Strangling of the Female Selves : A Study of Two Poems By Robert Browning

Abstract

Women in the Victorian society underwent an intense repression in the male dominated society and this  is very often reflected in most of the Victorian literary outputs. Prohibition, restriction in the guise of   morality  imprisoned the females in the dark corner of society . Robert Browning, one of the eminent poets of the victorian age, in his poetry ventured to violate  this tradition of suppressed women and  let them  enjoy their liberty  repudiating  the patriarchal dominance. His women were made to challenge patriarchal authority and find their deliverance in their own way.  This paper seeks to focus on two of Browning’s poems  “My Last Duchess†and “ Porphyria’s Lover†from the collection “Dramatic Lyrics†to show  how the women were subdued by the male authority and  how they   resisted this repression  subverting the traditional patriarchal power structure.