Robert Browning is one of the important Victorian poets contemporary to Lord Alfred Tennyson. The poem Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister is a dramatic monologue that explores the speaker’s inner conflicts of insecurities who protrudes towards Brother Lawrence. It is quite similar to Browning Fra Lippo Lippi, about a Florentine monk evident in the initial picture of him in a brother night. The poem is enriched with everyday life’s experiences where hatred, dislikes and a contempt for another individual is often a mirror of oneself. The poem acts as a mirror that reflects the reality of such life experiences and the bitter truth of the dark side of human nature. Browning explores this psychological reality of truth through his poetic verse, dramatic monologue to explode the narratives of the speaker and to establish the innocence of Brother Lawrence.
The basic characteristic of a dramatic monologue is having a speaker. The speaker in the poem is a monk who is vilifying another monk named Brother Lawrence. The dramatic monologue always gives a discourse on many range of topics through the speaker and the speaker who is a monk gives a subjective remark on Brother Lawrence’a character. The speaker’s position as a monk and his contempt for another monk shows the Victorian spirit of religious turmoil pointing out the hypocrisy that exist within religious leaders.
As a dramatic monologue, it opens with an intense action or a statement. The intensity is evident with the statement of violence and a serious contempt for Brother Lawrence. The speaker points out to him as “my heart’s abhorrence” meaning his disliked foe. The opening of the poem shows the intense atmosphere of human hatred and its emotions for Brother Lawrence. The speaker scorns Brother Lawrence who is minding his own business catering the flowers in the garden. The speaker disdainfully states that if hatred can kill a person then “ would not mine kill you”. He further curses that Brother Lawrence should burn in hell “with its flames”. The phrases in the poem highlights the magnitude of bitter emotions for Brother Lawrence magnifying the verses of a dramatic monologue.
The other characteristic feature of a dramatic monologue exhibited in the poem is the inner conflict of the speaker. The speaker’s psychological conflict is evident in his vitriol criticism towards Brother Lawrence. As he protrudes his subjective opinions against Brother Lawrence, he is indirectly mirroring his own inner demons within him. The inner conflict is a battle between the evil and the virtuous in the poem where the evil tries to masquerade himself to look religious and an embodiment of good opposing the righteousness of Brother Lawrence.
For instance, the inner conflict is evident when he dislikes Lawrence’s presence at dinner and his vitriolic reaction towards Lawrence’s “Wise talk of the kind of weather”. It shows that the speaker is projecting his own inner insecurities to demean Lawrence’s wisdom. The statement shows that the wisdom of Lawrence infuriates the speaker and he is finding ways to put it down in a negative manner. The another instance of inner conflict shows the conflict between pride and humility. Though the speaker sketches Lawrence as having pride in his personality yet is is a reflection of his own personal character. He accuses Lawrence of having his “platter burnished” to ministrant in “our own shelf” along with “fire new spoon” that he washes like it’s a religious chalice that needs to touch “our chaps” later. This accusation shows that the speaker has a pride in himself perhaps because of his status as a monk and he is indirectly projecting his prideful image onto Brother Lawrence to demean his values.
Furthermore, the inner battle between righteous and wicked is evident in the poem. The dramatic monologue brings forth the inner struggles of the speaker who is wicked and his standards of being religious is questionable. The speaker accuses Lawrence of having a wanton desires for “Dolores” and “Sanchicha” whenever they are washing their hair on the “Convent Bank”. It is evident that he is mirroring his own wanton image in the poem when he compares the hair of the woman being “lustrous, thick like horsehairs” magnifying his psychological state. It also reflects the societal observations of Victorian Age where woman are objectified easily and one observes the objectification of woman whose physical appearance is only for a male gaze. Instead of blaming on himself, he falsely accuses the wanton character into Brother Lawrence vilify his image.
There are also many instance of inner conflict in the poem where he accuses Brother Lawrence of disregarding the rules of religious ethics. He also accuses him of being selfish and heretic. These accusations falsely paints an image towards Brother Lawrence shows the speaker’s mentality and his ignorance towards religious doctrine. It shows his own arrogance, hypocrisy and jealousy towards Brother Lawrence mirroring his own character while trying to demean Lawrence.
As a dramatic monologue, it always gives a character assessment of the speaker and the speaker’s discourse on the other character. The character assessment of the speaker is based on his inner conflict who tries to demean Brother Lawrence. He accuses him of a range of reckless images that unfits the standard of being a monk. His strong distaste and a contempt towards Brother Lawrence shows the speaker’s superiority complex over Lawrence as well as his own inner insecurities. Browning has managed to show the idea of self in the poem where the speaker has created a persona of superiority complex to others yet his repressed desires or shadow floats in his infuriation and vitriol hatred towards Brother Lawrence.
Additionally, the speaker is wicked as he does not live up to the standards of being a monk. When he accuses Brother Lawrence of objectify “Dolores” and “Sanchicha”, he is indirectly mirroring his wanton character. The speaker is heretic in a sense that he does not practice the religious doctrine well. Though he accuses Lawrence of gulping down the orange juice in one go yet he is protruding himself as the wicked one who does not adhere to religious practice. The speaker is also selfish in a sense that though he accuses Lawrence of having all melons to himself while giving a portion of it to others reflects the character of the speaker himself who has done the same behaviour and action in the past.
Futhermore, the speaker has a Machiavellian personality. It is evident in the last stanza when he ironically states that he can offer his own soul to the devil but he can cunningly get out of the deal with the devil as well without the devil being realise that he has destroyed the beautiful flower “rose -acacia” that is dearest to Brother Lawrence. It clearly shows the Machiavellian traits of the speaker who ironically even talks about deceiving the devil and selling his soul to him that goes against the standards of the religious ethics.
Browning dramatic monologues also reveals the Victorian temperament in his poems. The poem Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister reveals the Victorian era of religious conflict with the materialistic world. The poem shows how the materialistic world has engulfed in the minds of the religious leaders whose actions and behaviour goes against the religious ethics and doctrines. The religious battles and the unethical behaviour of the religious leaders reveals the Victorian age where there is an absence of religious values in the society. The objectification of a woman is also evident in the poem throwing light into the Victorian society where woman are clearly viewed as an object of desire for a male vision.
