3/21/2011

【文讀assignment #2】Dramatic Monologue (deadline: 4/1, 12 p.m.)


A dramatic monologue is a form of poem that was perfected by Robert Browning. According to M. H. Abrams's A Glossary of Literary Terms, it involves a single person who "addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the auditors' presence and what they say and do only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker." And "the main principle controlling the poet's choice and organization of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader...the speaker's temperament and character" (48).

Discuss any of Browning's poems that shows his genius for dramatizing different kinds of personalities. Describe and analyze the speaker's distinctive temperament, citing pertinent evidence to prove your point.

29 comments:

Nick said...

According to the poem” Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, the speaker, the monk, is a bad guy that wanted to kill Brother Lawrence, who was a guy keeping faith for his jobs of being a monk. Here were some characteristics about the mean guy.
First of all, the mean mock was a double face person. In the verse9 to verse16, Brother Lawrence had dinner with him and chatted with him as usual, but the mean mock thought Brother Lawrence was pig in his mind and what he said was all cliché. In addition, the mean monk was lecherous person. He viewed Brother Lawrence as a person who peeped two naked nuns take a bath at river, but actually he did that and just wanted to shirk the responsibility to Brother Lawrence. The evidence could be found in verse25 to verse35.
Moreover, the mean monk was righteousness.verse33 to verse40 showed their table manners about the setting of tableware while finish the meal and the way of having wine. However, the mean monk looked down on Brother Lawrence because of not following the exact table manners. Finally, the mean monk had already been haunted by devil. He not only lured Brother Lawrence to read his scrofulous French novels but tried to make an indenture with Satan to make brother Lawrence drop into hell past retrieve.
In the end, the sound “Gr-r-r” showed that the animal-like heart lived in the monk who looked like normal person.

Alice said...

I would like to discuss the character, monk, in the poem “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”.

In this poem, there are many clues to easily prove that the monk is jealous, hypocritical and lustful. In stanza 2, we see that Brother Lawrence asked the question “What’s the Latin name for parsley?” and the monk replied “What’s the Greek name for Swine’s Snout” in his heart. Another instance, the monk snapped Brother Lawrence’s lily and destroy his plant in line 24 and stanza 6. However, he asked Brother Lawrence “How go on your flowers? None double?”, “Not one fruit-sort can you spy?” hypocritically. From Robert Browning’s form of poem, readers would really understand that the monk is a two-faced man.

On the other hand, the monk is lecherous too. In stanza 4, the monk accused of Brother Lawrence’s lechery, in fact, line 32 proves that Brother Lawrence didn’t peek at those nuns. Then who did it? Obviously is the monk. Moreover, the monk planned to frame up Brother Lawrence to see the scrofulous French novels in stanza 8. If the monk is not lustful, why did he know that the sixteenth print is the most seductive? Maybe he had already seen these French novels again and again. After reading this poem, I don’t know why the monk had these intense feelings of hatred and vengefulness, even more he wanted to have an indenture with Satan in the last stanza. I guess the monk is really jealous of Brother Lawrence’s kindness.

Cherry said...

In Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, the monk is a symbol of hypocrisy.

He is jealous to Brother Lawrence so he tries everything he could to incriminate Brother Lawrence. In fourth line, the monk curses Brother Lawrence. In fifth line he cut Brother Lawrence’s plants, and in the second stanza, the monk asked Brother Lawrence about his plants, and also thought that Brother Lawrence just like a pig. In the fourth stanza, the monk was peeping at two nuns and he thought that Brother Lawrence also liked peeping at girls but he was good at hiding. In fifth stanza, the monk said Brother Lawrence had a bad table manner and not a religious man because he didn’t cross the knife and forks. In line 45, the monk complained that it’s tired to cut Brother Lawrence’s lily everyday. In line 49, the monk also tried some ways to corrupt Brother Lawrence. In line 57 to 64, the monk tried to put the French novel to Brother Lawrence’s sieve and wanted to see him taking away by Satan. In line 65, the monk was so hate Brother Lawrence that he wanted to have a deal with Satan to make Satan take away Brother Lawrence. And the word” Gr-r-r” shows up at the first and the end, it means that the monk it’s just like a pig. The monk always said that Brother Lawrence is a pig; however, he is the pig instead. This poem successfully depicts the monk as hypocrisy, lustful and indecent person.

