How do Duffy and Browning reveal the characters of their narrators

The two poems, "Stealing" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, will be compared and contrasted on the ways that the poets reveal their narrator's personalities and how they express their feelings towards their surroundings and lives. In the poem "Stealing", the narrator, an outcast to society, decides to steal a snowman because he is in need of a friend. The narrator appears disturbed and behaves in an anti-social manner. In "Porphyria's lover", the narrator awaits for his lover, Porphyria, who returns from a social gathering.Porphyria is married and is having an affair with the narrator.

Then the narrator strangles her. The fact that they are both outcasts to society provides a useful starting point for comparison. There are numerous differences and similarities between the narrators such as, the way how both narrators are isolated from society and, at different points in the poems; they become cut-off from human contact.However, the narrator in "Stealing" has to create a "mate" (the snowman) because he is unable to communicate with other humans: I wanted him, a mate" The use of colloquial slang, "mate", emphasises how he addresses the reader, and it is sad because it shows that the narrator is lonely and is desperately in need of a friend, so desperate that he has to resort to lifeless objects. In "Porphyria's Lover", the narrator has a "mate" but becomes over obsessed by the fact that at that moment when she is sitting by his side, Porphyria was his and he wanted to keep it that way forever instead of her going back to her husband.

He becomes so transfixed by this that he decides to kill her, to keep the situation in that state, and is completely in denial about the fact that she was in pain: "That moment she was mine, mine, fair.... ..

.. I warily opened her lids: again Laugh'd the blue eyes without a stain. " The narrator has just killed his lover to keep her with him and when he checks to see if she is dead, he is cautious of what to expect, and when he sees her eyes bulging after being strangled he merely sees her eyes laughing at him and feels no regret for what he did.Both narrators cannot cope with human relationships and the results of this are peculiar and shocking actions. So the narrator of "Stealing" creates a "mate", whereas the narrator of "Porphyria's lover" destroys a "mate," but both actions are for the same reason of not wanting to be lonely again.

Another similarity is that both of the narrators believe that they have justification for the crimes that they have committed. The narrator in "Stealing" says that he was bored. "Boredom.Mostly I'm so bored I could eat myself. " Here the narrator says that his boredom was the main reason for his actions.

Whereas the narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" twists the poem into a form of mercy killing, making it out that Porphyria wished to die for the narrator so they could be together forever, and he believes himself that what he did was not wrong because God has not given any signs: "And give herself to me for ever... ...

her darling one wish would be heard... .

.. And yet God has not said a word. "The quotes show how he narrates as if she wanted to "give herself" to him and how her "wish" of wanting to die, was so she could be forever with him. The narrator is the happiest he's ever been and shows no remorse towards what he did and clarifies that if what he did was wrong, God would have given a sign.

This shows that the distinction between our, and the two narrators' perceptions of their actions, emphasises how their characters are deranged and the reason for them being so lonely and cut off from human society and why they both need a "Mate".The Narrators' reactions to the destruction that they cause vary greatly, but are both very revealing in the way that they show why they are outcasts to society. In "Stealing" the Narrator doesn't gain anything out of the destruction of the snowman: "he didn't look the same. I took a run and booted him. Again.

Again. My breath ripped out in rags. It seems daft now. Then I was standing alone amongst lumps of snow, sick of the world. " The quote shows that the narrator feels empty and bitter at his destruction of the snowman, and thinks that his actions were "daft".He almost seems to regret what he did and his ideas at the time, of being "sick of the world" were stupid which shows that he may have a little more sanity than the narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" who is the happiest he's ever been after killing Porphyria: "And I, its love, am gained instead!.

.. ...

And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirr'd And yet God has not said a word! " The Narrator is overjoyed at his actions and in a way is self-interested that he got what he wanted and shows no regret for killing a person.Both Narrators are outcasts because they commit unusual actions for unusual reasons but the Narrator of "Pophyria's Lover" seems to take his actions to a higher extremity than the other narrator; and yet they both do it for loneliness. There is a difference in the use of rhyme and forms of narration in the poems, and this emphasizes the way that you are meant to read them and listen to the narrator speaking. The Narrator's lack of a rhyme scheme in the poem "Stealing" makes the poem sound more spoken: The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman.Midnight.

