Dramatic Monologue: Love, Death and Ambition

1. Dramatic Monologue: Love, Death and Ambition Lord Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning

2. Outline • Dramatic Monologue: Definition • Contemporary Voice: Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska” (681) (6; 5) • “Ulysses” (1; 9) • Lord Alfred Tennyson • Response: Miriam Waddington “Ulysses Embroidered” (988) (2; 10) • “My Last Duchess” (8; 7) • Robert Browning • “Porphyria’s Lover” (3; 4)

3. Husband & Wife Murder Murder Lovers Serial Killer Anti-Social

4. Why? Guilty or Not? Ask the Poet or Defend the Monologist/Narrator 

5. Dramatic Monologue • [Who] A poem which involves a speaker speaking alone to an implied auditor. • Through his speech, the following is revealed: • what, when, where and how of “the story”; • “a gap between what that speaker says and what he or she actually reveals” (reference).

6. Dramatic Monologue & the Reader • Browninesque dramatic monologue has three requirements: • The reader takes the part of the silent listener. • The speaker uses a case-making, argumentative tone. • We complete the dramatic scene from within, by means of inference and imagination. (Glenn Everett reference).

7. General Questions 1. Leader  Image source: A-Piece-of-Monologue Why are there differences and/or murders? [3. Commentator] • What are the 4 W’s & 1 H of the poem? • Who: the monologist, the silent listener, the subject and their interrelations • What & How: what does the story reveal and how? • When: what has the story, and its revelation, to do with the time and ours? 5. Connector  9. Investigator

8. Dramatic Monologue in Historical Context • Need for Story: The poets’ meeting the readers’ need for stories in Victorian society, when novel was a popular genre. • Social Alienation & Psychopathy: A device to explore the depth of human psychology and the theme of alienation– by assuming a personae (often quite alien to the poet’s own values and beliefs) • e.g. The Waste Land, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

9. “Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen • Inspired by the film Badlands and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (Wikipedia) •  monologist: Charles Starkweather* • A few examples: a documentary (21:36; 49:40), interview of Fugate, the film Badlands (trailer)

10. “Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen (2): Questions • When is the speech made? To whom? What are the characters involved/presented in the song? • How are they related to the monologist C. Starkweather? • What/Who sits on his lap? • What does the ending mean?How is the overall meaning of the poem supported by the musical accompaniment? • Do you agree that “there is meanness in the world”?

11. "Nebraska“ I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton Me and her went for a ride sirand ten innocent people died  From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska with a sawed off .410* on my lap Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my pathI can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun

12. "Nebraska“ (2) The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor head back You make sure my pretty baby is sittin' right there on my lap They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled They wanted to know why I did what I did Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.

13. Ulysses* Ulysses Returns Chryseis to her Father1648 (source)

14. Ulysses 1. The who, where, when and why of the poem? The listener”s”? 2. Ulysses– What does he think about his present life (ll. 1-5), his past experience (ll. 7-21), and future goals (ll. 22-32). Are there contradictions in his self-perception? 3. Ulysses vs. Telemachus: "He works his work, I mine." Do you find Ulysses irresponsible or a-social? 4. HOW do the poetic form and sound convey the meanings? a) blank verse -- rhythm (e.g. iambic pentameter), b) the arrangement of explosive and mellifluous sounds in the poem. 5. Do you see the poem as an inspirational poem, or one that deals with U’s self-centeredness?

15. Ulysses (1833) It little profits that an idle king,By this still hearth, among these barren crags,Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race,That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.I cannot rest from travel; I will drinkLife to the lees.All times I have enjoy'dGreatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with thoseThat loved me, and alone; on shore, and whenThro' scudding drifts the rainy HyadesVext the dim sea. I am become a name;For always roaming with a hungry heartMuch have I seen and known,-- cities of menAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--And drunk delight of battle with my peers,Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. give out by measure The Hyades = sisters, daughters of Atlas, who were turned into a constellation of stars by Zeus. They vexed, or tormented, the sea with blowing sheets of rain ("scudding drifts"), just as the constellation can influence the sea and weather.

16. Ulysses I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fadesFor ever and for ever when I move.How dull it is to pause, to make an end,To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on lifeWere all too little, and of one to meLittle remains; but every hour is savedFrom that eternal silence, something more,A bringer of new things; and vile it wereFor some three suns to store and hoard myself,And this gray spirit yearning in desireTo follow knowledge like a sinking star,Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. unpolished

17. Ulysses –Stanza 2 This is my son, mine own Telemachus,to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfillThis labor, by slow prudence to make mildA rugged people, and thro' soft degreesSubdue them to the useful and the good.Most blameless is he, centred in the sphereOf common duties, decent not to failIn offices of tenderness, and payMeet adoration to my household gods,When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. very proper

18. Ulysses –Stanza 3 There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--That ever with a frolic welcome tookThe thunder and the sunshine, and opposedFree hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.Death closes all; but something ere the end,Some work of noble note, may yet be done,Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deepMoans round with many voices. Come, my friends.'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

19. Ulysses –Stanza 3 Push off, and sitting well in order smiteThe sounding furrows; for my purpose holdsTo sail beyond the sunset, and the bathsOf all the western stars, until I die.It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'We are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate,but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find,and not to yield.

