The Oxford Dictionary defines the noun mania as two things: mental illness marked by periods of excitement, delusions, and over activity; and an obsession. These terms derive from madness. The Romantics prior to the Victorians believed that solitude was a way of avoiding madness, whereas the Victorians believed the opposite – solitude brings about the birth of madness. This view was expressed within dramatic monologues.

Two of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era were Lord Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, both of whom wrote dramatic monologues. Within the following essay, it shall be shown how these two poets demonstrate madness and its consequences through dramatic monologue.

Porphyria’s Lover, a poem by Robert Browning, is presented as a dramatic monologue, showing the speaker’s madness, shown by his actions and feelings throughout one evening.

As the poem opens, he is sitting on his own, in a state of severe melancholy, watching the weather which relates to his depressed feelings. The “fury” of the “wind” subtly shows the reader what the possible outcome will be when the aforementioned Porphyria comes into his cottage. This pathetic fallacy emphasises the madness that is welling up within the narrator’s mind.

Following this pathetic fallacy, Porphyria unexpectedly “glided in” and starts to take action to cheer up her lover. “She shut the cold out”, as if to be his saviour, which subverts gender stereotypes – it is usually the male who is the saviour. In addition, she “glides” into the room which gives her angelic qualities. Thus, Browning has changed the reader’s view as to whom it is that looks after who.

As she sits beside him, she puts her arms around him, speaking to him. But the reader is immediately alerted to something being amiss. “No voice replied” to her calls of love. This could possibly be him trying to get her into a state of vulnerability, as she tries to please her lover, in order to commit the murder.

The speaker’s misery is emphasised by her actions in the prior hours. Porphyria is “took weak” to acknowledge him as her lover and is unable to “dissever” herself from her “vainer ties”. The speaker tells us that she had been going to a “gay feast” but she was unable to restrain her “passion” for him so came to his cottage, which makes the speaker believe she “worshipped” him. This is not entirely reliable though as the speaker is in a maddened state so may not be able to have a full grasp on the reality of the situation.

It is possible that she has visited him not out of love but out of pity. It is rather ambiguous whether or not she loves him after he says she “Murmur(s) how she loved (him)”. Surely, if she truly loved him she would not just be murmuring it, the murmurs meaning she does not wish to say it too loud as to make others hear, possibly to do with issues of class. It could be that Porphyria is of a higher class as she has been to a “gay feast”, whereas he is just in his little cottage, therefore being separated.

His further actions seem to become more sinister and chilling as he has “debated what to do” whilst embracing his lover. This shows that there is a glimpse of sanity as he has an internal discussion on whether or not to do the deed. In addition, it can also mean that the speaker is lackadaisical in the sense that he may not be bothered to commit the murder as he is seen to be lazy from the very start of the poem because he only sits or lays down where he is.

The mad side of himself wins the ‘internal debate’ and goes ahead with his plan. He “wound” her hair, which was “In one long yellow string” around “her little throat”. The word “wound” makes the murder seem far more gentle and casual than it should have been, giving the reader a sense that the speaker had done this before.

The glimpse of sanity is still with him as he kills Porphyria. He tries to reassure himself that the murder was pleasant, telling himself that “No pain felt she”, though there is doubt in this as he says that he is “quite sure she felt no pain”. This is a sense of his sane side trying to take over the insane side, but failing.

He concludes by trying to condone his actions, saying he has fulfilled her “one darling wish” and given her her “utmost will”.

Final evidence of this insanity may be found on the very last line: “God has not said a word!” The killing of Porphyria could be an atheistic view on things. He tries to disprove there is a God by murdering someone in the hope that he will not be struck down by some higher being. It can also be him saying that God Himself condones his actions and that it was done in love, not hatred.

This is insanity bred by obsession of a woman, the murder is possibly committed because of a desire to possess forever his one love, who supposedly loved and admired her killer. As the speaker says “That moment she was mine…(she was) Perfectly pure and good”, we might question whether the narrator is in love with Porphyria or in love with the idea of her love for him.

