The Pragmatics of Silence... Wagner Essay Summery and Analysis

In this blog, I will summarize and analyze Jennifer A. Wagner's essay "The Pragmatics of Silence, and the Figuration of the Reader in Browning's Dramatic Monologues." 

Summery

The introduction to Wagner's essay highlights the role of silence in dramatic monologue and the function of silence is continuously undermined by various factors. Wagner says, "Browning critics have long noted that the typical speaker of a Browning monologue is aggressive, often threatening, nearly always superior, socially and/or intellectually, to the auditor" (576). Because of this fact, the auditor has no choice but to listen and "is often (in) a silence of intimidation" (576). Browning's "My Last Duchess" is the perfect example of this intimidation induced silence of the auditor so much so that the presence of a listener is not even apparent until more than half way through the poem. The auditor is cast into the shadows as if the speaker was speaking to himself. However we know he is there when the speaker comments on an unseen facial expression. In this way the auditor makes himself known and, although he is silent, brings himself into the light and makes himself known. For the reader, on the other hand, silence is optional, therefor undermining the speaker and the intimidating silence the speaker is trying to force on the auditor and the audience. The reader is able to completely engage in the speakers speech and sympathize yet pull herself away in order to judge. Wagner also mentions Browning own meaning behind his dramatic monologues. Through his work, Browning wanted to the active engagement of the reader. She highlights Browning's attempt to emphasize the journey rather than the destination. 

Analysis 

This essay really helped me to understand the thought process behind Robert Browning's writing. Before I read this, I could not connect to his poems in a positive way. I thought they were just morbid and I was a little disturbed. However, after reading this essay, I realized there is a deeper meaning to his poems than I could have ever guessed (there usually is). The end of Wagner's essay really put it into perspective when she mentioned Browning's own quotes about how the reader should not just fallow along the text but be actively involved with it. His dramatic monologues are not just an interaction between the speaker and the auditor but an intwining relationship between the speaker, the auditor and the reader. They are all interconnected and the true meaning of the poem cannot be drawn out without the cooperation of all three. After I read this essay, I went back and read through all the poems we have read so far, and I tried to engage myself the way Browning would have wanted me to in the first place and I was able to understand both the sympathy and the judgment in a way that I could not before. Wagner's parallels between the speaker, auditor and listener made the reading experience much more challenging as well as rewarding. 

Work Cited

Wagner, Jennifer A. “The Pragmatics of Silence, and the Figuration of the Reader in Browning’s Dramatic Monolugues.” Robert Browning’s Poetry. Ed. James F. Loucks and Andrew M. Stauffer. 2^nd Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007. 275-259. Print.

Robert Browning

On May 7, 1812, Robert Browning was born to Robert and Sarah Browning in a small English suburb, Camberwell. Like Elizabeth, Robert was an accomplished youth and spent most of his time reading and  by age 14, he knew Latin, Greek, Italian and French. He attened the University of London but withdrew from the school in order to learn at his own pace. He began his writing career by trying to write his own stage dramas, however, he was unsuccessful. After this, began pick apart existing plays, taking one character and molding him/her into one that often resembled Robert himself. This form of writing became known as dramatic monologue. This new form of writing did not earn him popularity with Victorian critics and it was only with the publishing of a series of pamphlets called Bells and Pomegranates that his career began to be looked at with favor rather than criticism. Robert's major works include Paracelsus, Sordello, The Ring and The Book along with various assortments of published poems. In 1845, Robert Browning began to become familiar with Elizabeth Barrett's works of poetry and resolved to meet her. After a short courtship, Robert and Elizabeth married (against the wishes of her father) and eloped to Italy where Elizabeth gave birth to their son Robert Weidemann Barrett Browning.
Although Robert's works never reached the popularity of his wife's during her lifetime, they quickly began to gain momentum. He continued publishing his writing twenty years after her death and became known as one of the greatest poets of his time (along with Tennyson). Robert Browning died in 1889 and is now buried in in the Poets Corner of Westminster Abby.

Elizabeth Browning

Elizabeth Browning, formally Elizabeth Barrett, was born in Durham on the sixth of March 1806. She was the oldest of 12 children born to her parents Edward Barrett and Mary Graham Clark.  Elizabeth had a hunger for knowledge early in her life and spent most of her time reading epic Greek poems, the Old Testament, and Dante's Inferno along with many other advanced pieces of work. All of these great works she read in their original language. She began writing her own epic poem at the age of 12. Her parents were highly encouraging of their daughter's thirst for knowledge and her father gave her a bound copy of her epic for her fourteenth birthday. She wrote many other poems throughout her young life which inspired Robert Browning to write to her and express his love for her work. They met shorty after and were married in August 1846.
Elizabeth Browning's poems were very popular and her major works included A Child Asleep, A Thought for a Lonely Death-bed, Change upon Change, Aurora Leigh and her earliest epic The Battle of Marathon along with many others. Although Elizabeth had been disinherited by her father (he did not give his permission for the Browning's marriage) she was one of few poets who had actually made money off her poems and she was able to make a living. The Browning had their son Robert Wiedemen Barrett Browning in 1849. Elizabeth fall fell ill to an uunknown sickness and died on June 29, 1861 in her husband's arms. Elizabeth Browning remained a popular poet throughout her life and far beyond her death.