Vera said...

I am Vera(49807003).

In the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, there are many ironic words, including the topic of the poem. Generally speaking, when we mentioned about the monk usually described them as a very kind and such a good person, but in this poem, Robert Browning used the different way to analysis the personality that the monk have.

In the first sentence of the first stanza, the monk kept growling as an animal, it showed that even the typical good person has some kind of bad personality from nature. In the verse 10-15, the monk told us the dark side of his mind, and almost all the thing he done in the daily life was a lie. He tried so hard in order to do something bad to the Brother Lawrence, even cut Lawrence’s tree every day or curse him, I think that is quite interesting.

Because what is real and what is fake? All the things we see, that is just fake. Or we can say that all the things we see just the part that others want to show us, a lot of parts were hidden by people. I do actually think this is an interesting poem.

Beatrice said...

I would like to discuss the character , the duke, in th poem "My Last Duchess."

At the beginning of the poem , the painter showes someone his painting about his last duchess we can find that the painter is the duke , and he painted his wife on the wall. And then he started to explain why he painted this painting. The duke is a arrogant man. He wants his wife can only belong to him. Every smiles or spot of joy from his duchess can just appear for him. It's not reasonable. His wife is a lovely woman.She can be happy for every little things in life. Everyone like her, but unfortunately , her husband hates her behavior but never tell her because of his self-respect.So the duke killed his wife and put the painting behind the curtain. His wife really just smile for him now.

In the whole poem, we just like to eavesdrop on the duke's speech. Even though we can't see him, we still can find how horrible and hypocritical of this man from the poem.

Jojo said...

At first, I would like to discuss the character in “My Last Duchess.” The speaker is certainly the Duke. Why the speaker says that about the Duchess? His Duchess, I wonder, was very pretty, but maybe the Duke didn’t love her at all. The Duchess always smiled to everyone, but she didn’t even know that the Duke hated her behavior. She was very innocent. The Duke hated her face, cheek, and smile. Actually, he was too cruel, too selfish, too pompous and too ruthless. For example, he told the listener that “She had a heart---how shall I say?---too soon made glad, too easily impressed; she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere. Sir, ‘twas all one!” He was so arrogant that he didn’t want her to smile to inferior people. Also, from “This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands as if alive…,” I feel he was very, very, very cold-blooded!
Oh, my! Recently, lots of persons keep a foot in both camps or have love quarrels.

Jenny said...

In “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, the speaker attempts to convince the reader that he is a righteousness man. In the first stanza, the speaker shows his hatred of Brother Lawrence. He wants to use God’s blood to kill his fellow, just like he is doing something righteous. In the second stanza, when Brother Lawrence asks the speaker the Latin name of parsley, the speaker uses a pun to imply his companion is like a pig. In the last line of the third stanza, the narrator starts to show his inwardness by snapping his fellow’s lily.
In the following stanzas, speaker keep describe Brother Lawrence as a profane and sinful man. The speaker says that Brother Lawrence’s eyes glow is because he has saw two nuns washing their hair and he is good at hiding. But there is no evidence to prove this accusation. In the fifth stanza, the speaker uses dining etiquette to show Brother Lawrence is not sincere at all. He thinks that his fellow is very pious. Line forty-nine the speaker tries to find Galatians and put those damnations on Brother Lawrence. He even wants to put improper novel to let his fellow to have a glance at it. In the end, the speaker makes indenture with devil to make Brother Lawrence past retrieve, and start to curse his fellow. Without a doubt, the speaker is not the good man he claims to be. If Brother Lawrence is a sinful hypocrite, he would already be going to hell without any help from the speaker. It seems that the speaker is jealous of Brother Lawrence life, and therefore attempts to tear Brother Lawrence down.