This poem gives us an insight into the mind of a killer who murders for love.

The Sisters, by Lord Alfred Tennyson, has another view of madness that leads to a murder brought about by love. Like “Porphyria’s Lover”, it is about the murder of a lover.

The sister gives a rather unclear view of why she does the murder, but there are notions of the murder in the early stage of the poem. On one hand, she seems to be avenging her sister, who “fell” and “therefore revenge became (her) well.” The way she “fell” could possibly be her ‘falling from grace’, as if the earl has caused her sister to be unhappy and possibly a shadow of the woman she previously was.

Another interpretation is that the sister is jealous of the other sister as “She was fairest in the face” and got the earl, whom she favoured. The less beautiful sister then wishes the act “revenge” on the sister. Sisterly love may mean she is unable to kill her kin and so kills who is dearest to her, the earl. This murder would emotionally hurt the fairer sister, thus the other’s revenge has succeeded.

A third interpretation is that her sister has actually killed herself from the bad relationship. This can be shown from when “she went to burning flame”, meaning hell. Religion was far more stable during Victorian times than in today’s world. It is believed that when someone commits suicide they go to hell, which is a staple part of this interpretation. The sister now wants “revenge” on the earl who led to her sister’s death.

A last interpretation is that the sister feels her other sister has wronged, as if the earl is a lower class than them, shown by the line “She mix’d her ancient blood with shame.” This could suggest two things: she slept with him, though he is lower in class; or she is having his baby, thus mixes her “ancient blood” with the “shame(ful)” lower class blood.

The rest of the poem shows how she ensnares the Earl and finally kills him like she has explained in the first two stanzas. Throughout the six stanzas this is emphasised by the last line of each one “O, the earl was fair to see!” This seems pointless but in hindsight after reading the poem it shows how sinister the murder is as she has premeditated it and planned for so long. In addition, the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence shows strong feeling. This is changed throughout the stanzas – the first stanza has longing; the second has cunning; satisfaction of the third; possible regret in the fourth; the fifth portraying manic irony; and, lastly, the sardonic bitterness in the sixth.

Also, her rage is shown throughout the stanzas. The third line of each stanza is about the weather. This pathetic fallacy makes the murder seem even more terrible as it goes through the poem as so much anger has been built up but her actions usually seem the opposite to her feelings. The wind begins “blowing”, then “howling”, “roaring”, “raging” and “raving”, until, after the murder, it is “blowing” again, as if to show her hatred has been used up.

Having lured the Earl to her house by means of “a feast” and then seducing him. She “brought him home”, which is a subversion of stereotypes – it is usually the man who brings the woman home – and then slept with him. In this way she has “won his love” and he is now vulnerable, which is to the sister’s liking.

Her vanity is shown as he lays with her on he bed. Though she “hated him with the hate of hell”, which is possibly the worst hate that could be shown, she does, in fact, love “his beauty passing well.” This shows a lot about her. It shows that she may start to have some doubts about killing him. Never in the poem does the line “O, the earl was fair to see!” mean more. It is a hint throughout the poem that she is partially in love with him, even though the “revenge [that] became (her) well” is all consuming. It is obvious that the Earl is louche (he is attractive yet his personality is not desirable).

Then, “in the silent night”, she exacts her revenge. The speaker “stabb’d him thro’ and thro’” when “half-asleep his breath he drew”. This is whilst “The wind is raving” and at its peak. This shows the reader that “the hate of hell” is far worse than first imagined and that it leads her to lift her dagger upon him.

Finally, when her anger has gone and “The wind is blowing” again, she “curl’d and comb’d his comely head”, taking note at how “He look’d so grand when he was dead.”

As in Porphyria’s Lover, the writer allows us to hear only one voice – that of the killer. However, in contrast, the killer is driven by grief, rage and jealousy which builds up to a crescendo.

The Laboratory also describes someone who is happy to murder another. By Robert Browning, it is set in 18th century France, which was rife with conservative repression. The narrator of the poem is a woman whose husband is supposedly having an affair with a another woman. She feels rage and seeks out to have revenge. The implied listener throughout the poem is an old chemist who specialises in creating poisons: an apothecary.

