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The Dramatic Monologue Author(s): Ina Beth Sessions Source: PMLA, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Jun., 1947), pp. 503-516 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/459275 . Accessed: 12/02/2014 08:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 155.207.156.2 on Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:55:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XXIX THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE THROUGH the years detailed attention has been given to the lyric, epic, short-story, drama, novel, and other literary forms, but compara- tively few references have been made to the dramatic monologue. A be- ginning towards the understanding of this neglected form was made by Stopford A. Brooke, who devoted one chapter to a discussion of Tenny- son's use of the dramatic monologue in his Tennyson, His Art and Re- lation to ModernLife.' S.S. Curry in his Browning and the Dramatic Mono- logue made a study of three characteristics of the form: speaker, audience, and occasion. He likewise gave a short history of the genre, and analyzed the methods for presenting examples of the form orally.2 R. H. Fletcher classified Browning's dramatic monologues.3 Claud Howard traced the development of the type in his pamphlet The Dramatic Monologue: Its Origin and Development.4Phelps devoted one chapter to analyzing the content of Browning's dramatic monologues.5 Bliss Perry defined the type, mentioned the same characteristics Curry had enumerated, and stated that the form is somewhat akin to the lyric.6 The present writer stressed the necessity for definiteness of each of the aforementioned char- acteristics and suggested that continuous interplay between speaker and audience be added as a clear-cut, fourth characteristic. Examples in both American and continental literature were grouped as follows: typical, for- mal, and approximate.7 Perhaps a reason for the relative neglect of this interesting genreis that it seems to be a familiar form easily understood because it has appro- priated several characteristics of related types.8 When, however, a lead- ing anthology continues to classify both Locksley Hall and Rizpah9 as Stopford A. Brooke, Tennyson, His Art and Relation to Modern Life (New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1903). In a letter to the present writer, July, 1933, Dr. L. P. Jacks of Oxford, son-in-law of Brooke, wrote: "I think he (Brooke) would have said Tennyson's 'Northern Farmer' is about the best dramatic monologue in English." 2 S S. Curry, Browning and the Dramatic Monologue (Boston: Expression Company, 1908). References in this paper refer to the third edition, 1927. 3 R. H. Fletcher, "A Classification of Browning's Dramatic Monologues," Modern Lan- guage Notes, xxIII, April (1908), 108 ff. Claud Howard, The Dramatic Monologue: Its Origin and Development ("Studies in Philology," iv; Chapel Hill, N. C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1910). 5 W. L. Phelps, Browning How to Know Him (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1915). 6 Bliss Perry, A Study of Poetry (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1920). 7 Ina Beth Sessions, A Study of the Dramatic Monologue in American and Continental Literature (San Antonio, Texas: Alamo Printing Company, 1933). 8 Note the relationship between the dramatic monologue and such types as the lyric, letter, soliloquy, monologue per se, and drama. 9 Locksley Hall conforms to the dramatic monologue requirements only in the opening 503 This content downloaded from 155.207.156.2 on Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:55:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 504 The Dramatic Monologue dramatic monologues,'? and when there is no universally accepted classi- ficationl1 for a host of important poems of this type, further analysis of the form becomes desirable. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is further to define and discuss the dramatic monologue as an independent and important type of literature and to analyze its sub-classifications. Brooke was of the opinion that dramatic monologues "belong directly to the tragedy and to the comedy of life."12Tennyson's Rizpah, Despair, and The First Quarrel were given as examples of tragedy; and all dialect examples were listed as illustrations of comedy. Brooke did not overlook poems of social or ethical implications, as can be noted in his discussion of the second Locksley Hall and The Wreck. In comparing Tennyson and Browning as writers of the dramatic monologue, Brooke stated that the former "scarcely varies at all" in his use of the type; whereas, the latter's examples are "sometimes lyrical, sometimes narrative, sometimes reflective.""3 When Curry discussed the genre he said that as Browning exem- plified it the dramatic monologue was "one end of a conversation" and that a definite speaker was present in a dramatic situation.14Further, he said that "usually" a well-defined hearer was present, "though his char- acter is understood entirely from the impression he produces upon the speaker."'5 In elaborating on the occasion, he explained that the "con- versation" is not an abstract affair but "takes place in a definite situation as a part of human life."'6 The evolution of the dramatic monologue, said Curry, can be traced in the "conflict between poet and stage, between writer and stage art- stanza.Rizpah is a Perfectexample of the type. (See TableI for a list of the characteristics of the Perfectform.) 10Lieder, Lovett, and Root, British Poetry and Prose (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin Com- pany, 1938), ii, 518; 550. 