Anonymous said...

I am Clare(49788036).

In "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" this poem, it is obviously a satire. Even in this poem setting is in a cloister, but it has a lots of curses in the poem. In the begining, the speaker uses "Gr-r-r-" this kind of word to decribe his emotion. It means he is complaining somebody or something. The monk courses his fellow, and imputes sins on Brother Lawrence. Even the things Brother Lawrence never did them.

It is filled with envious in the poem. But it doesn`t tell us why the mean monk, the speaker does all these rediculious things to his fellow. Even in the end of the story, the mean monk wants to incriminate Brother Lawrence amd let him go to the hell! I really think the man will go to the hell definitely not Brother Lawrence, it will be the speaker.

The author uses as same as the begining. "Gr-r-r-" appears again, like animals voice. It means that speaker even he is a monk but has a evil heart.

Ashley said...

In this poem, we can obviously discover the two different types of personalities in the monk. That is to say he is a hypocrite. In his outside appearance, he pretends he is a friendly person. However, on the other hands, he curses Brother Lawrence in his mind.

In the first line we read the world Gr-r-r. It is a kind of animal’s sound; however, it used in the monk’s voice. That means his mind is not as friendly as his outside appearance. Then, in the line 16, the swine’s snout is a pun. We may think he is talking about the dandelion; however, in fact, he scorns Brother Lawrence as a pig’s muzzle. Next, we read there are two girls take a bath in the river. The monk says that Brother Lawrence is a peeper; however, the real peeper is the monk himself rather than Brother Lawrence. In next stanza, we can discover that the monk looks down on Brother Lawrence. It is because Brother Lawrence doesn’t obey the Trinity. Therefore, the monk thinks Brother Lawrence doesn’t have good table manners. From this we can get the proof that the monk is really a hypocrite. He pretends a peaceful and friendly person outside; however, in his mind he doesn’t like Brother Lawrence at all. Moreover, he is always pick holes in Brother Lawrence no matter what he does. Robert Browning is really successful in depicting the personality of the monk. If we don’t read the poem, we won’t understand what the monk really thinks. We may think the monk and Brother Lawrence just normal friends. However, by the monologue of the monk, we can obviously discover what the real feelings in the monk’s mind and his real personality.

Patty said...

According to the poem "My Last Duchess", the Duke of Ferrara is a dramatic monologue. The poet shows the Duchess through conversation. We guess the Duck kill the young Duchess, because he couldn't control her life. He wanted to control people who view the Duchess.
In lines 13 to 15, it reveals many things can cause the "spot of joy" to appear in the Duchess's cheek. The Duke thought she didn’t only blush in front of him. In lines 17 to 19, the painter might have complimented the Duchess that she was beautiful. In lines 21 to 22, the Duke said her blushed as "spot of joy" that appears in her cheek. The spot of joy is an instinctive signal of the Duchess's pleasure that she couldn’t control and betrayed her inside feelings to the world. The Duke thought a "spot" as a stain that symbolized her discolored nature and it is easy to make the duchess glad soon. In lines 23 to 24, the Duke continued to use indirect language and figures to imply that the Duchess is too flirtatious. In lines 34 to 35, the Duke forced his listeners to agree with him that it would be "stooping" to talk the Duchess about her inappropriate behaviors. He couldn’t lower himself. He claimed she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name.” In line 46, "then all smiles stopped together" means the duchess died and the Duke admitted that he murdered her instead of killing her.

Daphnie said...