Firstly, the narrator encourages the old man – and the reader – to feel sympathy for her. The second stanza encourages this sympathy by saying how her husband and his mistress feel about her. “They laugh, laugh at me” she says, telling us it is not her who has, or will, commit a heinous crime but the two lovers; she feels she is the victim, therefore unable to commit a crime. As she has “fled” it is implied she is a weak and feeble woman, unable to do much because of her gender. They even “know that I know”, ergo adding to the woe she is feeling as they do appear to “laugh” at her. This is because she is “little”. This may seem confusing in today’s world but being large and having a rubenesque figure was viewed as more beautiful in the older eras.

The speaker feels trapped by her social standing. She can only administer the poison in open, not as discretely as she wishes to do. She has little or no power and can only use subterfuge, hence her use of “an earring, a casket,/A signet, a fan-mount, a filligree-basket!”

She mentions a main dance several times; “I dance at the King’s!” she says, probably dancing in the King’s hall at a party, which would have been only for those whom were of very high standing. The chance to dance at the “King’s” is apparently very important to her, so she must be dancing with her husband, otherwise others would realise things were amiss.

The narrator’s attraction to the poison is very unsettling. She takes to the wares before her like a young child to a sweet shop. She gives it value by calling some poisons “exquisite blue”, whilst others she describes as “gold oozings”.

Stanza X turns the sympathy of the poem on its back as she uses alliteration to describe intense feelings of hatred. To “Brand, burn up” and “bite” into the mistress’s being is very unsettling. The words are very harsh and the letter ‘B’ itself sounds harsh, thus showing the reader that we must not entirely feel sympathetic as she is to commit murder. This is a type of poetic technique known as consonance..

The last two stanzas clear up how much she feels the poisons are worth. She is willing to give up her “whole fortune’s fee” and give him all of her “jewels” just to possess the poison which is to kill the woman she loathes. This explains her desperation to kill this woman before the night at the King’s.

Furthermore, she offers herself to the “old man”. She tells him: “You may kiss me”. This seems less of an offer and more of a command. This shows both how she wishes to get back at the adulterous husband and how she wants to be commanding.

All of this plot to end an affair could be wrong though. There is no strong evidence that her husband has a mistress. It is what she believes is true. The dramatic monologue’s genre tells us that we cannot believe the speaker as she is mad, therefore unreliable, meaning the information is not strictly true.

The poems structure can give a chilling effect. The rhyme scheme of ‘A, A, B, B,’ makes the poem seem very jaunty and happy, though the content of the poem is bleak. This suggests perverse happiness and it makes the murder far more effective; it satirises the murder. It also seems to satisfy the murderer-to-be’s bloodthirstiness by making it seem jolly.

Also, the headings of every stanza are in roman numerals. These would have appeared upon a clock, thus suggesting that the murder has already been concocted and the time is ticking until the woman kills her husband’s lover.

My Last Duchess is a poem by Robert Browning which is frequently anthologised as an outstanding dramatic monologue. It describes the madness of a man and the consequences brought about by said madness, and, just like The Laboratory, it describes someone who kills because of jealousy and a love affair.

The structure of the poem consists of 28 rhyming couplets which feature iambic pentameter throughout each line, giving the poem a constant rhythm.

The poem is set within the Italian Renaissance. The narrator (who is believed to be Alfonso II, the Duke of Ferrara 1559-1597) is giving a guest in his house a tour of his artworks. He shows the guest a view of a painting of a woman, whom he introduces as “my last Duchess”, who has recently died. As they look at the painting, the Duke describes how happy and cheerful the late Duchess was, which greatly displeased him. He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that “’twas not her husband’s presence only” that made her happy. Eventually, “(He) gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.” The Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a seahorse. What exactly the “commands” were that the Duke gave is not stated.

