The predominant ways of thinking in Victorian society is that artists and critics were moving towards what would become the ‘art for art’s sake’ movement. Also that religion and science were slowly shifting in their roles and of societal and intellectual upheaval. Some values included a variety of social values and their behavior felt less restricted. Also, people were beginning to move to cities (urbanized), and fathers were very protective of their daughters. They also started to believe more in science and less in religion. Developments in social classes increased (poor and rich people). Also, people began to question old morals and reality. Overall, society was changing very quickly and artists and poets would have been worried if their work was going to last (were their works going to be relevant in another world).
2. Major trends and developments of the Victorian era
Some of the major trends and developments of the Victorian era is medical, mechanical, fashion, poetry, romance and politics. There was also a change in art, (the way it was designed) and in love. Additionally there were cultural upheavals and economic turmoil. Also, luxury items were questioned. People were worried and some of the questions asked were questions such as: Should we be spending our money on these luxury items when we could be spending it more wisely. Another development was newspapers and what they were filled with (violence, death, crime etc.) There was also the scene of peoples morals starting to mean less (people trying to get back what they have lost).
3. Browning’s early years and background
Robert Browning who was born in the 1810s was the son of fairly liberal parents who took his education and personal growth seriously. When he was young, he was always reading and began to write poetry while still at a young age; with the influence of Percy Bysshe Shelly. However Browning’s earliest works gains him some negative unwanted attention, making him moving off poetry and working on plays. But again, the plays did not pay the bills and so he later returned back to poems.
4. Impacts as a child and education on Browning’s career
His childhood which was filled with education and personal growth as well as being influenced by Percy Bysshe Shelly impacted Browning on his career as a writer because as his influencer; Shelly urged rethinking of modern society, Browning then went on to writing poems and plays about issues reflecting on his world. Both of his parents were interesting into personal growth and because he liked reading also acted as a part of Browning's career.
5. Dramatic Monologue in Victorian Poetry
‘A Dramatic monologue, to paraphrase M.H Abrams, is a poem with a speaker who is clearly separate from the poet, who speaks to an implies audience that, while silent, remains clearly present in the scene… the purpose of the monologue is not so much to make a statement about its declared subject matter, but to develop the character to the speaker” (Analysis: Browning’s Poetry) The Victorian period represented the high point of the dramatic monologue in English poetry. It has a speaker and an implied audience. This is the most important aspect of a dramatic monologue.
6. Three suggested requirements of a Browninesque dramatic monologue
The three suggested Browninesque dramatic monologue techniques are the reader takes part of the silent listener, the speaker used a case-making, argumentative tone and that we complete the dramatic scene from within, by means of inference and imagination.
7. The term ‘Silent Listener’
The term ‘silent listener’ means that when we don’t hear them, but only as rephrased by the monologist, we would expect them to be very similar or for the dynamics of the dialogue to differ. When the auditor actually becomes a second speaker, the entry into the poem is no longer there and that person is no longer talking on be halve of us. The presence of a second speaker should force a change in genre until we realize that unless inscribed, the listener remains silent, hence the ‘silent listener’.
8. The effect of Browning’s technique, and how it positions the reader
The effect Browning is trying to achieve by the use of this technique is that the listener is left blank so that the person can create him or her. It gives us a place to stand within the narrative and respond. It has positioned the reader to feel part of the poem.
9. Why some of his contemporary readers found it difficult to read and interpret his work
Contemporary readers find it difficult to read and interpret Robert Browning’s work because they are vastly different from Robert Langaum’s work/model. Browning’s works makes the reader experience tension between sympathy and judgment.
10. Factors that aided the peak of his career in the 1860s
Some contributing factors that aided the
