Interweaving Power Discourse: An Analysis of Dynamic Interaction Between the Dramatic Monologue and Imago of Confinement in My Last Duchess and Andrea Del Sarto

Abstract

Robert Browning, based on a story and a painting, reconstructed the inner voices of the story's protagonist and the figures in the painting within his poetry. His skillful use of "dramatic monologue" provided a stage for the characters' inner activities, and the image of confinement set the stage for conflicts between the characters and the flow of power discourse. This interactive and intertwined "dual stage" enhances the power of narrative and dramatic elements in Browning's poetry. The purpose of this paper is to find out the closed imagery employed by Robert Browning in My Last Duchess and Andrea del Sarto combined with Foucault's concept of "power discourse" to analyze how they interact and the change of "power discourse" in protagonist within the dramatic monologues, and further explore "transgression" within two poems. The author finds that the dramatic monologue offers a "big stage" for the conflict. Still, reading Browning's poetry needs to pay more attention to the "small stage" provided by the closed imagery, where the speaker who holds the power of speech changes his identity with the closed imagery and achieves the "transgression" through it.