Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Discussion of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxedââ¬â¢s Church, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister and Confessions - Literature Essay Samples
Robert Browning ubiquitous examination of religious authority and its shortcomings becomes apparent within the very title of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxedââ¬â¢s Church. The religious reference to Saint Praxed carries ironic connotations, as whilst Saint Praxed herself was chaste, the monologist subverts his priestly requirements and engages in sexual acts. Therefore Browning here highlights the hypocritical nature of the religious figures of the time. While religious authorities of Browningââ¬â¢s time period espoused values of loving oneââ¬â¢s neighbour, both The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxedââ¬â¢s Church and Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister deconstruct such doctrines as further evidence of religious duplicity. Ironically referencing his own ââ¬Å"Peaceâ⬠, the Bishop of the former poem exclaims ââ¬Å"God curse the same!â⬠. Emphasized by the exclamation mark, the vituperative application of the Catholic deity against the Bishopââ¬â¢s n emesis, Gandolf, is depicted by Browning to demonstrate the disrespect and disregard of supposedly devout figures for the very cornerstones of their faith. In a similar fashion, the narrator of the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister refers to Brother Lawrence as a ââ¬Å"Manicheeâ⬠, a non-vocative pejorative epithet used in order to denigrate Lawrence as an adherent to dual religions, and therefore of inferior commitment to Christianity. However, the narrator himself references ââ¬Å"Galatiansâ⬠as a justification for the prospective murder of Lawrence, and is therefore used by Browning to undermine the use of biblical texts as authorities. Along with this deconstruction of religion, Browningââ¬â¢s poems are linked by their depiction of moral decay, clear within the initial line of Confessions. The ââ¬Å"buzzingâ⬠in the ears of the narrator is in fact an intertextual reference to Christopher Marloweââ¬â¢s Dr Faustus. Due to this, the gerund used by Browning invokes a satanic presence in the death-bed confession of the narrator, and suggests an underlying malevolence in the narratorââ¬â¢s being. In addition to this, the anapaests within the line ââ¬Å"Do I view the world as a vale of tears?â⬠, indicative of a discomfort in speaking on the matter at hand, also serve to differentiate it from the other lines in the stanza. This demarcation is used by Browning to suggest that the narratorââ¬â¢s perspective upon life has entered a realm of alterity solidified by the facetious nature of his unction due to his lack of remorse and signifying the moral decay at hand. The Bishop of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxedââ¬â¢s Church, while idiosyncratic, presents a further example of this aforementioned decay. The simile ââ¬Å"Blue as a vein oââ¬â¢er the Madonnaââ¬â¢s breastâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ , sexualizes the Virgin Mary, and the concluding aposiopesis is added by Browning to signify a venture into sexual fantasy regarding the ââ¬Å"Madonnaâ⬠, a notion wholly morally void for a religious figure. This mental and moral corruption is mirrored in the language of the poem, as the Bishop refers to a congregation as a ââ¬Å"conflagrationâ⬠. A symbolic solecism, Browning here highlights that the failure of the Bishop to adequately articulate himself coincides with his failure to acknowledge his immorality. A similar degree of egocentricity and tarnished self-awareness is evident in the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. While attempting to illuminate his devotion in speaking of his focus upon ââ¬Å"Jesuââ¬â¢s praiseâ⬠in the fifth stanza, by the sixth the narr ator approaches Brother Lawrenceââ¬â¢s flowers and ââ¬Å"Keep[s] them close-nipped on the sly!â⬠With the exclamation mark highlighting enthusiasm of the narrator, the adverbial phrase ââ¬Å"on the slyâ⬠is used by Browning to demonstrate the narratorââ¬â¢s concession to deception, despite his supposedly moral foundations. Ultimately, Browning explores love in its various expressions, and its ability to be applied to a wide spectrum of divergent human experiences. Confessions narrates a scandalous love story that transgressed the socio-religious boundaries of the time, from this perspective exploring love to exceed hegemonic restrictions. Browning develops emotional weight for the relationship through romanticising its setting; the ââ¬Å"rose-wreathed gateâ⬠in particular functions as a poetic clichà © that nevertheless fortifies the love present between the narrator and the partner. Succeeding this, the tricolon of monosyllabic rhyming adjectives in ââ¬Å"How sad and bad and mad it wasâ⬠is implemented by Browning to reduce the negative experiences of life linguistically. The final line of the concluding stanza, ââ¬Å"But then, how it was sweet!â⬠nostalgically emotionalizez the positive memories of love through the exclamation mark. Conversely, the Bishop of The Bishop Orders His T omb at Saint Praxedââ¬â¢s Church bestows superficial and materialistic elements of his life with his love. Browningââ¬â¢s preponderance of references to minerals such as ââ¬Å"basaltâ⬠and the valuable gemstone ââ¬Å"lapis lazuliâ⬠highlight that even when confronting his own transience, his focus and adoration remains solely upon the material elements of life on earth. Furthermore, the pathetic fallacy evident in the narrator referring to his ââ¬Å"brave Frascati villaâ⬠is included by Browning to signal both the narratorââ¬â¢s compromised mental state, as well as adulation for his material belongings, rather than the humanity that surrounds him, such as his illegitimate son Anselm.
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