“Porphyria’s lover” is one of Browning’s the earliest dramatic monologue. The speaker, who lives in a cottage, had killed his lover, Porphyria, before he started to describe how and why the murder happening. Being disturbed and obstructed by the society, the girl come to the cottage to tell the speaker, her lover, she can no longer be with him under the objecting, which being portrayed as the storm, by other people. The binary personality embedded is calm murderer who is seeking the consciousness of suffocating Porphyria, and a eagerly possessive man. The line35 shows that the poem was written after the murder. While he was thinking about how to possess her eternally, the possessive character draws his attentionon “That moment she was mine, mine, fair.”(36)
Initially, from line1 to line12, the speaker described the room as a place where lightening by Porphyria’s entering. From line13 to line 32 is describing how she bring him reluctant reason of breaking up. The turning point comes to the line32. “Worship” in speaker’s eye become a purpose of saying to himself that he got to have Porphyria as his lady immortally. Then he strangles her to be with him forever. In the end of the poem, the speaker shows no regret and says “And yet God has not said a word!” First, he is in love with Porphyria incorrigibly. On the other hand, killing his lover to prevent her from marrying somebody else is the personality being triggered by the possessive side of the speaker.
In a nutshell, alike to William Faulnker’s “A Rose for Emily,” Browning replicates the tone and psychological process of murder.

Celia said...

“My Last Duchess” is an interesting poem. The poem just likes a drama, a novel and we can’t predict what happen next until finish reading it. In the beginning, the duke tells us that his last duchess painted is on the wall. So far, readers naturally focus on the painted on the wall. We gaze at the painted as if duchess is really standing in front of us. “Will’t please you sit and look at her?” the duke invites us to share the painted. But surprising, we are following duke’s words! From line 1 to line 45, it seems a husband misses his wife. We follow the speaker’s sentences and see how the pretty, wonderful woman lived after marring with the duke. However, in line 46, the duke changes his facial expression a lot. Before line 46, Speaker uses a proud, smooth tongue to narrate the duchess. But the emotion freezes in line 46”Then all smiles stopped together.” Why speaker says that to us? I believe that readers are curious about this. We can find the answer while looking at line 51. “Of mine for dowry will be disallowed.” The duke’s facial expression is fierce and grim. The duke shows his true colour in the end, he is actually a control crazily! After readers leaning that, the duke stops us looking the painted; bring us to look another artist. The last artist in the poem is a painting about Neptune taming a sea-horse. The painting also reflects the duke, Neptune represents power, and in the house, the duke is Neptune, all things must be tamed. So far, we can conclude the duke is an selfish, arrogant man.

Jim said...

I will analyze the character, monk, in the poem “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”. According the poem“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, I think that monk is a hypocritical person. We can find some clues in this poem. First, I can find that the monk always curses another monk, Brother Lawrence, in his mind. However, the monk always appears nice out looking when he talks another monk, Brother Lawrence. In the second stanza, the poem mentions the monk hate another monk, Brother Lawrence and even want to kill him. And, he wants to scold another monk that he is a pig when they talk about cork-crop in this year. And, I think the cloister should be a peaceful place but there is an ugly mind monk in the cloister. I think it is ironic. And, the monk murmurs in his mind but he appear nice. I think the author want to mock some people which have a beautiful appearance but have a ugly mind in this society.

Sammy said...

In the the poem ”My Last duchess“, we can realize that the speaker is obviously the duke. He is a proud man. The duke shows a painting of his wife. Actually, the painter of the painting is fictional character who represents the duke himself. He mentions that the painter is first person as a stranger to look his wife. In the other words, the duke is only one who can see the painting of his wife. The duke is also selfish man. Because his wife is a shy and graceful woman, everyone all are attractive by her. But the duke thinks that his wife belongs to him, she can not smile to others. In the end, the duke can not bear his wife anymore. In line 46-47, “Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.” We can know that the duke murders his wife.
Because of the duke’s a nine hundred-years old name, it make the duke think he have to be respected and hate his wife’s behaviors. But it also damage himself.

Tavia49902065 said...