The poem begins with the lines “That’s my last Duchess painted upon the wall,/Looking as if she were alive.” These opening lines show a lot about the narrator. Firstly, it is implied he is insecure by the use of one word: “my”. This shows both how he did not control her, therefore makes it seem as if he owned her to prove he was above her, and how he felt possessive of her, which is shown throughout the rest of the poem. Secondly, the importance of the painting overcomes his feelings for her by only referring to the painting, not the woman the painting is of, which can show how he is vain, just as “Looking as if she were alive” does.

Other lines justify this feeling of the painting being the Duchess, such as “Will’t please you sit and look at her?”, “her” being the operative word which personifies the painting.

The word “glance” is repeated many times in the poem. It can mean different things in different contexts. It is constantly repeated to show that she could only “glance” at other men because of the Duke’s possessive nature. It can also mean that their marriage was like a “glance”, i.e. it didn’t last long. “How such a glance came there” shows the mystery of the Duchess and what she did, as he was not interested in her but her looks and making sure she did not have affairs. “Its earnest glance” explains how serious the narrator is about the Duchess to not even look at another man. This is obviously against the Duchess’s nature, who appears to be a warm-hearted lady.

There is a “spot/Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek” which shows her happiness when she was alive, which was, sadly for her, not what the Duke liked. This is contradictory in that what is seen as good by most is bad in the eyes of the speaker.

From line 25 to line 38 there is a sense of fierce anger. The use of punctuation within a 7 line sentence shows how the speaker’s fury escalates as he speaks of what she has done wrong. The punctuation allows the words to sound, when read, angry, which is juxtaposed with the loving and happy Duchess. Dashes between words not only add extra information but also give the reader an insight into the speaker’s psyche. The punctuation could also be there to show how he is trying to justify his order to kill her by carefully choosing the words he says to the messenger. Both of these are achieved through pauses.

The speaker is also very self-indulgent. He says that “she ranked/(His) gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name” in a way that she should be happy to be married to someone of such high standing and not rank him against other men, which she probably doesn’t do but in his madness he is unreliable – as is a convention of the dramatic monologue – in the details he gives. His unreliability continues as he says to the envoy that “Even had you skill/In speech – (which I have not)”. This is contradicted as he is able to deliver a speech on his last wife in a seemingly fluent way.

Justification for the killing of the wife is shown just before evidence is given that he had her killed. He says:

Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile?

This is his possessiveness showing up as he tells the guest why he was not happy with her happiness. It was because she would “smile” at other men as she would smile at him as he “passed her”, thus having an affair on him with her single loving smile to all.

The consequences of these smiles are shown in the next sentence: “This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together.” It is rather explicit what this means, but, in an interview, Browning said, “I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death… or he might have had her shut up in a convent.” And so, in death, the Duchess seemed more attractive to the Duke as he was now above her by taking away her life. He now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, so now she only smiles for him.

A previous conversation is carried on as he talks to the envoy, talking to him about the marriage of a count’s daughter – “mine for dowry”, “fair daughter’s self”. This shows that he is ready to move on but he is still loving towards the deceased Duchess. In addition, it shows how he wishes to possess his bride-to-be.

In this poem, Browning has put forward a misogynistic, egocentric point of view. And though he is misogynistic, he still seeks out a wife. This is either because of his egocentrism makes him want to ‘own’ someone or, possibly, he may be a homosexual and wishes others to believe that he is in fact heterosexual, as would happen prior to the times when homosexuality was socially accepted.

Another poem that describes how someone has been let down by a love is Tennyson’s Mariana. Mariana is a poem that was written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in 1830. The title of the poem is based on Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure’, which the line ‘Mariana in the moated grange’ appears, which is where Mariana is during this poem. In the Shakespeare comedy, Mariana waits in the grange for her lover, who has deserted her. At the end of ‘Measure for Measure’, Mariana is re-united with him, though Tennyson’s work has a twist where he never arrives, giving an alternate ending to the play.

Mariana follows a common theme that is in much of Tennyson’s work: that of isolation. The isolation is shown to create madness, which is also common in his poetry. Mariana’s madness is brought upon her isolation within her house which is dilapidated and nature appears to have taken over. This dilapidation gives us an insight into her mind, which appears broken in her madness.

