Monday, May 27, 2013

How does Browning reveal the narrator's character in Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister?

The narrator's character is revealed throughout the poem
by his attitude towards Brother
Lawrence.


Gr-r-r-there go, my heart's
abhorrence!
: Is rage and hatred an appropriate attitude of a monk towards
another monk?


Water your damned flower-pots,
do!
: What about swearing at flower
pots?


If hate killed men, Brother
Lawrence,

God's blood, would not mine kill
you!


Taking God's name in vain wishing to kill
someone by force of hatred rather than turning the other cheek are both
unchristian.


What? your myrtle-bush wants
trimming?/ ... Hell dry you up with its flames!
Again, why should a monk want
someone to suffer in Hell merely for tending a
garden?


Or, my scrofulous French
novel,

On grey paper with blunt
type!


Should a monk be reading pronography? And
trying to tempt other monks with it?


As you read line by line through the poem, look
closely at what the narrator is saying, taking into account that the narrator is a
monk.


Robert Browning was brought up as a Dissenter, and in
this poem is promulgating a Protestant view that the Roman Catholicism of the narrator
encourages mere surface piety (crossing fork and knife) rather than a genuine charitable
Christian spirit.

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