Option #2

The speaker in T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” appears to be a man who is having an internal battle with himself. The lines “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo./ And indeed there will be time/ To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?’” (35-38) illustrates how the speaker often wonders what would happen if he actually engage in a conversation with a woman. However, he answers himself by assuming that he will only suffer rejection from these women. He appears to be tormented with thoughts of what he could have done. This provides the idea that the speaker is an introverted and timid person. He often worries about his actions and how society would judge him base on them. Also the speaker claims that “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;/ Am an attendant lord, one that will do/ To swell a progress, start a scene or two,” (113-115). By this comparison, the speaker shows that he does not think very highly of himself. In addition, he appears to believe and feel that he is just a secondary character in his own life, contrasting to the idea that a person often sees themselves as the star of their own life.

The speaker in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a very cold and domineering man and husband. Base on his words and actions as describe in the poem, the man appears to perceive his wife as his possession among everything else. He resented that he could not completely control her personality and life. An example from the poem is the man’s anger towards the lack of control over who his wife smiles at. The man describes this in the lines “Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,/ Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile?/ This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands (43-46). This establishes the speaker’s character to be a very commanding and arrogant man. He justifies that his former wife’s faults were that she did not direct all her attention to him.

Both of the speakers from Eliot and Browning’s poems are very self involved and introverted people. However, the speaker in Eliot’s poem display low self esteem and appears very timid. As illustrated in the poem, the speaker appears to be filled with neurotic thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, the speaker in Browning’s poem displays a great amount of arrogance and ego. As described, he resented the idea that his wife does not direct all her attention only to him.