The duchess is the narrator’s beautiful wife. But in the narrator’s eye, his wife is far from a wonder. She always smiled to everyone and he is very displeasure. And she smile at other men also suspect that she had affairs with other. And now he keeps this smile of paint behind the curtain. He thinks her wife did not reserve her attention for him.

But I think the narrator is over suspect. I think her wife is only like to simile. She enjoys her life and very happy so she smiles for everything. I don’t think she had affairs with other because she smiled to everyone. If the narrator doesn’t suspect her wife, I think they can live happily and smile together. I think he should love her smile and don’t suspect her. I think his wife simile because she had him. So she smile for everything is smile for him.

The revelation of the Duke’s character is the poem’s primary aim. The Duke is quite a performer. He creates hypothetical situations, and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying information.

Ethan said...

In this poem, we can easily find out that the monk is totally Two-side peson.
The monk hates Brother Lawrence so much that he wishes the hate can kill him and God will forgive him! That’s ridiculous.
In my person thoughts, I just think the speaker, the monk, is a childish person. We can see his shallow thoughts thought few lines. In the stanza 2, when Brother Lawrence asked ‘what is the Latin name for parsley’, the monk just asked in his own mind ‘ what’s the Greek name for swine’s snout?’. This is something that we usually did when we were in elementary school, isn’t? And the monk hates Brother Lawrence but he pretends like Brother Lawrence’s friend. The other childish deed was in the stanza 8, he tried to let Brother Lawrence to read the novel which was about sex. He wanted to Brother Lawrence’s soul corrupted. However, he just showed us that he had read the novel before and his soul was already in hell, which was really funny, isn’t. If his soul was already in hell, how could he cursed Brother Lawrence’s soul to go to hell in the price of his soul?
I think the monk hates Brother Lawrence is because Brother Lawrence has something he didn’t have. That’s why he hates him. Really childish and narrow-minded for a grown-up, not even to mention a monk.

謝佩芸Celina said...

In the poem of Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, the speaker who is unnamed is a monk. He reveals something that is negative to his colleague, Brother Lawrence. At first, according to his saying, we all think Brother Lawrence is a real bad guy. But read this poem particularly, you can find that this is just his bias. However, we can know he is a self-righteous and evil guy. And Robert Browning showed a lot of evil thoughts that the jealous monk describes Brother Lawrence. He subverted the traditional opinion that we thought of the monk. Maybe in his view, the monk just behaves like these.
In first line, the sound Gr-r-r is always used to describe the animal’s growl or grunt and so on. But here he used to portray a person. Perhaps under the surface, the inside of the jealous monk just acts like an animal. In forth line, God’s blood, it’s a curse word that he wants God to kill Brother Lawrence. The jealous monk thinks he is a justice man and eliminates a wicked person. It reveals how strong feeling that he hated Brother Lawrence. During the meal, Brother Lawrence asks the jealous monk “what’ the Latin name for parsley?” But in the jealous monk’s mind, he translates it to “what’s the Greek name for Swine’s Snout?” Here was a pun that he hints his colleague as a pig. In the fifth stanza, the jealous monk mentions that Brother Lawrence isn’t pious at all because of table manners. In addition, he tries to put some obscene novels at the place which Brother Lawrence can look at, then, he will backslide. But at the same time, the jealous had already gone to the devil. In short, the jealous monk just because of the detestation to Brother Lawrence, so in his mind Brother Lawrence behaves so awfully. And it also shows the evil personality of the jealous monk.

Jeffery(49902057) said...

In Robert Browning “My Last Duchess”, first we can recognize that the speaker is a noble man from the title of this poem. In line 1-2,”That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive” this sentence makes readers feel creepy, because the duchess had already died, but the speaker think she is like she still alive. In line 10 you can see, the speaker is such a control freak. He hides the painting because he doesn’t want anyone to appreciate, to admire the duchess in the painting. In line 20-24 you can find that the duchess has a big heart, anyone admires her slightly or doing something good to her, then she feels extremely happy. However, these behaviors in the speaker’s eyes are totally boring and useless. It indicates that the speaker is not like the duchess that display the speaker is a fussy husband. In line 55,”Taming a sea-horse” is a symbol of “trophy wife”, it means that the duchess, the speaker’s wife, is a rare object the speaker own. The speaker is so sick. The speaker regards his wife as a kind of artware to appreciate. In fact, he likes the thing which is under his control rather than his wife herself.

