A closer look into the Bishop

A Further Look into the Bishop

            Robert Browning uses the men of the cloth many times to express the questioning of the institution of religion. Many times the idea of this institution is so one sided only allowing to see these men as perfect and without any sin. However, Robert Browning wants to shed a new light on this issue and does so through the poem The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church. The poem was written in Rome in 1842, but is takes place in the 15^th century. The poem is a longer use of dramatic monologue used by Browning to allow the audience to see deeper into the speaker of the Bishop. Throughout this poem Robert Browning is describing the higher arch of a man in the church that is supposed to be a symbol of good and faithfulness, but is showing all the signs to evil and a loss of faith. Creating this dramatic monologue of a Bishop allows an audience to see the error of judgment in entrusting all faith and confidence into such a broken institution with leaders that are misfit.

            Browning sets this scene from the beginning of loved ones around a man that is one his death bed, and even in the first stanza the audience knows that this man is some sort of man of faith. However, the questioning of how faithful this faith is still up for question when he say “Nephews—sons mine…ah God, I know not! Well—She men would have to be your mother once, Old Gandolf envied me, so fair she was!” (Browning, 3). This part of the poem shows the fall that this, later to find Bishop, has during his life. The readers are able to see the flaws in the Bishop and his morality; however, he struggles to see the same sort of issue within himself. Browning is cleaver to use the literary tactics of dashes and exclamation points to show the confusion that is the Bishop’s state of mind. This confusion puts the reader in internal thoughts of the Bishop setting the audience up for the changes that will take place in the dramatic monologue. Due to this inside view the reader is let in on the secrets that the Bishop shares giving that personal insight and allowing new light to be shed on the situation that he has created. The use of a Bishop committing one of the biggest sins that could take place in the church shows that loss of faith. The reader is able to see the Bishop’s unknowing of the sins that he has committed when he states, “dead long ago, and I am Bishop since, and as she died so must we die ourselves, and thence ye may perceive the world’s dream.” This unfaithfulness is given to the audience from the very beginning allowing them to see the true man that is hiding behind this title of a Bishop. In churches during this time Bishops were seen as some of the holiest men and given power due to this divine right they were given more power. Therefore, by Browning revealing this new side he is hoping to evoke the audience with a new perception of this Bishop to utilize throughout the rest of the novel.

            The next part defines the true selfishness that this Bishop is presenting to the audience. The Bishop is defining what a wonderful legacy through his tomb he wants to leave for later generations to view. He describes his exact wants: “And I shall fill my slab of basalt there, and ‘neath my tabernacle take my rest, with those nine columns round me, two and two, the odd one at my feet where Anselm stands: Peach-blossom marble all, the rare the ripe as fresh-poured red wine of a mighty pulse” (Browning, 25). Browning uses the very descriptive word choice in this section to allow the audience to know the superiority of the place where he will be buried. Knowing that a Bishop should want the greater good over individual greed makes this section so vital to the poem. With descriptive use of the exact kind of idea the audience is being given by Browning they are able know the true man playing into the fact that an audience is only able to see this side through something like dramatic monologue. This envision of the over the top and excessive need to have all the royals even in death shows the geed that the Bishop has so deeply embedded within himself. The use of a Bishop showing this greed even in death is cleaver tactic to question what is truly important to the man. What should have the most importance to a man of faith in this type of situation of death should be that they are going to be lifted up into their eternal resting place with their master. However, this Bishop is more concerned with the fact that he needs to keep his standing as a master through the over the top vision of his grave. This is great representation of the Bishop being more concerned with the fact of what is being portrayed on the outside more than anything else. The irony that Browning is creating has the readers wonder motives of the Bishop and wonder what is truly important to this man that tells everyone else what is supposed to be important in their own lives. How can this man’s word, who is a spokesman for the institution of religion, be trusted as a man of God?

            The next section deals with the Bishop’s overwhelming obsession with “Old Gandolf.” The repletion that Browning uses to mention this dead man shows the great obsession that the Bishop has regarding this man. When he talks about Old Gandolf the pure act of arrogance and obsession shines through to show the audience what is important to the Bishop in his last moments of death. When Browning writes, “Old Gandolf with his paltry onion- stone put me where I may look at him! True peach, rosy and flawless: how I earned the prize!” he is allowing the audience to see what the Bishop is trying to compete with. However, the irony is that Old Gandolf is dead and when the Bishop is competing they both will be dead. The irony that is used gives the audience the idea of what values matter to the Bishop. Therefore, the audience is once again able to see a twisted moral code and evilness that is held true within the Bishop.

            The final section has the audience very much questioning the amount of sanity that the Bishop has and what kind of truth he is sharing with the audience. The audience can get the feeling of his craziness through him saying, “Do I live, am I dead? There, leave me, there! For ye have stabbed me with ingratitude to death—ye wish it—God ye wish it!” (Browning, 113).  Browning is using the dashes and exclamation points once again at the end to show true loss of sanity in the Bishop while he is talking. Making this use of punctuation can hint to the audience that the Bishop might not be aware of what he is revealing to them; therefore an ugly truth in the dramatic monologue can be revealed. This question of how sane the Bishop is when he does not even know if he is alive or dead can raise many questions with the audience. The speaker might be saying all these horrendous sins that he committed due to the fact that he is not thinking straight enough to be able to hide these sins as he has been doing so well before the insanity has sunk into his brain. Allowing the audience to see the vulnerable side of the Bishop allows them to also see the untrusting side of him that shines through. The questioning of whether or not he would share these secrets if he was fully sane can relate back to the church and their use hiding the sins and truth so that the public cannot see this side of the institution. Therefore, Browning’s use of reveling these problems and evil side only in a moment of weakness shows the audience what the institution has to hide from the public. This puts the audience in the position to question what lies are being hidden form them within this institution.

            Throughout this poem Browning tests different literary elements to engage the audience. These tactics play nicely with the dramatic monologue to show the true thoughts of the Bishop and allow the audience full access to the inner workings of the psyche of the Bishop. Once Browning shows this darker side of the Bishop he is gearing the audience to be able to see the way that they should question investing all trust into the religious institution. If the audience is able to see this tainted side of the institution then they are able to finally think for themselves. If the audience is able to make their own decisions a society that thinks for themsevesl is now created.   

Works Cited

Browning, Robert. "The Bishop Orders His Tombat St. Praxed's Church." Browning, Robert. Robert Browning's Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 2007. 126-130. Poem.

Presentation Blog

The article I read was Crafting Social Infanticide on The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point and Aurora Leigh by Sarah H. Ficke. In this article I mainly focused on the use of infanticide in literature and then how that use in literature shows through in the poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point. Infanticide is defined as the crime of killing a child within a year of birth. This is something that is not only a crime and taboo in societies, but a tactic that writers used to utilize audience’s emotions through their writing.

The article starts to discuss the use of infanticide in British literature. The use was to discuss infanticide being the evidence that the legal system was failing so greatly that this was the outcome. Many British authors used the thought of shame that was used in society to show how desperate women felt in society leading them to the desperation of infanticide. The article talked about how the Poor Law Act of 1834 was a very important part of the government regarding the use of infanticide in literature. This act made things even harder for women with child out of wedlock than they already had previously. This set a very big impact on authors to share the side of desperation of these women creating the side of sympathy rather than judgment. This is one side that Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses in her writing.

Another way that infanticide is used in literature is in American literature. This side is changed from the British use because it discusses more of the side of a slave that commits infanticide. This changed a greater perspective of a slave as a whole. The way that authors changed the slave into a person and a mother the audience gains a further understanding of the woman and her use of infanticide. The articles find very good focus of slaves losing their right to be maternal. This lose makes it so that the sympathy is yet again found between the audience and the mother. Being able to relate to what life they have been forced into makes the sympathy easier to find because it is now seen that there is no other way to turn to.

Barrett Browning discusses infanticide in her poem The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point and does it in a new way. The author in the article discusses the use of the slave being the narrator in the poem. Giving this full view from a slave mother committing infanticide changed the way that this writing was done at this time. This gave the inside eye and created a new kind of sympathy that women felt was their only way to deal with this birth of the child. Barrett Browning’s way of creating this inside look of a fight within a woman to never want her child to experience the life a slavery and feeling there was only one way around this makes an audience feel the desperation. The author of the article discusses that Barrett Browning might have been also discussing the idea of these women going mad. However this was something that Barrett Browning refuted; however, it can almost go hand in hand with the sympathy. Even if this was not the idea that Barrett Browning was trying to discuss it can help her idea of sympathy because it drove the woman that far into this desperation. Whether the reader sees the madness or the desperation sympathy for the slave is created overall.

The Runaway Slave

                The first poem I looked at was the poem by Maria Lowell called The Slave-mother. This poem explored the idea that a woman that gives birth to a child while in slavery has no right to the child. This is a play on pathos because of all the emotions that any mother can relate to. However, the fact is that any woman in slavery does not have any other choice but to have no right to their children. This is heartbreaking that mother cannot even feel like they have a new gift of life through a child. However, many of these women feel guilt and are scared for the upcoming lives for their children. This is something that Elizabeth Barrett Browning explores in her poem The Runaway Slave.

