Introduction
Drama is one of the literary genres, which is presented in different ways in books. Monologues and dialogues add more emotion to the storytelling. Authors can convey the plot through a monologue or dialogue or limit their work to them exclusively. Thus, poems consisting only of a dialogue or a monologue are another way to convey information through a non-standard approach. This style of storytelling allows conveying the atmosphere, personal views, and opinions of the characters.
My Last Duchess
Recognized genius poetic skills and the display of characters through monologue can be traced in Robert Browning’s work My Last Duchess. The monologue in the poem clearly expresses the emotions of the narrator, and the details that the author mentions complement the idea of the main character’s opinion on the topics touched upon. The monologue presentation style makes this story dramatic and sensual.
The important aspect is that there is an invisible hero with whom the dialogue takes place only unilaterally. This distinguishes this work from others, for example, Porphyria’s Lover by the same author. Due to this, the reader can fully feel the atmosphere of what is happening and imagine the place. Additionally, the monologue is suggesting certain reactions within the text.
Browning brings a lot of detail to My Last Duchess to consider and ponder. The author deliberately does not reveal the subtleties of each, leaving the will of interpretation. Moreover, each detail has a link to the overall picture. For example, the important detail is that the duke kept the painting behind the curtain (Gwynn 414). Before showing the painting, he pulled back the curtain, which demonstrated his unwillingness to present the painting to the public and to have control over who sees it.
At the same time, in the monologue, the duke’s condescending and critical attitude towards the duchess is noticeable. In this case, the detail of the smile is important, which is preserved in the painting and correlates with reality, in which the duchess smiled at other people, which the duke did not like. In particular, he disliked her attention to others, while emphasizing his desire for complete loyalty and exceptional attention to his person. It is highlighted that he found it disgusting and unacceptable. While using the style of a monologue, the author does not always voice the meaning through the character. This allows the reader to understand the signified essence based on the behavioral reactions of the character.
Home Burial
Home Burial is a poem by Robert Frost. It is a dramatic dialogue, with tension and vivid emotions between the characters. The relationship of the characters goes through a difficult period during the dialogue, and the reader is involved and immersed in the atmosphere. The grief of the heroes is associated with several aspects at once, including the destruction of the marriage and the loss of a child.
The wife and husband experience grief in dialogue in completely different ways and their formation of attitudes toward what happened is also different. They both find explanations in their way regarding the cause of the death of the child. While the wife lives the pain more in a mental way, pondering and finding causes of death such as evil forces, the husband is inclined to physical labor so that the moral grief goes away (Gwynn 446). The wife and husband have not completely recovered from the loss, but they live through the process in different ways.
The dialogue is descriptive, immersing the reader in the details of what is happening through the direct speech. The vision of the situation from the side of two characters at once, the husband and the wife, allows getting a more objective view of the situation. However, they both express subjective opinions based on emotions and feelings, and neither of them tries to find a compromise.
This dialogue emphasizes miscommunication and a lack of respect or an attempt to understand each other’s feelings. The wife and husband do not try to support and understand each other at a difficult moment of loss. Only at the very beginning, the husband makes the only attempt to get closer and understand the wife, but after being rejected, he no longer tries to improve the relationship. The spouses do not try to hear each other; they only talk about themself, feelings, and sensations. Each of them lives only through their feelings, and because of this, the child does not become their only loss since they also lose each other.
The husband goes through this process more quickly using methods of direct involvement in the funeral process and physical activity. After the child is buried with his own hands, the husband begins to return to normal life, while for the wife, it is a much longer process. Being incapable of emphasizing or understanding each other, they consider each other’s options as inappropriate for experiencing loss.
The wife considers her husband’s way of grieving to be insignificant, believing that her feelings are much more hurt and that he will never be able to understand the mother’s pain. In the dialogue, it is explained that the wife is already planning to leave and warns her husband about this, to which he responds with legal threats. Their inability to communicate leads to an aggravation of the conflict. They are angry and try to hurt each other instead of supporting.
The author does not take a preferred position on one of the methods of living through grief. Both ways of living the loss are described as equally worthy and valid. The descriptive style is used, but throughout the dialogue, the specific position of the author is not expressed. The author tries to convey to the reader the importance of communication, trying to understand each other, and how the absence of this can destroy the relationship.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem by T. S. Eliot. In this poem, the narration goes through a monologue. In this case, the plot follows the inner drama of the protagonist Prufrock. He is anxious, unconfident, and neurotic, belittles his self-esteem, and tries to escape from the real world through imagination and procrastination. The author does not bring his opinion or vision into the monologue, but only describes the story of the character, and reveals his inner world.
The difference in this monologue is that the reader seems to hear something personal. In ordinary dialogues or monologues of this type, the second character is usually present, in some, he doesn’t speak, but the plot supports his presence. In this case, the dramatic poem is dedicated to only one main character, and all the statements are very personal, and sensual, referring only to him. Therefore, this poem is, for the most part, an internal monologue of the protagonist.
The main character is smart, but he doubts himself so much that he is not ready to perform actions in real life. This destroys Prufrock emotionally, leaving him in a state of frustration. At the same time, the character cannot overcome himself and begin to act, since he cannot find an inner determination to start interacting with people and preferably build his own real life. In addition, the representation takes place on the streets and in the places where the character is present during the monologue. They are the same gray and faceless as if demonstrating the life of Prufrock. In this way, the drama and atmosphere in the poem are emphasized.
The monologue provides both information about Prufrock’s life in the present and the past. This underlines the fact that the character did not go through personal transformation, and remained insecure and with low self-esteem. The protagonist brings a different atmosphere to his own life only in an imaginary or romanticized world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, even though all three works have dramatic overtones, each has a different storytelling style. All three authors manage to immerse the reader in the atmosphere and allow them to feel what the characters are going through. The reader is presented with three completely different stories, with various styles of storytelling, but each of them conveys the pain of the characters and the drama of the situations. The use of dialogues and monologues in the poems supports the plot allowing to recreate greater emotionality and sensuality.
Works Cited
Gwynn, Robert Samuel. Literature: A Pocket Anthology. 6th ed., Pearson, 2014.