Comparing My Last Duchess,Porphyrias Lover and le Dame...

Comparing 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 Merci the woman has the power. In Porphyrias Lover the only way the man feels he has power over Porphyria is by killing her. So by feeling that this is his only alternative, she has power over him. She is merely an adoring lover who really cares for†¦show more content†¦The Duke is going on and on and we only have one point of view. He is controlling what the audience perceive the characters as. Browning uses enjambment to make the rhyming couplets flow better in order to make the speech of the Duke more realistic. The easiness of the speech and the fact that it is flowing, shows that the Duke seems to have rehearsed everything that he is now saying to the agent. So he has had to think about what to say and wants to be able to manipulate the agent into taking his side and, indeed, wants to have control over the agent’s opinion of both him and his last Duchess. The dukes loss of control is also depicted through the rhythm of the poem. The enjambment in the poem reveals that the Duke is almost at ease with his wifes murder, because it is so flowing and he doesn’t get upset and almost doesn’t have to stop. Except for once; this is shown by the use of caesura, however as he only stutters once it seems as if he is just doing it for show. Near the end of the poem, the duke loses control. You can imagine the horrified agent rising to go and the dukes uneasiness as he loses control, and his desire to regain control of the situation as he says, ‘Nay well go down together, sir’ There is a caesura between ‘Nay’ and ‘we’ll’ which shows the Duke does not want to lose control but then has to pause as he thinks of a reasonable explanation for him saying ‘Nay’ to the agent leaving without him.