Victorian Poetry

Dominance is one of the key issues which is present in Victorian poetry. In the poem “Porphyria’s lover” by Robert Browning, Dominance is clearly portrayed. The issue of dominance in Victorian poetry characterize the females as objects and of lesser classes, the nature of the poem suppresses the female point of view and enforces codes of patriarchal domination. The speaker lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a young attractive woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage. She embraces the speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says, she begins to tell him how she has temporarily overcome her social status to be with him. He realizes that she "worships" him at this instant. Realizing that she will eventually give in to society's pressures, wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps her hair around her neck and strangles her. He then toys with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. This delusional act portrays the issue of dominance of Porphyria’s lover. The act of the speaker strangling her with her own hair shows how dominant the male is in this particular situation. Using her own hair symbolizes the power of his dominance over which Porphyria can’t control even though her hair is a part of her body. Furthermore the male feels obliged to exploit his dominance by toying with her corpse. Similarly in the poem “My last Duchess” by Robert Browning dominance is also seen. The Duke is a highly influential and dominant figure in Victorian society. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait hanging on the wall, then about the Duchess herself who passed away. His contemplations give way to the nature of his ruthless and disgraceful behaviour: he claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his "gift of a nine-hundred-years- old name." As his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more...