1. Robert Browning “My Last Duchess” Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach”
Victorian Poets
Robert Browning “My Last Duchess”
Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach”

2. Learning Objectives Main idea of each poem Term: Dramatic Monologue*
Character: The Duke
Setting: The Dover Beach and its metaphorical meaning
Theme: the key message in “Dover Beach”

3. My Last Duchess
Robert Browning

4. My Last Duchess The poem is written in 28 rhymed couplets’
The poem is preceded by the word Ferrara:, indicating that the speaker is most likely Alfonso II, fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598) who, at the age of 25, married the 14-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo.
Lucrezia was not well educated, and the Medicis' status could be termed "nouveau riche" in comparison with that of the venerable and distinguished Este family. The Duke's remark regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially. She came, however, with a sizeable dowry.

5. My Last Duchess
The couple married in 1558, and she died three years later, on April 21, 1561, at age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning.
The Duke then sought the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the niece of the Count of Tyrol. The count was in charge of arranging the marriage; the chief of his entourage, Nikolaus Mardruz, a native of Innsbruck, was his courier. Mardruz is presumably the silent listener in the poem.
The other characters named in the poem, painter Frà Pandolf and sculptor Claus of Innsbruck, are fictional.

6. Dramatic Monologue
Dramatic monologue, also known as a persona poem, is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character.
A single person utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem
This person addresses and interacts with other people; but we know of the auditors' presenceonly from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.
what speaker says is to reveal to the reader the speaker's temperament and character.

7. Study Questions Why is the poem a “dramatic monologue”?
Who is the duke talking to? Find evidence from the poem.
What happened to the duchess? How do you know that?
Describe the Duke’s character in Browning’s “My Last Duchess.”
How is dramatic irony presented in "My Last Duchess“?
“The Duke values art but cannot appreciate beauty in reality.” Do you agree with the statement? Why?
What does the poem reveal about gender relations in Victorian age?

8. Why is the poem a “dramatic monologue”?
The entire poem consists of the words spoken by a single voice, Duke Ferrara's.
The listener’s presence is felt in the poem.
It contains the elements of drama
Characters
a narrative
physical action
a physical setting.
Throughout the Duke's monologue, the story develops, and his character, as well as the Duchess's, is revealed.

9. Who is the duke talking to?
The Count your master's known munificience
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
As starting, is my object.

10. What happened to the duchess?
How did she die? Make speculations and find evidence from the poem.

11. Describe the Duke’s character in Browning’s “My Last Duchess.”
Jealous
Arrogant
Cruel
Cold
manipulative …

12. Where is dramatic irony presented in "My Last Duchess“?
The Duke is unaware of how he is presenting himself as a profoundly arrogant and jealous man: a most unsuitable man to marry one's daugther to.

13. The Duke values art but cannot appreciate beauty in reality
The Duke values art but cannot appreciate beauty in reality. Do you agree with the statement? Why?
"being real and being human, she lacked the professional polish and perfection that an expert artist can give to his copy.”

14. DOVER BEACH MATTHEW ARNOLD

15. INTRODUCTION Mathew Arnold (1822-1888)
Wrote Dover Beach during or shortly after a visit he and his wife made to the Dover Region of Southeastern England
Setting of the poem is in 1851
He married his wife earlier that year in 1851
The town of Dover is closer to France that any other port city in England.
The body of water separating the coastline of the town from the coast of France is the strait of Dover., North of the English Channel and South of the north Sea.

16. BIOGRAPHY
Began his career as a poet, winning early recognition as a student at the Rugby School
His father was a strict and innovative headmaster.
Studied at Balliol College and Oxford University.
After marrying in 1851, Arnold began work as a government school inspector, a grueling position which nonetheless afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout England and the Continent
Throughout his thirty-five years in this position Arnold developed an interest in education, an interest which fed into both his critical works and his poetry

17. BIOGRAPHY
Empedocles on Etna (1852) and Poems (1853) established Arnold's reputation as a poet and in 1857 he was offered a position, which he accepted and held until 1867, as Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
Arnold became the first professor to lecture in English rather than Latin.
Matthew Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888

18. STRUCTURE Dover beach is a lyric poem
Lyric means- subjective poetry with a rhyme scheme and meter which reveals the poet's thoughts and feelings to create a single unique impression
Uses iambic pentameter
rhyme scheme
ABACDBDCEFCGFGHIHJIJKELMENMLOPPOAQQAA

19. Dover Beach: Study Questions
Who is the speaker in the poem? And who is the listener? Can “Dover Beach” be considered as a dramatic monologue?
Is "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold pessimistic or optimistic? Give reasons for your answer.
In what sense is the poem different from Romantic poetry?
What is the function of the physical setting in Arnold's "Dover Beach"?
What does the speaker have in common with Sophocles?
What does the poet lament over in the poem? What does he offer as a substitute (the theme)?

20. Who is the speaker in the poem. And who is the listener
Who is the speaker in the poem? And who is the listener? Can “Dover Beach” be considered as a dramatic monologue?

21. In what sense is the poem different from Romantic poetry
In what sense is the poem different from Romantic poetry? (In what sense is it modern?)
Nature is not depicted as ideal or lifting.
Pessimism.
Irregularity in rhyme or stanza length.

22. What are the reasons that signify "Dover Beach" as a representative poem of the Victorian period?
Tide of faith pulling back
“So various, so beautiful, so new”
armies clashing

23. What is the function of the physical setting in Arnold's "Dover Beach"?
In a metaphorical sense:
the ebbing of the tide :disappearance of the old certainties of belief.
The darkness of the night and the gleam of light : allegories for the state of knowledge

24. What does the speaker have in common with Sophocles?
Both gaze out to sea
Both are thinkers seeing problems around them
Both portraying human tragedies

25. What does the poet lament over in the poem
What does the poet lament over in the poem? What does he offer as a substitute (the theme)?
The speaker then laments the loss of a religion to unite people. To compensate for that loss, the speaker suggests to his lover (auditor) that they should live for each other: