Read the following from The Norton Anthology of English Literature,Volume E:
“The Victorian Age” pp.979-93
Tennyson biography pp.1109-12
Mariana pp.1112-14
The Lady of Shallot pp.1114-18
Browning biography pp.1248-52
Porphyria’s Lover pp.1252-53
My Last Duchess pp.1255-56
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed’s pp.1259-62
Dickens biography pp.1236-39
A Visit to Newgate pp.1239-48
Coketown pp.1573-4
What do you think of what has happened in The Lady of Shallot? What do you make of the fact that she writes her name on the prow of the boat that would become her deathbed? What do you make of Tennyson’s poetic view of women in general, and does this fit with what you read in the introduction to the Victorian Period?
Both Porphyria and the Duchess in the first two poems from Browning seem to wind up dead. But Browning seems to have a very different style and take on the things that are happening with these women than Tennyson. What do you make of this?
