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

Jealousy in Three Dramatic Monologues by Browning The poems 'My Last Duchess', 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'The Laboratory' are three dramatic monologues, theatrical tales of bitter jealousy told by anonymous, murderous lovers. 'My Last Duchess' and 'Porphyria's Lover' use the simple idea of cruel male domination to portray the narrator's jealousy, as these two men do not know any other way of controlling their seemingly flirtatious lovers' behaviour. They try to completely possess their women as objects, and such a need for power seems to be a pure statement of irrational jealousy. The following quotations show this idea clearly and, although the later is not direct to the murder of his lover, it is plain that the narrator is cruel, objective possessiveness. "I propped her head up as before." This quotation clearly shows that Porphyria's lover did not seem to understand the full consequence of murdering this woman, an idea which is also quite apparent in my last duchess, as the Duke certainly appears to brag about his wife's flirtatious behaviour, and it stopping. Returning to the idea of cruel male domination, though, this is obviously apparent in 'My Last Duchess' when the Duke suddenly proclaims the following; "Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse." I would argue that Neptune is representative of the Duke, 'taming' though I would suggest imprisoning, brutally dominating a beauty of nature, which is representative of the Duchess, whom the Duke violently 'tamed' also. This idea is not so apparent in 'The Laboratory' because the narrator is female. We do, however, see her plotting the murder of her adulterous husband, so in a way is trying to 'tame' him too. Cruel, male domination... ...ithee?" The woman has bought a poison to kill her husband's lover with, which is a typical murder weapon of women, and also the most vicious of the three murders, as it would be the most painful for the victim. Murder, therefore, is the main presentation of jealousy in the three poems, and gives us considerable insight to the point of the narrator, because the poems are dramatic monologues. The narrators cannot see that their jealousy has overridden natural behaviour because they simply couldn't control and dominate their lover's behaviour. In conclusion, therefore, jealousy is presented throughout the poems as an ultimate need for control and brutal domination, leading to the irrational behaviour of the narrators, and unprecedented murder through inability to control their own behaviour, let alone anyone else's, and of course, their own jealousy.