Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Discussion Questions
1409:
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Explain: "All personality [is] staged and variable" (1409).
1410:
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Explain: "Browning's narrators elicit a reluctant fascination"
(1410).
"Porphyria's Lover" (1836/1842)
1412:
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What does porphyria mean?
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Why does her lover strangle Porphyria?
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How does he compare with the lover in Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"?
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Explain the final line.
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Are we supposed to sympathize with the speaker? Explain.
"Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" (1842)
1413:
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What is a soliloquy?
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What is a cloister?
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Why does the speaker abhor Brother Lawrence?
1414:
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Explain stanza five.
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How is irony employed in stanza seven (see footnote 4)?
"My Last Duchess" (1842)
1415:
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What is a heart "too soon made glad" (22)?
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Explain lines 31-34.
1416:
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What is stooping (42-43)?
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Explain the significance of footnote three.
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How does the bronze of Neptune compare in the Duke's mind with the painting
of his last wife (or with his last wife herself)?