Fion said...

According to the poem Robert Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, the speaker is a jealous, lustful and moral hypocrisy monk. There are many clues to prove the speaker is an impiety monk.
First of all, in line 4, “God’s blood, would not mine kill you!” we can know the jealous monk wants to kill his fellow, Brother Lawrence. In stanza 2 we can know the speaker is also a double person, because the monk chats and has dinner with Brother Lawrence commonly, but in fact he damns Lawrence in his mind. In stanza 4 we can know the speaker is a lecherous monk, because he imagines Lawrence peeps at two nuns take bath, but in fact he peeps at the two nuns. In stanza 5 we can know the speaker is conceited, because he thinks his table manner is better than Lawrence, but it doesn’t mean anything. In stanza 7 we can know the speaker is an evil monk, because he wants to send Lawrence to hell and he knows the twenty-night damnations in Galatians. In stanza 8, there is another evidence to prove the monk is lecherous, because he tries to trap Lawrence to read his scrofulous French novel. And, in the stanza 9 we can know the speaker is remote from a religious man completely, because he even gambles on his soul with Satan and curses Brother Lawrence. In addition, in the opening and ending of the poem, the speaker uses "Gr-r-r" to express his indignation and shows his beast heart.

Winni said...

In "My Last Duchess", there is only the duke saying. The duke shows his duchess's picture to his guest, who will introduce him a trophy wife. The duke is proud of his last duchess's picture that by a famous painter and his duchess would always smile for him. The duke is like a sadist that wants to control his wife's smile is only for him and her happiness also. The duke describes his last duchess's behavior. What he says is like his wife's merits. But, after he says those merits, he says "how shall I say?" and then says his wife is too soon made glad and too easily impressed. It seems his wife’s merits are her faults.

Then, the duke talks the match-maker that he wants a trophy wife. In line 51, he says the dowry will be disallowed. But in line 53, he says “my object” represent his wife in the future. In the end, the duke introduces his sculptor “Neptune”, which means tameness.

Katherine said...

The poem begins with a roar made by a monk. That is strong because a monk is supposed to be kind, but he shouted like a monster and kept curing his fellow, Brother Lawrence.

He kept complaining about Brother Lawrence for what Brother Lawrence did not do. Brother Lawrence asked him if he know what the Latin name for parsley but he just mock Brother Lawrence in his heart by asking if Brother Lawrence knows the Greek name for Swine’s Snout. It was an ordinary conversation but somehow he was filled with bitterness to the conversation. He was annoying, to tell the truth. It was he that snapped Brother Lawrence’s lily, but he pretended kind that he asked Brother Lawrence about his planting.

He was full of righteousness that he blamed everything that Brother Lawrence did not do. But we all know that he was the person that peeped the nuns washing their hair. He thought himself was pious, he laid knife and fork cross-wise and drank watered orange-pulp in three sips. He followed these rules, and he seemed pious on the out side, but we all know that he was just hypocritical. He even wanted to lure Brother Lawrence to read French novels! I think he even wanted to give Satan his soul to destroy Brother Lawrence. He was full of viciousness. I think that it is because he thought he was the highest standard for being a monk, while he was actually a devil in his heart.

Browning created a very distinctive personality. It is ironic but funny.

Sai said...

