Skip to main content

Robert Browning as a optimistic poet



Robert Browning, (1812-1899), one of the major Victorian poets, is an optimist and as an optimist he places himself above almost all writers of his era. We, in his poems, find his optimistic attitude towards love which make him optimist in every aspects of life. Browning, as an optimist, tends to believe in essential goodness of man and the salvation of man through the hard struggles. Now we will look into his optimistic views scattered in his poems especially in his dramatic monologue.

When Browning started writing, the attitude of the milieu was scientific and materialistic. And this means, people had lost faith in religion, morality and spirituality. He was optimistic about the existence of God and the notion of a perfect heaven. His poetry is a reflection of this, deviating from the scientific temperament typical of his age.

Robert Browning is an optimist, and as an optimist, he is a moralist and a religious teacher holding a very distinct place among the writers of the Victorian Age. He is “an uncompromising foe of scientific materialism”.
Browning is a very consistent thinker of optimistic philosophy of life. His optimism is based on life's realities. Life is full of imperfection but in this very imperfection lies hope, according to Browning's philosophy. He does not challenge the old dogmas. He accepts the conventional view of God, the immortality of the soul, and the Christian belief in incarnation.
Browning's optimism is founded on the realities of life. It is not 'blind' as he does not shut his eyes to the evil prevailing in daily life routine. He knows that human life is a mixture of good and evil, of love and the ugliness, of despair and hopefulness, but he derives hope from this very imperfection of life. Browning’s thorough-going optimism naturally seems to imply a pantheistic view of the world. In the famous lines of "Pippa Passes", he says:
          "God is in his Heaven –All is right with the world!"

Browning's optimism is firmly based on his faith in the immortality of the soul. The body may die but the soul lives on in the Infinite.
Browning believes in the futility of this worldly life. He thinks that failure serves as a source of inspiration for progress as in "Andrea Del Sarto":
            “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
                            Or what's heaven for?”
Life in this world is worth living because both life and the world are the expressions of Divine Love. The world is beautiful as God created it out of the fullness of His love. As says Lippo in Fra Lippo Lippi:
                        “The world’s no bolt for us,     
             Nor blank, it means intensely, and means good.”
 Browning's optimism finds the passion of joy; no one has sung more fervently than Browning of the delight of life. The Rabbi in "Rabbi Ben Ezra" often passes philosophical judgments.
                         "As the bird wings and sings, 
                                    Let us cry 'All good things.”
In the Last Ride Together we find Browning's optimistic attitude towards love through the words of the rejected lover:
                          "The instant made eternity, –
                 And heaven just prove that in and she
                         Ride, ride together, for ever ride?
Therefore, we can safely conclude that Browning speaks out the strongest words of optimistic faith in his Victorian Age of scepticism and pessimism. As Moody comments: “Browning's robust optimism in the face of all the unsettling and disturbing forces of the age is thrown out in sharp relief.”







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHARACTER OF SUJATA.MOTHER OF 1084 BY MAHASWETA DEVI

                    As the title suggests, Mahasweta Devi's Mother of 1084 is the moving story of a mother who has to witness and identify the corpse number 1084 that of her son Brati, who has been murdered by the hooligans, actively supported by the police, because of his involvement the Naxalite movement. The play traces the development of the mother figure of Sujata from an apolitical stereotype into a politically aware entity, a woman who has become conscious of the life of significant action. The play reaches its culmination as Sujata finally bursts out in wrath against the cultured opportunism of her family, which again is a reflection of the society in total.   Mother of 1084 begins with a phone call from Kantapukur police morgue asking Sujata to identify a corpse of number 1084- that of Brati, her son. Brati's involvement in the Naxalite movement is so deeply embarrassing to t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Compare and contrast dickens and Thackeray:

Charles Dickens: one of the most prominent and influential novelists of the Victorian age, in fact the most popular of all English novelist so far. Some of his great novels are Pickwick Papers, Great Expectation and Bleak house in which his comic view of life, social criticism and power of storytelling are clearly reflected. Dickens seems to see things differently in an amusing and exaggerated way. As a novelist, Dickens is a social chronicler .he is found to have introduced social novels in a much bounder sense. His novels are full of pathos and there are many passages of the extravagant sentiments. His themes chiefly focus on mans thoughts, imaginations, affections and religious instincts. In spite of pain, dirt and sin with which his novels are full, they leave an impression and the reader of the firm optimism and an exaggerate temper of Dickens. All of his characters comes out of the pit of suffering and distress as better man, uncontaminated purer than before. Dic...
Post a Comment
Read more

AZIZ-FIELDING RELATIONSHIP

       A PASSAGE TO INDIA is built upon the relationship between Aziz and fielding is the most significant relationship established in the novel. In spite of so many barriers of race and characters, the two men succeed in creating a unique relationship that stands out as evidence off the power of goodwill and kindness.       In their very first meeting when they are still strangers, their desire for genuine friendship brings them together. There is of course the contrast between fielding and Aziz, the easy going English man and the Muslim doctor. Dr. Aziz features as one of the central characters in Forster’s novel ‘A Passage to India’, who practices medicine at Chandrapore. He is a devout Muslim and happy with his job at the local hospital . on the other hand, Cyril Fielding, in E. M. Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’ is a simple yet extraordinary character. He is a significant deviation from the common Britishers in the ...
Post a Comment
Read more