Browning's Dramatic Monologue: the Strategy of the Double Mask

Browning's method in the dramatic monologue is grounded in a system of objectification which allows the poet to remove himself as a personality from the poem. This is accomplished through a process of double masking. In addition to the primary creation of the character or speaker, there exists...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Victorian poetry 1973-07, Vol.11 (2), p.115-125
Main Author: Garratt, Robert F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Consuls
Dramatic monologues
Literary criticism
Monologues
Paints
Persona
Persuasion
Poetry
Spoken communication
Victorians
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Summary:Browning's method in the dramatic monologue is grounded in a system of objectification which allows the poet to remove himself as a personality from the poem. This is accomplished through a process of double masking. In addition to the primary creation of the character or speaker, there exists a secondary creation, a mask, which the speaker uses in dealing with the dramatic situation in the poem. The speaker's use of this mask is in the form of a rhetorical strategy, designed to conceal some aspect of the speaker's personality and to replace it with another more favorable to the speaker's purpose. The concept of the double mask is paralleled by the theory of masks developed by W. B. Yeats in "A Vision." Yeats's system of masks and personalities offers insight into Browning's method of characterization in the monologues. The various masks chosen by Browning's characters demonstrate much of their personalities and their world views. Browning's method, the deliberate strategy of a character playing a character, focuses the reader's attention on the dramatic context of the poem and distinguishes the speaker's personality from the poet's.
ISSN:0042-5206