                The next part that I looked at was The Literary World that was writing a critique on Barrett Browning’s poem The Runaway Slave. This criticism is degrading Barrett Browning’s work due to her use of addressing the issue of slavery onto America as a whole. The writer thinks that only the states that utilize slavery should be included in the piece instead of America as a whole. However I think that defeats the purpose of the poem all together. Barrett Browning might argue to this critic that even though the Northern states are not taking part in owning actual slaves the fact that they are not taking part in a way to help end slavery in the south makes them responsible. This is the purpose of the poem to make awareness and spread a desire to end slavery.

                The final portion of Appendix C that I looked at was Charlotte Forten discussing Barrett Browning’s poem The Runaway Slave. Different to the critique before, this section discusses the wonderful emotional appeal that the poem achieves for readers. The section mentions the idea of suffering being so descriptive in the poem and the sympathy that is therefore created for the speaker. This is achieving that goal of Barrett Browning because the awareness of slavery is not only addressed, but an emotion that effects the want for change is ignited in the audience whether or not they are directly involved in slavery.

Casa Guidi Windows Reviews

                The criticism from “Mrs. Browning’s New Poem” discusses some very interesting points on the poem Casa Guidi Windows. The fact that the poem is written in more than one part at very different times is a point that is up for discussion. The author mentions the fact that the first half shows a great deal of emotion and creates the sad picture for the audience. However, the authors states “the whole first part is inferior” when it is compared to the second part. I believe that the usage of the different timings had a great deal to do with the change in tone and type of writing that Barrett Brown used. I think the fact that the later part allowed time for her to gain more perspective and experience changing from the irrational and emotional tone of the writing.

                The emotional side of Barrett Browning’s writing is mentioned again in a criticism by Henry Fothergill Chorley. However, this is not mentioned in a very good light. He says that she is too emotional and irrational when writing. He does not like her constant use of politics in poem form. I however, think that this adds to her creativity. Politics is usually something that is seen strictly as factual and does not include much creativity. Therefore, when someone like Barrett Browning shines an artistic side to it she finds her own style and creativity to writing. This is a trend that many writers have tried or are trying to perfect, and Barrett Browning set a great example of a way to follow.

                The criticism from Giuseppe Mazzini is very interesting in the way that he describes the way that Barrett Browning decided to pull an audience into her writings. She is using her pen as her own weapon in this war. Then he goes onto describe how the church then the government had the ruling, but Barrett Browning changes those ideas in her writing. By Barrett Browning making a political difference with something such as poetry she is giving herself a voice to stand against what she does not agree with. Then by using these poems to speak out and inform readers she is hoping to give them that chance to have a voice as well. People having a fair chance is what Barrett Browning is working towards in such a creative way of writing.

Religion and Elizabeth Barrett Browning

            The reviews from The Guardian is stating the fact that Elizabeth Barrett Browning has made the speaker so religiously forward and shares this religious outlook with the audience. However, the reviewer is pointing out the fact that the audience cannot get their own religious views mixed up with what the speaker is portraying. These discussions that take place during this religious debate are very original according to the reviewer. The way that the reviewer points out the importance of not getting lost in what the speaker is trying to portray and what the audience should actually feel shows the way that literature can manipulate readers. The audience must be able to draw their own conclusions and make their own assumptions.

            The review by Samuel B. Holcombe is a rave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s style and art of writing as a whole. The comparisons that Holcombe makes between Elizabeth and famous writers such as Shakespeare and Tenyson show the true admiration that Holcombe had for her writing. He loves the balance and knowledge that she shows with religion, but is still able to demonstrate her poetic fashion. This shows the new innovation that Elizabeth’s writing is able to bring to the literature world. The fact that Holconbe is making Elizabeth, a woman writer, such an importance shows the new impact that has been made on writing. Giving a woman writer at this time this role is a new breakthrough for the literature world.

            When Hannah Lawrance reviews the work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning she focuses on the images and vividness that is being so clearly drawn out through the poetry. She even says that Elizabeth is “bringing to life the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.” This bringing to life aspect is helpful when thinking about Elizabeth’s style because it shows the depth and development that she uses to relate an audience to her work. The art of her changing the meaning of the Virgin Mary to show more agony and pain is different and helps deliver a whole new meaning to religious beliefs. Elizabeth is very talented in making religious context fit into the original way of perceiving Christianity; however, she very beautifully adds a new twist to allow the audience to ponder new ideas of the practices.