Topic > Comparative analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning and The Lion's Skin by Michael Ondaatje

“We are all storytellers. We all live in a web of stories. There is no connection between people stronger than storytelling." When you see this quote, an image probably comes to mind of people in society, in our daily lives, telling each other stories about what they experienced that day or what happened in the past, which creates a connection, a better relationship. intuition about that person. However, another way in which a connection can be created between people through storytelling is through different textual forms. The two texts I compare today are Robert Browning's poetry, My Last Duchess and Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion. And through these 2 texts, as readers, we can establish a connection with the composers and understand the message they are trying to convey to us by telling stories, through various methods, in this case, a novel and a poem. After analyzing these two texts, one of the themes I felt the composers had tried to convey was the social hierarchy experienced in these related texts. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Robert Browning's poem, My Last Duchess, questions society's views towards women in 19th-century Victorian England. Set in the Italian Renaissance, My Last Duchess highlights its patriarchal society and invites readers to criticize the values ​​presented. Browning shares the dominant male view of women through a dramatic monologue, showing the possessive nature of the Duke who objectifies the Duchess in the painting, "that piece is a marvel, now". His authoritarian character is further expressed in the painting of the Duke's last Duchess, which symbolizes the Duke's jealousy and reputation against his last Duchess's promiscuity. Browning uses verbal irony, in “She had / A heart – how shall I put it? – too soon made happy, / Too easily impressed”, to exemplify that the duke states a sentence completely opposite to the literal meaning. So, through this, Browning foregrounds Victorian attitudes towards women. Additionally, the allusion “Note Neptune, though, taming a seahorse” uses Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, to represent the power the duke possesses, which is used on a delicate and vulnerable seahorse symbolizing the ultimate duchess. Browning tells her perspective in her poetry to share her views on women's expectations, reinforcing that narratives are powerful means of imparting opinions to authors and welcoming readers to establish their opinions. While Browning himself attempted to convey his perspective, the poem's main protagonist also told his own story. The duke, through his monologue, speaks both to a character present in the poem, but also to the readers of the poem, conveying his exquisite tastes in women and art, to encourage his ego, highlighting his wealth and status social above its last duchess. .In In the Skin of a Lion, through the lens of introverted protagonist Patrick Lewis, Ondaatje metaphorically communicates his ideas regarding immigrant culture and the mistreatment of immigrants in Canada in the early 20th century. Ondaatje's abandonment of chronological stability throughout the text, in which multiple perspectives are seen, reminds readers how perspective can give voice to the story's hidden decisions. The terrible working conditions of migrant workers, a condition that history has chosen to.