Gender and Power Relations in Browning’s Porphria’s Lover and My Last D

Gender and Power megabucksing in br declargonings Porphrias Lover and My Last Duchess Robert br avering provides a critical get a line of gender and power relations in his dramatic monologues Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess. The dramatic monologue, as S.S. flavor has written, reveals the struggle in the depths of the soul (11). toasting delves into the minds of characters to show their conceptions of women and ideas of power. He explores the cordial processes of the characters, and invites readers to question social ideas of power and gender. The mental pathologies of the speakers is emphasized, which forces readers to examine the sanity of their own notions of gender dynamics. In the Victorian age, the idea of separate spheres was an integral division of society. Mens roles involved participation in the marketplace of the industrial society. Women, on the other hand, were expected to remain in the domestic sphere. They were charge subordinate, and often passive roles, whereas men played direct roles in an industrial society, therefore being active agents. William Gregs review-essay Prostitution (1851) provides insight into societal conceptions of men and women and their respective roles. Although Greg believes prostitutes are treated unfairly by society, he nonetheless views prostitution as the darkest, the knottiest, and the saddest social problem which philosophy has to deal with (448). A critical reason prostitution is ostracized is because it violates traditional ideas of gender relations. Prostitutes are women who participate in the marketplace. They, therefore, venture outside the realm of their expected sphere, the home. This is inharmonic with Gregs view which is a reflection of societys view ... ...nventional gender relationships. They were assumed to be the active agents and women were expected to be passive. Browning draws attention to the madness of the narrators by delving into their minds. In doing so, Browning forces readers to question their own conceptions of gender and power relations, since the mens views are but an mimicry of societal ideas concerning gender dynamics. Works Cited Browning, Robert. The Complete Works of Robert Browning, Volume III. Athens, Ohio Ohio University Press, 1971. Curry, S.S. Browning and the Dramatic Monologue. Boston Expression Company, 1908. DeVane, William Clyde. A Browning Handbook. New York Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1955. Foucault, Michel. The muniment of Sexuality, Volume I. New York Vintage Books, 1990. Greg, W.R. Prostitution. The Westminster Review 53 (July 1850) 448-506.