20. Ulysses: young and old 1. Time/Place: Ulysses at an old age—first speaking in his palace to no one (the wife does not seem to listen) and then ("There lies the port"), to the mariners by the port. 2. Ulysses: a. present – a boring life in “barren crags” with an aged wife and tedious duties (mete and dole; not known); past: -- seen the world, well known, a lot of experience; change – action, to strive with god, to find something new. destiny – dark broad sea  death (Happy isle=Elysium)

21. Ulysses: ambition/freedom vs. duty/domesticity Ulysses//mariners vs. his wife, people and Telemachus Is he irresponsible? (“hoard, and sleep, and feed”; “offices of tenderness”) 4. More question: Jerome H. Buckley asserts that the poem does not in fact convey • a will to go forward . . . but a determined retreat, a yearning, behind allegedly tired rhythms, to join the great Achilles (or possibly Arthur Hallam) in an Elysian retreat from life's vexations. [64]  Do you agree?

22. Ulysses with Three Desires—and three possible readings • Desire (1): for meaningful “living” but not mere breathing; an eventful life, but not dull routine; to “follow knowledge like a sinking star / Beyond the utmost bond of human thought”; for being a hero as he was before; --one "braving the struggle of life." • Desire (2): to be a wanderer and break away from the status quo (now known, or "I am become a name“), in which he sees his wife ”aged,” his people “savage” (sleeping, eating and hoarding), and his son, Telemachus, who is “soft” (or "discerning," "prudent," "soft," "good," "blameless," "centered," and "tender“) --one dissatisfied with mundane life and thus irresponsible • Desire (3): for “"There gloom the dark, broad seas" and the Happy Isle.” – one yearning for rest and death.

23. Ulysses: Historical Contexts • In this poem Tennyson is elaborating upon a conviction he formed at his closest friend, Arthur Hallam's death "that life without faith leads to personal and social dislocation" (Chiasson 165). (source) • In Memoriam (1850)

24. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) As a “twilight poet” • Worried about poverty and contracting epilepsy (a family disease) a twilight poet • Deeply saddened by the death of his friend Hallam. (1833) • Shorted sighted and with keen interest in sound effects, he created his poems in his head, memorizing lines and then creating their contexts. • Many narrative poems about suspension and languidness; e.g. "The Lotos-Eaters" “Mariana” (a waiting woman); about dullness of immortality: dramatic monologue: "Tithonus.“ As a a poet Laureate (1850) • a philosopher-poet, dealing with contemporary concerns with science vs. God: ’Nature, Red in tooth and claw’ • a narrative poet catering to popular taste

25. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) Norton

26. Ulysses Norton

27. “Ulysses Embroidered” Yea, Verily, thou art Odysseus (source)

28. Penelope Weaving Norton

29. Questions for Discussion • How are Penelope and her relationship with and to Ulysses depicted in “Ulysses Embroidered”? • How does the poem use and elaborate on the story of Penelope's weaving? • How does Waddington change the Ulysses story by narrating it from Penelope's point of view, or what does she encourage you to notice about the story by doing so? Norton

30.  “Ulysses Embroidered”Miriam Waddington (1917 –2004) Past sirens naked on rocks between Charybdis and Scilla from dragons’ teeth and sleep in stables choking on red flowers walking through weeds and shipwreck. You’ve come at last from all your journeying to the old blind woman in the tower Ulysses After all adventurings through seas and mountains through giant battles storms and death from pinnacles to valleys,

31. “Ulysses Embroidered” (2)Miriam Waddington (1917 –2004) Her tapestry saw everything her stitches embroidered the painful colours of her breath the long sighing touch of her hands. She made many journeys And now you are climbing the stairs taking shape a figure in shining thread rising from a golden shield, A medallion emblazoned on tapestry you grew from the blind hands of Penelope.

32. My Last Duchess (image)

33. “My Last Duchess”: Starting Question 1. The "who, where, when, and why" of the poem? 2. The role the listener plays in this poem? 2. What is the last duchess like? (See ll. 21-34) Why is she called the “last” duchess? Is she a flirt or one with genuine kindness to all creatures? 3. What is the duke's attitude to his duchess? What happened to her? 4. What kind of person is the duke? What does the ending reveal about him?

