In this instance, from evidence outside the poem we know that Browning had a special hatred of domestic tyrants, and that the speaker was a real historical duke of Renaissance Italy, but even without this information we are able to conclude from our own analysis of the character that he represents a tyrannical, criminal and unrepentant savage called an aristocrat.

Ultimately, we may also infer what the poet himself thinks of the speaker he has created. From his one sided conversation we piece together the situation, both past and present and we infer what sort of woman the Duchess really was, and what sort of man the duke is. For instance, in “My Last Duchess”, we listen to the duke as he speaks of his dead wife to a man, but to us it is as if we are overhearing a man talking into the telephone of a booth adjacent to ours. It enables the reader, the character and the poet to be located at an appropriate distance from each other, aligned in such a way that readers must work through the words of the speaker towards the meaning of the poet themselves. The character is revealed by means of ironic discrepancy so that the reader is made to make their own judgement about the character’s real characteristics: the character is usually caught in a moment of emotional intensity and though he does try to justify himself, the reader understands a very different subtext. The major ‘ingredients’ of the dramatic monologue are: dramatic situation, a speaker and at least one interlocutor, interaction, dramatic action, plot development and character revelation in the process of the one way conversation. It is a kind of monopolized conversation. But the character expresses something that the reader analyzes as an outrageously lie. They have been sometimes called mask lyrics for their being oblique expressions of the poet’s feelings through the character. Browning’s poems have a subtext, or a deeper level of the story of reality, which the reader explores gradually and understands the reality behind the bragging.īrowning’s dramatic monologues are conversational poems set dramatically in such a situation that the speech reveals a lot of the hidden story, a story which the character usually tries to disprove.

Browning’s characters are usually rogues who prove how corrupted they are in the process of trying to prove how great they are! This is what happens in the poem “My Last Duchess”. This means that the character will be found talking to someone in such a situation and manner that he exposes the secrets about his real character. Poems of John Donne also have such elements, but Browning’s special “Dramatic Monologue” has some more elements like character revelation with an ironic exposure of what he is not conscious. Besides, some dramatic poems will also include other dramatizing elements like quickness in action, surprise, tension and so on.

Dramatic poems must involve at the major dramatic elements of the characters, plot, and speech, though it may just be a one way monologue. The poems of John Donne are also dramatic monologues to some extent, but Browning’s dramatic monologues have more unique dramatic techniques.

So the character will reveal us many secrets or hints about something he would not say consciously. As the poem begins, we find that the main character is found engaged in an emotional expression of his ideas and feelings he is confident, excited, angry or proud.

Dramatic monologue