The beginning of the poem opens the scene. The area described seems very neglected and decaying, with “rusted nails” and “broken sheds”. This gives the reader an idea on how long this woman has been waiting in her house and how much she wishes her lover to arrive.

Furthermore, within the opening stanza, isolation is shown. The “Unlifted… clinking latch” shows how she has been left on her own in silence, all alone. In addition, “Upon the lonely moated grange” emphasizes the isolation, as not only is the grange “lonely” but it is also “moated”, as if keeping away others.

Lastly, within the first stanza, there is a great feeling of depression. The first line “With blackest moss the flower-plots” highlights this despair. Blackness is usually associated with misery, which the entire poem is about. With this being in the very first line the poem is disheartening from the very beginning.

Anguish continues to show throughout the rest of the poem. Words and phrases such as “without hope of change”, “walk forlorn” and “dreary” show the reader that her melancholy has consumed her fully.

The gloominess has also affected things around her. The “gray-eyed morn” is a clear indicator of this. It shows us that Mariana cannot be happy at all unless she is with her lover, which is very improbable.

Towards the end of the poem there is sound, though this sound is full of horror. With the “wooing wind” and the “slow clock ticking” and various other sounds it is shown that even though there is now sound, unlike earlier, this sound is not happy sound but it is full of despair and anguish.

The horror is emphasised further with what appears to be a haunting:

Old faces glimmer’d thro’ doors,
Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices called her from without.

This ‘haunting’ could be one of two things: she is being visited by those who she has left behind in waiting for her lover; or this is her madness at a heightened state. Either way, this unseen horror highlights how the loss of her lover has affected her. This is paranoia that has overcome her through the isolation she has been through.

The poem builds up to a crescendo at the end. This is foretold by the animals. Animals are usually the first to know when something terrible happens. “the mouse/…shriek’d” and “The sparrow’s chirrup” gives a sense that something is about to happen.

Throughout every stanza in the poem there are the same last four lines which are altered slightly. This shows the repetitiveness of what she does; that is, she sits there and waits for her lover. It also emphasizes how long she waits, going from night to day and then back to night. The last line “I would that I were dead!” shows her lack of life without her lover. Her lover is the only person she wishes to see, even though “he cometh not”.

The very last stanza has a different last four lines. She says that “I am very dreary” instead of the day, the night or her life, meaning everything has got to her and she has sunk into an all consuming depression and a state of mania. She is also no longer in denial that he may come as she says that “He will not come”.

The last two lines show how her depression has gone to an extreme. Instead of saying that “I am aweary, aweary,” she cries, or as it puts in the poem “wept”. This is followed by her saying “O God, that I were dead!” This shows how she has turned suicidal, she is in mourning and she is actually praying to God to be dead.

Throughout the five poems shown, it can be seen that, through analysis, Tennyson and Browning have portrayed their views of madness and its consequences. Porphyria’s Lover shows of how madness can be brought about by love and social standings. The Sisters also shows how love can create madness, though this time the madness brings about rage. This type of love is a sisterly love. Furthermore, The Laboratory shows how love can spawn jealousy and, combined with madness, can be deadly. There is a further sense of jealousy and love in My Last Duchess, where murder is not entirely explicit. However, the jealousy in this poem does not seem as justified as that in The Laboratory.

Lastly, Mariana shows how madness can come out of total isolation after being let down by a love. All of these poems convey different senses of madness. The ways in which madness is conveyed can also be seen in later literature, such as Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. A few examples of this include: Miss Havisham has been let down by a love and spends her life in isolation (Mariana); she uses her adopted daughter, Estella, to lure men into loving her (The Sisters); Estella’s and Pip’s class boundaries get in the way of their relationship (Porphyria’s Lover).

This book was made after these poems were written, therefore Charles Dickens may have got some of his ideas from these. This shows how Tennyson’s and Browning’s view of madness was present within the Victorian era. This view still applies in today’s society.