Tennyson and Browning
This task is given by Bhatt Prakruti ma'am
1.Justify Tennyson as the representative literary figure of the Victorian Era.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most celebrated poet of the Victorian era. His poetry reflected the major concerns of the age, including religious doubt, social change, and the rise of industrialism. Tennyson was also a master of form, and his poems are notable for their metrical variety, rich imagery, and verbal melodies.He is considered to be the representative poet of the Victorian period because his poetry reflects the major themes and concerns of the age. These themes include:
The Industrial Revolution:
Tennyson's poetry often explores the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution. In poems such as "Locksley Hall" and "In Memoriam A.H.H.," he expresses concern about the dehumanizing effects of industrialization and the loss of traditional values.
The rise of science:
Tennyson was also deeply interested in science, and his poetry often reflects the scientific discoveries of his day. In poems such as "The Princess" and "Morte d'Arthur," he explores the relationship between science and religion, and he grapples with the implications of Darwinian evolution.
The role of women:
Tennyson's poetry also addresses the changing role of women in Victorian society. In poems such as "The Lady of Shalott" and "Enoch Arden," he explores the challenges faced by women who sought to break free from traditional gender roles.
The nature of faith:
Tennyson was a devout Christian, but he also struggled with doubts about the existence of God. In poems such as "In Memoriam A.H.H." and "Ulysses," he explores the nature of faith and the search for meaning in a world that often seems indifferent to human suffering.
Tennyson's poetry is also notable for its beauty and musicality. He was a master of the English language, and his poems are full of memorable images and phrases. His poetry has been praised by critics and readers alike, and it continues to be read and enjoyed today.
● Conclusion:
In addition to these themes, Tennyson's poetry also reflects the Victorians' sense of optimism and progress. He believed that the human race was on a journey of moral and spiritual improvement, and he saw poetry as a way of promoting this progress. Tennyson's poetry was hugely popular in his own day, and it continues to be read and enjoyed by people all over the world. He is rightly considered to be one of the greatest poets of the English language, and he is a fitting representative of the Victorian period.
2.Pick a poem written by Robert Browning and discuss its thematic concerns.
Here I want to discuss about Robert Browning's poem "Porphyria's Lover".
"Porphyria’s Lover" is a poem by the British poet Robert Browning, first published in 1836. Along with"My Last Duchess," it has become one of Browning’s most famous dramatic monologues—due in no small part to its shockingly dark ending. In the poem, the speaker describes being visited by his passionate lover, Porphyria. After realizing how much she cares for him, however, the speaker strangles Porphyria and then props her lifeless body up beside him. He then concludes the poem by announcing that God has yet to punish him for this murder. While the speaker is often taken to be a madman, his (very twisted) motivations seem clear: in killing Porphyria, he takes control over her, transforming her into an obedient object that will remain "pure" forever.
● Thematic Study of the poem:
● Love, Violence and control:
The violent climax of “Porphyria’s Lover” comes as a shock: right in the middle of a tender moment, the speaker suddenly decides to strangle Porphyria, the woman he loves. Many scholars have argued that the speaker is mad—in fact, in 1842 the poem was published alongside another of Browning’s poems and collectively titled “Madhouse Cells”—but his violence might not be all that random. Instead, it seems he kills Porphyria for a certain set of perverse reasons: he wants to fulfill (what he thinks is) Porphyria’s “one wish” to fully surrender herself to him, and to make this loving moment last forever. Told entirely from the vantage point of its twisted speaker, the poem positions love as a form of total submission, and violence as a means of control.
When Porphyria first appears, she is presented as a strong-willed woman—especially for the stodgy Victorian time period in which the poem was written. As soon as she enters the cottage, she shuts out the storm and starts a fire, reshaping the environment in which the speaker exists. And while the speaker is “so pale,” she casts off her rain-soaked clothes as though the bad weather doesn’t trouble her at all. She even supports the speaker on her shoulder, physically propping him up.
Once Porphyria gives into her passion, however, her status changes. She stops being an independent person. The speaker describes her as “mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good.” The repetition of the word “mine” emphasizes that Porphyria has become a possession, an object—something the speaker owns. And by strangling her, the speaker can keep her in that “pure and good” state.
After Porphyria is dead, she ceases to have the control and agency she displayed earlier in the poem. Instead of opening her eyes, the speaker opens them for her. Instead of supporting the speaker’s head on her shoulder, he supports her on his shoulder. As a result, she cannot remove herself from his embrace: she is permanently under his control, permanently “mine, mine.” By killing Porphyria, the speaker establishes control over her, takes away her agency, and turns her from an active subject into a passive object. And in his twisted mind, he’s done the right thing—granted his lover’s “one wish” to be with him forever.
● Sexuality, Morality and Hypocrisy :
As “Porphyria’s Lover” ends, Porphyria (now dead) and the speaker sit all night in their strange embrace. The speaker’s power over Porphyria has become absolute and unbending. Yet despite the speaker’s violent and disturbing crime, he appears to go unpunished: as he announces triumphantly in the poem’s final line, “And yet God has not said a word!”
For the speaker, it seems this silence means that God approves of his decision to murder Porphyria, since doing so forever keeps her “perfectly pure and good.” And given the strong sexual undertones of the poem, with its mention of bare shoulders and burning kisses, the speaker is probably thinking specifically of sexual purity here. Essentially, the speaker thinks that by murdering Porphyria he prevents her from sinning; by killing Porphyria, the speaker prevents her from straying into sexual acts that might endanger her soul’s status with God.
This is clearly a twisted interpretation of morality, but it could be the poem's way of critiquing those who would prioritize restrictive ideas about virtue above actual human life. The speaker assumes that God values purity above all else—so much so that he’s willing to allow murder. God's silence suggests to the speaker that he has not only gotten away with murder, but that he was justified in killing in the first place.
Taken in context, the poem might be suggesting the hypocrisy of the early-Victorian society in which Browning lived—a very religious world that seemed to outwardly condemn any inkling of moral deviance, and in which female sexuality was particularly restricted and controlled. Perhaps the poem is saying that an obsession with being "good" has come at the expense of actually being good—that is, of appreciating and valuing other people.
On the one hand, the early readers of the poem would likely have condemned Porphyria for embracing her own sexuality. On the other hand, they would have been titillated by the poem’s violence and sensationalism. Browning manages to give them what they want: a very sexual, very titillating poem—that also punishes sexual freedom. The speaker’s violence thus not only preserves Porphyria’s sexual purity, it also preserves the reader’s: since the poem punishes her for her sexuality, it gives the reader a kind of plausible deniability. In this way, the Victorian reader is just as hypocritical as the speaker, defending violence because it preserves a narrow notion of sexual purity.
●Conclusion:
To conclude, We can say that there are major two themes in Robert Browning's poem " Porphyria's Lover ".
● My reference sources are:
https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/robert-browning/porphyria-s-lover
Thank you..
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