11In Snyder and Martin's, A Book of English Literature, 4th ed. (New York: The Mac- millan Company, 1943), n, Rizpah (p. 522) is called a "tragic ballad," and Ulysses (p. 495) is termed "one of the noblest of dramatic monologues." In the Lieder, Lovett and Root anthology, Ulysses (p. 517) is said to contain a speaker who "soliloquizes." Neither of these anthologies classifies the dramatic monologues Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto, and The Bishop OrdersHis Tomb in St. Praxed's Church,although both books properly list My Last Duchess as an example of this type. In the Harcourt, Brace and Company publica- tion The CollegeSurvey of English Literature (vol. 2, 1946), Ulysses is listed as a dramatic monologue (p. 490); and so are Locksley Hall (p. 491), Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister (p. 537), and My Last Duchess (p. 538). The editors of this anthology state that "Browning varies the technique of his dramatic monologues: the Spanish monk soliloquizes, but the Duke of Derrara ... talks to the envoy" (p. 538). 12 Stopford A. Brooke, op. cit., p. 436. 13Ibid., p. 431. 14 S. S. Curry, op. cit., p. 7. 16 Idem. 16Idem. This content downloaded from 155.207.156.2 on Wed, 12 Feb 2014 08:55:36 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ina Beth Sessions 505 ist."'7 The form did not evolve in direct opposition to the play, but rather as a "new and parallel aspect of dramatic art."18 Two of the best points that Curry made were that the dramatic mono- logue derives its unity from the character of the speaker; and that the "listener as well as the speaker must be realized as continuously living and thinking."19On the other hand, Curry is confusing when he says the letter is nearest to the monologue,20then shortly adds that the "mono- logue . is nearer to the dialogue than to the letter."21 Examples cited by Curry as dramatic monologues do not conform to any one set definition. Poems as different as Browning's Clive, Pippa's soliloquies in Pippa Passes, The Flight of the Duchess, and Tennyson's Ulysses are termed the same literary form. Now, Curry did say that he recognized variations in form and would even admit a "partial intro- duction of dialogue,"22without feeling that the effectiveness of the dra- matic monologue fominhad been disturbed. Neither a rule for form nor for variation was given, however, and the resultant difficulty in determin- ing classifications is obvious. According to Fletcher, Browning's "dramatic monolog is found to be represented as a literal transcript of words spoken, written, or thought at some definite time by some person who may be either historical or imaginary."23This definition holds true in the whole poem with the ex- ception of a few instances where "there is a brief introduction or conclud- ing descriptive or narrative paragraph supplied by Browning himself or by some other person not the monologist."24 Examples give in vivid fashion "some action of external crisis or of moral signifiance" and a character analysis of one or more people. Theoretically, soliloquies are not dramatic monologues, but practically the two forms "shade into each other," and in Browning's poetry it is impossible to distinguish them sharply. Claud Howard, in his discussion of the type, said its development passed through two stages: one from the origin of its use to Browning; the second from Browning's day until the present.25The type arose "in re- sponse to a need for a new form of literary expression which would reveal more directly and forcibly the new phases of modern culture and experi- ence."26 Howard seemed to agree with Curry in stressing the importance of the speaker and in saying that the speaker's thoughts are influenced by the hearer.
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  • Robert Browning: a Dramatic Monologue Marvel

    Robert Browning: a Dramatic Monologue Marvel

    International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Online: 2015-11-30 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 63, pp 225-232 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.63.225 CC BY 4.0. Published by SciPress Ltd, Switzerland, 2015 Robert Browning: A Dramatic Monologue Marvel Asghar Moulavi Nafchi*, Mitra Mirzayee, Morteza Sobhani Zadeh Senior Lecturer, Hakim Sabzevari University, Iran, *E-mail address: [email protected]. MA Students of English Language and Literature, Semnan University, Iran. Keywords: Dramatic monologue, Emotion, Psychoanalytic view, Robert Browning, Victorian poetry. ABSTRACT. One of the most effective literary devices within different didactic and aesthetic forms is the dramatic monologue. The dramatic monologue distinguishes the speaker’s character from that of the poet’s. The double meaning that lies at the heart of the dramatic monologue, conveys the speaker’s version or variety of meaning and intentions. The Dramatic monologue has been practiced for a very long time, but it was Robert browning who invested it with a deeper level of meaning giving it frequency in an attempt to support preexisting aesthetic values in favor of a poem that valued form over content. Although such a dialogue is called dramatic, it is not a theatrical device, proper. The speaker of the poem delivers such comments on the slice of life at disposal that would leave us with a deep emotional experience. By listening to the words pouring out of the speaker’s mind, the reader/listener obtains a psychoanalytic view of the speaker. The current article aims to study Robert browning, the prominent Victorian poet, by putting on the pedestal his essential role in investing the dramatic monologue in English literature with an essential poetic significance and role by reviewing a number of his major poems.