He looked magnificent; a tall white mute Beneath the winter moon. I wanted him, a mate" Also the way he addresses the reader with the question: "The most unusual thing I ever stole? " which makes you feel as if he were facing you and talking to you directly. His use of colloquial slang in "mate" which we have already discussed also helps this theory, and his continuous use of enjambment makes you think he has to pause every so often a think about what he has to say.This makes his personality more realistic and it gives us a strong sense of the narrator's character. However, the Narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" has a rhyme scheme and the effect of this is that it sounds much more calculated and manipulative, almost hypnotic which leads up to us revealing his demented psychotic character. The "flow" of the poem, due to the rhyme scheme also helps the atmosphere build up to a crescendo when he strangles her: "The rain set early in to-night,The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm tops down for spite, And did its worse to vex the lake:" Both Narrators have differences in their narrative style and characters and as well as showing who is speaking or not, it shows that the Narrator whose poem flows more has more control than the narrator who has many pauses and sounds unsure with his own words.

However, just because the Narrator in "Porphyria's Lover" does possess control, this does not necessarily mean that he is the sanest.The appearance of caesuras in both poems has different effects. In "Porphyria's Lover", the use of a caesura creates a pause after an element of surprise: "And strangled her: No pain felt she;" The poet uses the caesura right after we had been told the Narrator has killed the one person he loves. (This is not what we were expecting).

The caesura is there to help the shock sink in.However the use of a caesura in "Stealing" is to pause before something that builds a feeling of suspense, in this case, before an unexpected answer: The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman" Although both poets use their caesuras in different ways, it may be possible that they both use them to bring out the same characteristics of their Narrators. The poet in "Stealing" might be trying to keep his listeners in suspense to keep them there because the narrator is still desperate for a mate. Similarly, the Poet of "Porphyria's lover" might use his caesura to keep his listeners there and the caesura helps this.So they both may be trying to keep their listeners there because they are lonely. Or this could be used to create a sense of melodrama, to tease the audience or in "Stealing's" case, implied listener.

Both poets also use personification; however the Narrator of "Porphyria's lover" uses it in reverse, (he makes a living thing into something inanimate) and describes it in this way too: "The smiling rosy little head, So glad it has its utmost will, That all it scorn'd at once is fled,And I, its love, am gain'd instead! " Countless times in that quote, he refers to Porphyria as "it" or "the"; this suggests that Porphyria is certainly dead and that he treats her now as an object or a prize even, that he is so content after "winning". The use of the dehumanisation in this section supports the fact that the Narrator realises that he has killed Porphyria , but refuses to believe that she died in pain and is gladly disillusional by the fact that she is now his forever.The use of personification in "Stealing" is intended to relate to the way that the Narrator treats a lifeless object (the snowman) as a real person: "I wanted him, a mate" The Narrator recalls the snowman as "him" which shows how he is so desperate for a "mate" that he is forcing himself to believe that the snowman is actually a real person even though he subconsciously knows that it is only a snowman because earlier in the poem he refers to his actions as "unusual".Both Narrators see their "victims" as opposites to what they actually are, which supports the fact that they are both disturbed but only for the reason of being lonely, or it may be for the reason that he is obsessed, power-mad and insanely possessive.

The poem that I enjoyed reading most was "Porphyria's lover". This is because although "Stealing" was a lot easier to relate to, as the language was less complicated to understand and his personality and actions were less extreme, I found that "Porphyria's lover" had a much more dramatic story to it.The poem expressed the depths of emotion more forcefully by the use of a less simplistic language. The Narrator in "Porphyria's lover" inspired more interest in me than the Narrator in "Stealing", maybe this was because he seemed much more disturbed, which opened a new deranged system of perception which I have never experienced before or maybe simply because it was a lot more challenging to analyse and discover the reasons for his murderous actions. However I thoroughly enjoyed comparing both of them as each poem was interesting in their own right and explored the complex and darker side of the human mind.