Dialogue In Monologue

The dramatic monologue is a unique poetic form in English literature.As a genre term,it derives directly from the poetry and poetry comments of the Victorian poet Robert Browning,even though this type of poetry has long been in existence.Browning's dramatic monologue highlights his objectification of the subjective world,which has been a typical way of exploring the self for English poets since the Victorian Age.Browning's double-consciousness makes the monologue double voiced and contain multiple dialogues: dialogues of the speaker with himself,with each other and with the world,as well as dialogues of the author with the speaker,with the world,and with literary tradition.They are closely connected and mutually promoted.The inner dialogue enables the speaker to develop his character with a logic of its own,quite independent of Browning's control yet embodying his typical social milieu.Browning never speaks in his poetry but indirectly through the speaker's speech,expressing his views on Victorian social reality.At the same time,Browning takes the speaker as his second consciousness so as to conduct dialogues with himself.The dramatic monologue is the most effective way of self-exploration for Browning.Applying Bahktin's dialogism,psychoanalysis,deconstruction,Neo-historicism,poetic aesthetics,and the New Criticism,this dissertation studies the dialogues within Browning's dramatic monologues in his representative works.Apart from Introduction and Conclusion,it contains four chapters.The Introduction presents the significance of the study,the nature of the dramatic monologue,a reviewof Browning studies both at home and abroad,the methods of this study,and the structure and major views of the dissertation.The first chapter defines the dramatic monologue from the perspective of the English poetic tradition so as to lay foundation for further discussions.Since the dramatic monologue poet is the first to conduct self-exploration consciously in an objective way in English literature,the tradition of self-exploration needs foremost notice.The Romantic lyric poet inclines to explore the self by creating the self,thus introducing the concepts of subjective poetry and objective poetry into English literature.The dramatic monologue inherits the Romantic lyric's concern for psychological exploration,while at the same time rejects its monologic nature.The dramatic monologue poet objectifies his own views on speakers drastically different from himself,objectively portrays speakers,and indirectly voices his social criticism.The poem thus becomes a double voiced word,simultaneously containing the voice of the poet and that of the speaker.Therefore,the dramatic monologue has two basic features: the speaker “I” being not the poet and its double voices.The strong double consciousness in poetry writing by poets,especially by Browning,leads to dialogue within monologue on multiple levels.If the Romantic lyric exhibits the poet's self-creation,the dramatic monologue the poet's dialogues of objectivity.Based on Browning's emphasis on “the development of the soul,”the second chapter analyzes inner dialogues of the speaker,disclosing Browning's self-exploration from his understanding and presentation of human psychology.Browning's dramatic monologues always take place in the present,but different from that in the Romantic lyric,the present inthe dramatic monologue is closely related with the speaker's past.Dialogues between the present and the past create an open psychological space,preparing for “the development of the soul.” The lyrical present is the starting point from which Browning rebels against his Romantic predecessors.The lyrical moment is replaced by the dramatic moment,breaking the unified subject into fragments.The divided speaker is pressed by the dramatic moment to unconsciously reveal his second consciousness “you,” which subverts his exquisitely self-constructed image and exposes his true character.The “I-you” conflict highlights second consciousness' s formative power,providing the motive for “the development of the soul.” This second consciousness has many identities yet mysterious and strong,embodying basic features of the unconscious in the theory of modern psychology.The unconsciousness is in ceaseless ironical dialogue with the consciousness,bursting out spontaneously at some moments,which objectively pushes and shows the speaker to develop his soul without his knowledge.The speaker's inner dialogue exhibits the dynamic and developing self,which not only captures man's inner reality,but allows him to develop independent of Browning's intervention,demonstrating the poet's objectivity in both content and technique.The third chapter chooses Browning's favorite theme of history,focusing on his reactions towards social context through the speaker's micro-dialogues and macro-dialogues.Deeply affected by the age's general spirit of doubt,Browning denies that words can represent real things,trying to unveil the subjectivity in history and insisting that outside reality is largely determined by inner reality.His speakers aremostly people living in transitional periods,fashioned by time's contradictory ideologies.He tries to reflect social reality from their inner reality in the process of them being socially fashioned,exposing the inhuman ideologies in their micro-dialogues or macro-dialogues.Their psychological reality serves as an “internal distance” to reproduce social reality not only in history,but of Victorian England.In this way Browning objectively portrays Victorian society and indirectly voices his social criticism.Reality,especially psychological reality constitutes the objective content and “inner distance”the objectifying method in his dramatic monologue.The fourth chapter discusses Browning's poetic self by analyzing his dialogues on poetics.Western literature has a long history of defining the poet by truth.Deeply influenced by Neoplatonism and Evangelicalism,Browning sincerely believes in the existence of truth,around which he constructs his poetic identity.For him,truth exists in the mind as well as in reality.Dialogues with himself are thus conducted between the two worlds,making his poetry more and more objective in content.At the same time,he needs to keep a balance between truth's individual vision and its universality,experimenting on many methods to achieve objectivity,such as the center of consciousness,epiphany,irony,and symbolism.In creating The Ring and the Book particularly,Browning dynamically combines the objective poet and the subjective poet,artistically demonstrating the concept of the “whole poet,” and uses the shape of “ring” to symbolize his “three-layered monistic” truth.Following a self-exploration tradition which has been present since the beginning of English literature,his idea of truth manifests individualfeatures typical of the age and achieves a new level of humanism.The dissertation concludes that Browning's dramatic monologue dramatizes his objectification of self-exploration with dialogue in monologue.The multiple-level dialogues not only highlight his humanism in promoting inclusiveness,but also stress the intrinsic qualities of a poem which emphasize man's creativity in using poetry for self-exploration.The dramatic monologue thus is not a poetic genre only,but a dialogic spirit,a way to think about the world and explore the self.It has cast tremendous influence on modernist literature and modern criticism.