Well, reading deep through Robert Browning's " My last Duchess", the first part we can see how he views his wife as being beautiful and tells sort of, why he wanted her as his wife. She was beautiful, kind hearted, and easy to please. But as the poem goes on there is a different twist to it. It shows how when she received these lavish gifts of his he didn’t really win over her love.
Why? Gradually goes on the poem, obviously " haughty" is the duke's characteristic. He wants a picture of his last duchess. He wants to show of that. But he can't accept everyone could feel the smile from the painting of his wife.
In line53 to the end, we could clearly see the real appreance of the duke's true color. He is a person with sly, hypocritical, egocentric and vicious person.

Linda said...

In “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister,” the speaker, who is hypocritical, maliciously makes Brother Lawrence a bad person. In the first stanza, the speaker begins with a growl “Gr-r-r,” which makes us to think about who the beast is and why the speaker has to roar. And the speaker wants to use God’s blood to kill Brother Lawrence and cut his tree on purpose, it shows the speaker really hates him and use any excuse to make him criminal. In the second stanza, the speaker uses a pun to insinuate Brother Lawrence a pig. The first word of fourth stanza, the speaker uses the word “saint” to satirize Brother Lawrence. When the speaker saw two monks was peeking at two nuns, who were washing their hair, he thought that Brother Lawrence also likes to peep women but good at hiding. However, there isn’t any evidence to prove it. In the fifth stanza, the speaker says Brother Lawrence doesn’t have table manner and impious. At the end of the poem, the speaker not only curses Brother Lawrence to damn, tempts he to read scrofulous novel, but also signs a contract with Satan and wants to pledge his soul to Satan. But actually, the speaker has ever read this French novel, or he will not know its content. In the final line, the speaker roars again, and at this time we can know that the really beast is himself. He is the really person who is moral hypocrisy and lechery.

Joanna(49801046) said...

In the first stanza of Robert Browning’s poem “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”, the first stance “Gr-r-r-there go, my heart ‘s abhorrence!” shows narrator ‘s mind is full of rancor. And he shows his dissatisfied toward the Brother Lawrence. He uses many dirty words to curse Brother Lawrence and his flowers, for example, God’s blood, Hell, etc.
In the second to seven stanza, in the meal, we may find out that narrator has some unreasonable anger toward Brother Lawrence. Narrator is a person who always unhappy to every single movement of Brother Lawrence even he just have his meal very normal and peace. Form the normal greeting to his simple question about a word, narrator was very picky and angry about all of this. He even made a pun question in his mind to rail Brother Lawrence- “ What ’ s Greek’s name for Swine’s Snout ?” This stance means swine’s snout. When Narrator not only curses Brother Lawrence in his mind, but also does some bad behavior behind his back-cutting off Brother Lawrence ’s beautiful flowers. Brother Lawrence doesn’t look at nuns, however, it’s narrator himself looking at them. Narrator blames all his mistakes on Brother Lawrence, and picks something detail that is not really important, for instance, he thinks his is more religious than Brother Lawrence because he always cross-wise his forks and knife after every meal or drinks juice in three sips carefully to represent the conception of Father, Son and the Holy spirit while Brother Lawrence never cares about these boring routines. Gradually , reader may understand Brother Lawrence actually is a innocent person and a good and religious cloister. In these stanzas, narrator ‘s unhealthy mind and evil personality can be found out by readers- he even ask Brother Lawrence hypocritically “How go on your flowers ? ” and says “ Strange! ” to Brother Lawrence’s flowers, revealing narrator’s hypocrisy.
What’s more, in the last three stanzas, narrator even wants Brother Lawrence past retrieve forever. He plans to put some immoral novels to make Brother Lawrence going to the Hell. ( or to touch stuff of pagans.) He even wills to make a deal with devil to make Brother Lawrence miserable. Narrator is totally crazy and out of control of his mind. In the last three stances, narrator chant incantations to curse Brother Lawrence and the last stance to echo the first stance of this poem-” Ave, Virgo. Gr-r-r-you swine!” shows narrator is really a insane people in his own mind. This poem totally reveals the personality of narrator.

Yan said...

