Comparing My Last Duchess, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and A...

Differing Views of Male-female Relationships in Three Poems In the three poems we experience three different views of how male-female relationships should take place. In ‘My Last Duchess’ we experience the view that the male should have the main role in relationships, in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ we hear of a relationship where the woman is in total control of the man and has all the power. Finally in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ we read that both men and women should have an equal amount of power and no one should be dominant. In ‘My Last Duchess’ the thoughts of a very possessive and arrogant Duke of Ferrara are shared. He expected his wife to behave in a very conservative manner and wanted her to treat others as inferior.†¦show more content†¦In addition to this, we can see that he is holding this piece of artwork with the same value as the picture of his wife which shows that the Duke believes that he is superior to everyone else. The strong feminist views in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ however, are in total contrast to the well-known ideas in ‘My Last Duchess’. Although at first ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ appears to only show the feminist views of relationships, it is in fact in search of equality between the males and females in relationships. ‘My Last Duchess’ gives the sense that a man has the leading role, and all of the power in any relationship whereas in ‘A Woman to Her Lover’, the ideas that both men and women should be equal in relationships are uttered. In the first stanza of the poem, we can see that the woman examines how women are typically expected to be by men (as a housewife) the â€Å"servant† and â€Å"to bear you children†. The very fact that she is expressing these phrases in a critical and negative manner implies that she has a resents this idea towards this stereotypical view of women. At the ending of this first stanza, she states; â€Å"If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!† The use of the refrain here, not only points out her hostility, but also shows that sheShow MoreRelatedComparing My Last Duchess,Porphyrias Lover and le Dame Sans Merci1991 Words   |  8 PagesComparing and Contrasting the Theme of power and control between Porphyrias Lover, La Belle Dame Sans Merci and My Last Duchess The poems I have chosen are: My Last Duchess Ferrara by Robert Browning, Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning and La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats. I am going to be exploring the theme of power and control in each of the poems and how the poets show it. In Porphyria’s Lover and My Last Duchess it appears that the men have the power whereas in La Belle Dame Sans MerciRead MoreEssay about Love in Poems2986 Words   |  12 PagesLove in Poems Robert Browning’s poem â€Å"My Last Duchess† is based on a real story about the fifth Duke of Ferrera in the Renaissance period. He married a 14-year-old named Lucrezia and then left her for a two-year period. She died at the age of 17. In this poem, the Duke is now looking for a second wife-to-be. Robert Browning is one of the greatest poets in the Victorian age. He writes romantic poems and he expresses love in this poem as obsessive. The poem’s rhyme scheme is a, a, b, b. ThisRead MoreExploring Themes in Sonnets1751 Words   |  8 PagesThe six poems that I shall be comparing are: Sonnet 116, My last duchess, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, The highwayman, The laboratory and The ballad of Tam Lin. There is a common theme that runs through all of these poems of relationships and the love in them whether it be the love lost between two lovers such as in the Laboratory or a fantasy love such as in The ballad of Tam Lin. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci the speaker of the poem comes across a knight all alone and who is apparently dying in a fieldRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Sonnet 182829 Words   |  12 PagesSonnet 18 too. Within My Last Duchess, love explores the submissive and possessive side effects of being completely infatuated, which similarly links with La Belle, however instead of patriarchal power, domination is shown through a woman. First Love is comparable to both Sonnets, in which love is portrayed passionately, presenting real love and the overwhelming feeling it can convey. Finally Porphyria’s Lover portrays unrequited love with a sinister background alike My Last Duchess. CONTEXT, READERRead More The Flea by John Donne and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell6621 Words   |  27 Pageslanguage used which was typical of that period in time apt to kill me and yea which are taken from the flea. Both poems also speak of virginity being very important, especially before marriage because if a woman had lost her maidenhead before, the husband would have the right to leave her without the need for a divorce. Both poems have the same theme of seduction. In The flea this is put across in each in three regular stanzas where as To His Coy Mistress is written in to sections. ThisRead MoreEssay on Love Poems2903 Words   |  12 PagesNot all love poems deal with happy positive sides of love but there is also the negative sides such as pain, sadness and loss. Through these poems ‘When We Two Parted’, ‘Remember’, ‘First Love’, ‘How Do I Love Thee?’, ‘A Woman To Her Lover’, and ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ we become familiar with the different emotions associated with love. Christina Rossetti’s ‘Remember’ is a poignant poem written in the 19th century about loss of love. Rossetti lived in the 19th century where people were