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An Examination of the Conclusions to Browning's Dramatic Monologues

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An Examination of the Conclusions to Browning's Dramatic Monologues View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Trace University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 3-1966 An Examination of The oncluC sions to Browning's Dramatic Monologues Charlotte Hudgens Beck University of Tennessee - Knoxville Recommended Citation Beck, Charlotte Hudgens, "An Examination of The onclusionC s to Browning's Dramatic Monologues. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1966. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2899 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Charlotte Hudgens Beck entitled "An Examination of The Conclusions to Browning's Dramatic Monologues." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Kenneth Knickerbocker, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: F. DeWolfe Miller, Norman Sanders Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) March 1, 19 66 To th e Graduate Council: I am su bmitting herewith a th esis wr i tten by Char l otte Hud gen s Beck en ti tl ed ·�n Examination of the Conclusions to Browning's Dra­ matic Monol ogues." I recommend th at it be accepted for nine quar ter hours of credit in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degr ee of Master of Arts, wi th a maj or in En gl ish. Maj or Prof essor We have read this th esis and r� commend its acceptanc� _ J)� Ye. ilL/�, kuc, · c.) Acc ep ted for the Council: D ean of th e Gradu ate School AN EXAMINAT ION OF THE CDN CLUS ION S TO BR OWNING 'S DRAMATI C MONOLOGUES A The sis Presented to the Graduate Counci l of The University of Tennessee In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement s for the Degree Ma ster of Ar ts by Charlot te Hudgens Beck Mar ch 1966 AC KNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the able direction of Professor Ke nneth Kn ickerbocker, and the assistanc e of Professor F. DeWolfe Miller and Professor Norman Sanders, in the preparation of th is the si s. No less important to the su ccess of th is project has be en the assistance, patience, an d encouragement of my husband , Profe ssor Raymond W. Beck . May I also mention my sons, Warren Beck and An drew Beck, without whom I wou ld have comp leted this effort some si x months sooner. ii 654241 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTR OD UC TI ON: STATEMEN T OF PffiPOSE AND REVIEW OF RELATED CRI TICISM · . 1 II. THE RETURN-TO-NORf\1AL EN DI NG 19 III. THE SURPRISE, OR FLASH-BACK ENDING 63 IV. CON CLUSION .• 98 A SELECTED BIBLI OGRAPHY 10 2 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: STATEMEN T OF PURPOSE AND REVI EW OF RELA TED CRITICISM Stud ents of th e poetry of Robert Brown ing are virtual ly in accord abou t the importance of his dramati c monologues. In his fore- word to Smalley's, Brown ing's Es say � Chatterton , Wi lliam Clyde DeVane calls Browning' s monol ogu es "his chief contribution to En gl ish poetry ."1 Althou gh Browning was not the or iginator of this poetic form, the majority of Browning schol ars wou ld concur with S. S. Curry, au thor of the on ly complete book devoted to the dramatic monol ogue as an art form, when he remarks, "A s Shakespear e reigns the supreme mas ter 2 of the play, so Brown ing has no peer in th e monol ogu e." Considering the importance of th e poet' s contribution to liter a- tu re in th e virtual perfec tion of th is poetic gen re, it is surprising th at so littl e criti cal atten ti on has been accord ed such structural de- tails as th e conclusions. Many exc el lent ar ticles have explicated in- dividual poems , an d some of th es e will be mention ed in Chapters II an d III of this paper. A book, a doctoral dissertation, an d a number 1William C. DeVane,Foreword to Browning' s Es say on Chatterton by Donald Smalley (C am brid ge, Mas s., 1948), p. vir:--- 2 S. S. Curry, Br owning an d the Dramati c Mon ol ogue (Bos ton , 19 08), p. 10 . 1 2 of articles have dealt with the dramatic monologue as a poetic form; yet, they have not attempted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the po et's technique of concluding the poems. Browning apparently planned his endings carefully, for they are vital in determining the ultimate effect left by the monologue. The portion of the mo nologue which I will term the conclusion will not, of co urse, be of identical length in each poem studied. It may vary in le ngth from the one-half line en ding "A Toccata of Galuppi's," to the long stanza or section con- elusion, such as the poet's postscript to Bishop Blougram'� Apology. The concludi ng section of each monologue is obvious. Indeed, the shift in mood and subject are so remarkable as to have prompted this study. The endings of twenty-three of Browning's dramatic mono- logues characteristic of his technique will be examined (chosen from 3 The Selected Poetry of Robert Browning) and placed in one of the fol- lowing classes: tf) those poems which conclude with a departure from the speaker's central topic and a return to a sort of equilibrium, a normal state of affairs for the speaker, with a suggestion of continu- it y into the future; or Q those poems which end with an unexpected twist which throws a li ght, as it were, back upon the foregoing lines v' of the poem, This second sort of ending may illuminate the hitherto ambiguous meaning of the monologue, perhaps altering the reader's pre- vious interpretation of the facts of the poem. While th e monologues 3 The Selected Poetry of Robert Browning, ed., Kenneth L. Knic­ kerbocke�New York, 1951). 3 which fall int o the fir st gr ou p are consistent with the poet's inter- pretation of life as a steady emotional plane , relieved from time to time by pinnacles of experience, the sec ond group represents more truly the conscious art ist at work in the genre ; for Br owni ng bel ieved that the ending sh ou ld be the clinche r, the final revelation of the poem, giving the ul t imat e insight int o the speaker 's motives an d emo- tions. Up to now, critical analysis of the dramat ic monol ogue has been concerned chiefly with def ining the genre and pre scr ibing the ingre- dients which are vital to its su ccess. Percy S . Gr ant 's ar ticle, "Br owning' s Art in Monol ogue," is admittedly not a study of "hi s ar t 4 in the det ails of technique." Gr an t, theref ore, does not study the conclusions of the dramat ic monol ogu e but is chiefly in tere sted in ex- ploring the dramatic and au tobiogr aphical element s of Browning' s wor ks in thi s form. In 1908, Curry made hi s invaluabl e contribution to the under- st anding of this genre in his book , Br owning � � Dramatic Mon o- logue . Part I is devot ed to the an alysis of the monol ogue as a liter- ary form and constitutes the most valuable part of the book . Part II presents an interesting discu ssion of the now infrequent ly exhibited art of the dramat ic rendering of the monologue. 4 Percy S. Gr ant, "Browning' s Art in Monologue," Boston Browning Society Papers (New York, 19 00), p . 65. 4 Curry does not devote any attention to the endings of the mon o- logues as an element of literary technique. He does, however, stress the dramatic nature of these poems, presenting as they do a signif icant moment in the life of a speaker thr ough that speaker 's words, just as the dramat ic -play repre sents dramatic action in which characters move and speak. Upon the type of activity intrinsic to a dramatic mono- logue , Curry remarks, There is a kind of dramatic art which we may term static and another kind wh ich we may term dyna mic . The former deals especially with characters in pos ition, the la tter with characters in movement.S To Curry, the acted drama is dynamic, wh ile the dramatic monol ogue is static. An examinati on of the monol ogues in my first group will, how- ever, reveal that Br own ing of ten meant to imply dynamic action within the essentially stat ic monologue, and that he employed the ending for this purpose. Th ose conclusions wh ich present a transiti on from the speaker's princ ipal concern, of ten a subject which is filled with passion, to a state of more normal emoti on wh ic h point s the way to the speaker's course of action in the future, imply a dynamic progress from present to future .
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