34. “My Last Duchess” (1) Ferrara That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,Lookingas ifshe werealive. I callThat piecea wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's handsWorked busily a day, and there she stands.Will't please you sit and look at her? I said"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never readStrangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance,Butto myself they turned (since none puts byThe curtain I have drawn for you, but I)                      

35. “My Last Duchess” (2) And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,How such a glance came there; so, not the firstAre you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas notHer husband's presence only, called that spotOf joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhapsFrà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle lapsOver my Lady's wrist too much," or "PaintMust never hope to reproduce the faintHalf-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

36. “My Last Duchess” (3) For calling up that spot of joy. She hadA heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,Too easily impressed; she liked whate'erShe looked on, and her looks went everywhere.Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast,The dropping of the daylight in the West,The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white muleShe rode with round the terrace -- all and eachWould draw from her alike the approving speech, 過分殷勤

37. “My Last Duchess” (4) Or blush, at least. She thanked men, -- good! but thankedSomehow -- I know not how-- as if she rankedMy gift of a nine-hundred-years-old nameWith anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blameThis sort of trifling? Even had you skillIn speech -- (which I have not) -- to make your willQuite clear to such an one, and say, "Just thisOr that in you disgusts me; here you miss,Or there exceed the mark" -- and if she letHerself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

38. “My Last Duchess” (5) indeed Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,--E'en then would be some stooping,and I chooseNever to stoop.Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,Whene'er I passed her; but who passed withoutMuch the same smile?This grew; I gave commands;Then all smiles stopped together.There she standsAs if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meetThe company below, then. I repeat, The Count your master's known munificenceIs ample warrant that no just pretence      Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;           

39. “My Last Duchess” (6) Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowedAt starting, is my object. Nay, we'll goTogether down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!          

40. “My Last Duchess” • Time: the Italian Renaissance, when the duke is negotiating with an envoy over the dowry of his next marriage. • Place: the grand staircase in the ducal palace at Ferrara, in northern Italy • His purpose: to boast and/or to threaten. • silence of the listener = awe, alertness?

41. “My Last Duchess” • The duchess – jovial and loving equally to everyone and every being. • last – 1) not late; she may be killed, but she may also be put in a convent. 2) will be another one. • The duke: 1) possessive and arrogant, he treats the duchess and the next one as “objects” to possess; 2) proud—choose not to stoop • His language: 1) implicit demand; 2) uses grand rhetoric to assert his power, disguising his lack of power.

42. “My Last Duchess”—Dramatic Irony • Contradiction between what he says and what he means: • double negative • says he has no skills in speech • says he refuses to stoop (Isn’t the command a compromise of his humanity?) • Between assertion of power and powerlessness • Power -- none but me draws the curtain • Powerlessness– repetitions of “all” “not alone,” “it was all one.”

43. Robert Browning (1812-1889) • Eloped with and married the poet Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861, writer of Sonnets from the Portuguese), and settled with her in Florence. He produced comparatively little poetry during the next 15 years. • After Elizabeth Browning died in 1861, he returned to England. • DRAMATIS PERSONAE (1864) • THE RING AND THE BOOK (1869), based on the proceedings in a murder trial in Rome in 1698. (source)

44. “Porphyria’s Lover” Starting Question • How would you describe the speaker? From which details can you tell the way his mind works? • How about Porphyria? How are the two set in contrast with each other? • Where is the turning point in this poem? How are the two changed, or not changed, before and after the turning point? • Who is the listener? Why is the listerner silent?

45. “Porphyria’s Lover” (1) THE rain set early in to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite,   And did its worst to vex the lake: I listen'd with heart fit to break. Whenglided in Porphyria; straight   She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneel'd and made the cheerless grate   Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

46. “Porphyria’s Lover” (2) Which done, she rose, and from her form Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,   And laid her soil'd gloves by, untied Her hat and let the damp hair fall,   And, last, she sat down by my side   And call'd me. When no voice replied, She put my arm about her waist,   And made her smooth white shoulder bare, And all her yellow hair displaced,   And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,   And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair, Murmuring how she loved me—she Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour, To set its struggling passion free   From pride, and vainer ties dissever, And give herself to me for ever.

47. “Porphyria’s Lover” (3) But passion sometimes would prevail,   Nor could to-night's gay feast restrain A sudden thought of one so pale   For love of her, and all in vain: So, she was come through wind and rain. Be sure I look'd up at her eyes Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipp'd me; surprise   Made my heart swell, and still it grew   While I debated what to do. That moment she was mine, mine, fair,   Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair   In one long yellow string I wound   Three times her little throat around, And strangled her. No pain felt she;   I am quite sure she felt no pain.

48. “Porphyria’s Lover” (4) As a shut bud that holds a bee,   I warily oped her lids: again   Laugh'd the blue eyes without a stain. And I untighten'd next the tress   About her neck; her cheek once more Blush'd bright beneath my burning kiss:   I propp'd her head up as before, Only, this time my shoulder bore Her head, which droops upon it still:   The smiling rosy little head, So glad it has its utmost will,   That all it scorn'd at once is fled,   And I, its love, am gain'd instead! Porphyria's love: she guess'd not how   Her darling one wish would be heard. And thus we sit together now,   And all night long we have not stirr'd, And yet God has not said a word!

49. “Porphyria and her Lover” • Porphyria – • cares about the norms of society and its "gay feast" • dominates over him. • The speaker – isolated; quiet; gloomy, listens "with heart fit to break.“ • His language: repetition, nasal sound to show his sulkiness. • The lack of communication: "no voice replied."

50. Turning Point & the Listener(s) • turning point –When the speaker believes that Porphyria loves her, he takes the initiative to “possess” her forever. • The ending: an attempt to ‘rejuvenate’ her. • the listener – Porphyria, God, or us  sympathy + horror