Ring and the Book”// edited by Stefan Hawlin and T. A. J. Burnett (1998), might be helpful to those who are interested in seeing what other people interpret in the complex stories of Browning.

In Nakanishi's article, she describes two people's—Richard S. Kennedy and Donald S. Hair— work on Browning's life. She says that they wrote a biography about Robert Browning starting at his birthplace and followed all the steps in his life; from his initial failures as writer to his more famous works. The stony way to fame was not an easy one and he had to play around with different techniques until he found out how well the dramatic monologue worked for him. Until his early thirties Browning has been seen as a man who failed to bring his readers what they expected. This article might be interesting to those who want to see further into Browning's development as a writer. It is not often seen that someone who fails to please his audience still continues to fight and finally climbs to the top of the mountain. His arduous way to the top has left him to be the one who was not longer memorized as Elizabeth Barrett's husband; no, rather he finally grew to an equal of Lord Tennyson.

Articles:
In Britta Martens’ article, Robert Browning is described as someone who tries to put social issues into his writings. He writes about feminism, homosexual themes, and also about ideas out of the field of cognitive psychology. Ernest Fontana, she continues, has written an interpretation about Browning’s two poems “//The Guardian Angel//” and “//Waring”.// He interprets those two poems show that Browning might have had certain hidden feelings for one of his male friends. Other poems really show how Browning tries to include concepts of modernity in some of his poems, like “//Childe Roland…”// the modernity, somehow, seems to bear an uncertain danger in it. It was also said that Robert Browning found big interest in cognitive psychology, as that helps us to understand processes during reading, and so on. This article is scholarly, because it is from a credible source. Adding to that it is much like a collection of criticism of other writers and the input of Mrs. Martens.

Merchant, P., describes how in Browning’s poem //“Love Among the Ruins”// the love stands out of all the debris and destruction that surrounds it//.// He also mentions how love is seen by Browning as much more than riches [gold] could do for you, by saving up the word love for the end. The author also described that the title is connected to the final statement; this creates something like an infinite cycle [he refers it as: the alpha returns as its omega]. The author seems to draw back to many other works of Browning as he analyses the poem more in depth. He also stated that the ruins might be a symbol for the death of traditions. The author has used many references himself and his published document is rather scholarly than popular, because it also comes from a credible source—a journal about Victorian Poetry—and also it seems to be like a work that would not fit into a popular magazine as well.

Mr. Baker writes in his article about how Browning and Wordsworth never were close to one another. There was a time period where Browning was looking up to Wordsworth, but that soon changed. The tensions between the two men were mostly fought in their poems. Knight, another big person in the writing business who was offered to put a list of poems of Wordsworth together for some Wordsworth society meetings, urged Browning to say something about Wordsworth at the meetings. Browning though, was not able to come up with a list of poems of Wordsworth that he would have liked to present, thus after a while he picked some that displayed how aware Wordsworth is of human suffering and other issues. As the author has described it, it seems like that was Browning’s only apology he could have come up with. He also mentions “// Fifine //” very often, which was meant to be some encoded message from Browning. Of course this is another article which is scholarly because of multiple reasons. First one is that it comes from the Oxford University Press; and as always Universities tend to have peers reviving material before it gets published. Other than being from a really credible source it is also well supported.

Websites:
[|Ohio University Press] -Descriptions about the complete works of Robert Browning.

[|The Literature Network] -Robert Browning

Major works:
//[|“Porphyria’s Lover”]//

//[|“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”]//

//[|“The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church”]//

//[|“Love Among the Ruins”]//

//[|“ Fra Lippo Lippi”]//

//[|“Andrea del Sarto”]//

[|“Caliban upon Setebos”]

[|"My Last Duchess"]

[|"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"]

-For a list of all his other creations please visit: []

Family & Friends:



 * Father is Robert Browning; worked as bank clerk


 * Mother is Sarah Wiedemann Browning


 * Elizabeth Barrett Browning was his wife (married 1845)


 * Has son with Elizabeth


 * After getting back to London he collected massive amounts on friends and flourished in social life; he never talked about his own poems, which seemed odd to his friends

Careers:

 * Attended boarding school near Camberwell


 * Went to the University of London for a short while, but then got back to his parent's house


 * (1863) wrote Plays for a theatre in London, struggled for ten years with writing plays


 * In Italy he got back to write poems; and even continued long after Elizabeth's death

Home & Travel:

 * Was born in Camberwell, a London Suburb


 * Traveled a little (to Russia and Italy)


 * Moved to Italy with Elizabeth; then after her death got back to London

Major Events in Browning's Life:

 * **Born** 7 May 1812


 * (1833) Wrote his first poem "//Pauline//"; after that he stayed away from personal poems, because of bad critique


 * (1837) He wrote his first tragedy for theatre; the tragedy only lasted for four days


 * (1842) Collection of dramatic monologues called "//Dramatic Lyrics//" appeared


 * (1845) Married Elizabeth Barrett when he was 34; both moved to Italy where he writes "//The Bishop Orders His Tomb//"


 * (1855) Most memorable collections of Poems "//Men and Women//" was created by him


 * (1861) Elizabeth died; after her death Robert moved back to London with his son; additionally writes "//Andrea del Sarto//"


 * (1864) He published his collection of some of his most intriguing monologues in "//Dramatis Personae//" (one of the poems it contains is //"Caliban upon Setebos"//)


 * (1868) His longest and most significant single poem "//The Ring and the Book//" was published


 * **Died** 12 December 1889 and was buried in Westminster Abbey


 * (1953) Dramatic Monologue is now used widely in 20th century poetry

Questions:
In "//My Last Duchess//":


 * 1) How does dramatic monologue help you to understand the Baron and what happened to Lucrezia de Medici?
 * 2) In what way does his description of a scene in the 1560's still relate to an issue in the society Browning was living in?
 * 3) How does Fra Pandolf fit into the story?
 * 4) Why did the Duke dislike the way Lucrezia was behaving; what does he mean by saying "... as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift..."?
 * 5) How can you, as the reader, see yourself in the position of Count of Tyrol; how is the connection established?

References:
Baker, J. “Browning’s Apology: Robert Browning, Wordsworth, and William Knight. ” //Oxford University Press// 54 (2003): 220-236. //EbscoHost//. Web. 13 May 2011.

Gibson, M. “Guide to the Year’s Work: Robert Browning.” //Victorian Poetry// 38.3 (2001): 416-422. //Muse.// Web. 14 May 2011.

Martens, B. “Robert Browning” //Victorian Poetry// 47.3 (2007): 287-297. //EbscoHost//. Web. 13 May 2011.

Merchant, P. “Winking Through the Chinks: Eros and Ellipsis in Robert Browning’s “Love Among the Ruins”” //Victorian Poetry// 45.4 (2007): 349-368. //EbscoHost//. Web. 13 May 2011.

Nakanishi, W. “The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life.” //Columbian Press// 2007: 743-744. //EbscoHost.// Web. 14 May 2011.