Fra Lippo Lippi, written by Robert Browning is based upon the life of a mid fifteenth century painter Fra Lippo Lippi who was a Florentine monk. It introduces the painter and an artist struggle against the expectation of the Church. Though the poem is set in the mid fifteenth century but it parallels the world of Victorian age. The poem explores the conflict between the monk’s artistic vision and the Church’s vision on art and religion. The other famous poem of Browning that celebrate wisdom and knowledge on spiritual aspect is Rabbi Ben Ezra, an accolades 12th century philosopher.
As a dramatic monologue, it opens with a serious tone and an action. The action is the speaker being caught red handed near the infamous brothel night. The guards caught him red handed and he is asked many queries regarding his position near the brothel at night. This evidently starts off the poem with a serious question in the mind of the readers to ponder upon the conflict between the appearance of the monk and the reality of who he is.
The dramatic monologue is a writing style in poetry where there is only one speaker. Fra Lippo Lippi is the speaker in the poem and he addresses himself in the poem. He also describes about his past life and how he entered into the monastic life. One observes the a narrative of story telling in the dramatic monologue where the speaker traces his historical past to the present profession and how he becomes a monk in his later stage of life. He tells the officers that the church orders him to paint the famous saints, angels and others.
However, the dramatic monologue also reveals the inner psychological conflict of the speaker. The speaker is torn between the life of a monk and an ordinary person as well as struggles within his vision of art and the vision of art by the Church. One observes that the monk who is caught red handed by the officers being drunk and visiting the brothels at night institute the conflict between his life as a monk and the ordinary person. He expresses his conflicts to the officers that he has been painting at the studio for three weeks and he decides to plan to visit a brothel as a relief. One also observes that he joins the celebration of the procession strolled by his studio window and he gets drunk. This shows the inner conflict between life as a monk and an ordinary man.
The inner psychological conflict between his vision of art and the Church’s vision of art is something that he addressed in the poem. His vision of art lies in honesty and revelations where his paintings does not reveal the holy nature of the saints in it. In contrast to this, the Prior disagrees with him and he tells him to paint a painting of saints and other religious people to have holier pictures. The Prior only wants buildings filled with angels, God and Saints. The monk believes that humanity is beautiful without the requirement of any artifice which is dejected by the Prior. Their sharp contrast of beliefs institute the inner conflict of the speaker.
As a dramatic monologue, it also reveals the character of the monk. The monk seems to be of a jovial nature yet he also describes the agony and mundane environment of his own life. He traces his own life from the past that he is an orphan living in the streets. The monks feeds him and he accepts the life of monastery as he has nowhere else to go. He accepts his flaws that he is not a devout holy man and he is an ordinary man who loves God and adores paintings. It institute him as an upright person. He only paints the painting only for sake of living a life and to have a roof over his head which reflects the Victorian idealism of art for life’s sake. In addition to this, he also shows his own individual beliefs and exposes the religious hypocrisy where paintings and art can be idealised in human life. He is of the opinion that the world is beautiful and it requires a painting and the the things that appear irreligious does not mean it is unworthy. He has a complex edifice of life and art where he gives a sense of optimism breaking the Victorian age of doubt. He believes that the Prior’s paintings doesn’t represent real people and it does not inspire people to come to church or pray as it is unattainable for any ordinary person.
One Reply to “Browning Fra Lippo Lippi as a Dramatic Monologue”