I choose My last duchess to tell my point.
In the poem, we can find a lot of dramatic techniques.
Duke was the person who lost his wife. Without blaming, he talked about many of the duchess’s advantages. But on the other hand, this were the very points Duke criticized his wife in a metaphor way. That is to say, the Duke had extreme two personalities, which we can see from the poem. When people came to his house to admire his collection, he praised the duchess but rebuked her in the heart instead. He satisfied the duchess smiled to him but cursed her in secret. The other big conflict is that the Duke asked for something requirement just after talking about his wife’s death. All three above were the a part of points that Robert Browning uses his personal skills to display the characteristics. A person can have two different mind and think, just as we talk about today a hypocrite.

Andrew said...

In “My Last Duchess”, the speaker is a duke who is very traditional. He shows the picture of his beautiful duchess which is appreciated by himself. In the beginning, the duke discusses the painting of his duchess to his guest. The duke is talking about the appearance of the duchess, originally. Then the duke is about to complaining. In the line 21 “too soon made glad” ”Too easily impressed”. It seems that the duke doesn’t want his wife to be pleased, easily. In the duke’s mind, the duchess can only smile for him. He desires to own everything of the girl even the right to be smiled at. However, because of his nine-hundred-years-old name, he doesn’t mention how he feels about what the duchess did. In line 34”Who’d stoop to blame”, and he choose never to stoop. According to the line 54 “my object””a sea-horse of Neptune“, I think the author wants to describes the duke as Neptune who has terrible temper is ambitious and want to control everything on the earth.

Sammi Chen (49902013) said...

In the poem of Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, we can see a monk who wears mask , like a wolf indisguis of a sheep . On the outside, he is just a normal monk; however, on the inside, he is a guy with rustic good heart. Take 8 stanza for example, we can see he tried to set up a trick to his colleague and it makes the reader wants to know more about him bacause he is a dramatical figure. In “My Last Duchess”, the speaker, the husband was a creepy control freak, he tried to control his beautiful and naïve wife, who was eay to pleased. He was so easy to feel jealouse that he killed his wife. I really admire the poet’s talent because in line 55, the poet skilluly used ”Taming a sea-horse” to discribe the realationship between the wife and husband.

Maggie said...

In the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, the speaker is a moral hypocrite. He is jealous of his fellow monk, Brother Lawrence, can’t stand others' goodness. In the third and fourth stanza, he accused Brother Lawrence of lechery and impiety which are obviously talking about the speaker himself who is guilty of these sins.

Until the first five stanzas, I consider merely that the speaker is just a cunning and lazy man but not a bad guy. Since the sixth stanza to the end of the poem, it reveals the speaker’s real intent to trap his fellow into damnation. Besides, he is so arrogant that he thinks he can escape from a loophole in the indenture with Satan. Such dramatic character must has insolent personality. With the beginning of “Gr-r-r” to “Swine’s Snout” and the end of “Gr-r-r─you swine”, reinforce the speaker’s comical image.

king, 49902005 said...

After reading his peom, My Last Duchess, it's obvious that the duke lived in his imagination. I think the duke is a control freak who tried to disguise himself as a friendly person. The way he speaks or describes his wife seems to be positive and kind, however the meaning that hides behind his words is pretty offensive and ironic."Her mantle laps over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint must never hope to reproduce the faint half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough for calling up that spot of joy. It's obvious that the duke was unhappy with the duchess which her superficial bahavior made him jealous.

She thanked men - good! but thanked somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame this sort of trifling? He argued again that the duchess was too easy to be pleasured, and he called it "This sort of thrifling".

Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, whene'er I passed her; but who passed without much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. This is the last complaint he made. He's impatient with her skin-deep bahavior that she always smiled to everyone no matter who he or she was. He tried to have his words make sense and he considered it reasonable to stop her smile to others.

They way the narrator described the character is dramatically interesting. He brought the character to life just like the duke brought the duchess to life.