Essay sample about Dramatic Monologue as a Type of Poetry

A dramatic monologue is a conversation a speaker has with himself/herself, or the conversation is directed at a listener or reader that doesn’t respond. After reading many dramatic monologue pieces the speakers have different intentions to who we are truly talking to. Addressees of a piece of literature, are not always to one direct person as they can be to a group of individuals. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Last Duchess” both poems address one individual listener. More than always, we know right away who we are addressing, but that is not the case for “My Last Duchess” using a different scheme than most. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” almost instantly you know who he is addressing too, by specific word choice for example “Let us go then, you and I” (page 1.) 

In “My Last Duchess”, when initially read, the addressee would think that he had the new woman, and he was known as a flirt regarding his late wife. “The depth and passion of its earnest glance, but to myself, they turned (since none puts by the curtain, I have drawn for you)” (page 1.) As an addressee, you see behind the curtain, his past wife who meets the standards he has for his new wife.  The addressee would think that his past wife was better as a painting than as a wife “There she stands as if alive” (page 2.) The addressee finds at the end of the poem that he is talking to an audience of one specific person, whereas the beginning feels as if the audience is a large crowd.

When first read, the addressee sees that he is talking to a woman in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.  “Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” (page 1). The addressee sees that the man is too old for the women he is chasing “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled” (page 4.)  The addressee interprets that the man is an isolated human with no self-confidence “with a bald spot in the middle of my hair” (page 2.) The addressee may also think that he misinterprets the intentions of the women he is attempting to chase.  

In both poems, “My Last Duchess” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, we learn that the women are the primary addressees.  In both poems, we know that a speaker is a man that has an intention to find love or has a way of bringing new women in as the old go out.  

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has better word choice than “My Last Duchess.” In both poems, you must dive deeper.  In “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock”, words such as “scuttling” (page 3) and “meticulous” (page 4) are used to help interpret his true feelings.  Throughout the poem, the pronouns she and her are used to showing that it is a man speaking searching for a woman, whereas in “My Last Duchess” the pronoun she is only used to refer to his late wife.    

Within both “My Last Duchess” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” both authors addressed to one specific individual. With a significant use of word conventions used in the poems, a reader grasps a better understanding characterization and main points occurring thinking beyond the text.