The dramatic monologue

The dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which a single fictional or historical character (other than the poet) speaks to a silent “audience” (that is implied) of one or more persons; there is no dialogue. Such poems reveal not the poet's own thoughts but the mind of the impersonated character, whose personality is revealed unwittingly (by placing emphasis on subjective qualities that are left to the audience to interpret). This distinguishes a dramatic monologue from a soliloquy: while in the dramatic monologue the character hold a speech to an audience, in the soliloquy the character’s speech is referred to himself. Major examples of this dramatic form in English are Tennyson's ‘Ulysses' (1842), Browning's
‘Fra Lippo Lippi' (1855), and T. S. Eliot's ‘The Love Song of J. AlfredPrufrock' (1917).

Robert Browning: “My last Duchess” Robert Browning is one of the famous poets of the 19th century (Victorian period). He's particularly well-known the famous monologue “My Last Duchess”. “My Last Duchess” is a great example of dramatic dialogue. As a convention, each dramatic monologue should include:

- a fiction speaker/audience

- a symbolic setting

- an emphasis on speaker's subjectivity

- a focus on dramatics

- iusses of irony/non-irony

- involved reader's role-playing

The poem, "My Last Duchess" is based on incidents in the life of Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara in Italy. The Duke is the speaking voice referring to the Duchess. It is possible to understand that there is a speaking voice showing a fresco to somebody, with a painted duchess who’s not alive. She is the duke's first wife, Lucrezia, died in 1561, after they'd been married for 3 years. The use of dramatic monologue works to separate the speaker from the poet (Browning), which forces the reader (you) to work hard to understand the words of the speaker. Through the Duke, we learn about his wife, the last Duchess. The voice of the Duke reconsider the fresco something well down. The fresco is painted by Frà Pandolf. Again the speaking voice talks about his Duchess when she was alive. The voice is inviting us to sit and look at all (an invitation to enjoy the picture). In addition, the listener of the dramatic monologue knows that the work art reflects Frà Pandolf skills. The speaking voice is telling that Frà Pandolf is the first person he has allowed to watch the paint (The Duke wanted to be the only one allowed to see the duchess). Moreover, the reader should also understand that he uses the possessive because the duchess was his possession: it is possible to hear the assonance between “I” and “I” (etc.). The speaker is talking about an event but, to tell the truth, he puts the lady in an important position. There is a commonality between the proper of the paint and the lady. Besides, the way the language is used in the monologue, centres the position of the speaker. There is a density of the word “I” and the word “need”→ the speaker wants to be at the centre. If you want to interpret these attitudes, either he considers the fresco a wonder or he considers the duchess a wonder. It is possible to understand that the Duke is an authoritarian person, he is only that he could see the paint and the centrality of “I” is stronger than the story of the duchess. The paint represent the passion and the deep of the duchess, it shows also the way the duchess used to look the people: with passion and delight. But that kind of looking did not use to provoke only his husband, but all of people. The idea of the lady is ambiguous, was to much. She thought that watching by this way was a courteous. She was too easily happy. In every place she put her eyes she used to remain well impressed. But she was condemned for this. In addition, she used to treat everyone the same; while the Duke could not bear when the servants plucked cherries from his trees, she was happy for this. (Cherries reminds to red → passion). The Duke was manipulative, filled with family pride, and a feeling of ownership over even the memory of his deceased wife. We even get the impression that he might have murdered his Duchess, because she didn’t follow the right attitudes of the social class she belonged to.