Scientific/Economic Paradigms in Browning? (1 Viewer)

[Dota55]

I've researched and read and analysed and researched and read and analysed, and i can't for the life of me see even the vaguest of references to anything that could possibly relate to the Scientific/Economic paradigms.

Has anyone else realised this? Its mostly social or religious conventions that are expressed through Browning's poetry (which i have to say, its kinda brilliant).

Anyone else recognised some vague reference to the economic/scientific paradigms?

 

[tessery]

Hey! Its a long while back for me lol but the laboratory definitely has some scientific paradigms in it - the protagonist is breaking the norm and entering the male dominated realm of science, ironically in order to try and maintain the norm of keeping a husband. Badly worded but hopefully you get the idea

As for economic...its pretty much everywhere! Lol anywhere he talks of marriage, there is economy. The girl in the laboratory is searching for economic security, in my last duchess the duke is entirely concenred with his own economic status and beleives that his wealth gives him an elevated status over his wife, he is entirely consumed by his material posessions. In Propheria's lover (spelling?) you see the conflict between the female have greater wealth than her male counterpart, the reversal of the norm.

Haven;t explained it very well but hope it helps! You have my greatest sympathy, this is a really tough elective!

 

[shazran]

the abuse of science for personal gain in the lab? ... demonstrates self determinism ... i think..

 

[wendus]

HI REBEKKIE!!!

not that i do browning. but i've heard a lot of crazy stories about poems where the male protagonists murder their wives. more of social than scientific or economic paradigm, i'm afraid. good luck though!

 

[Marinatos]

It's stretching it a bit, but you could say that the males possession of the female in Porphyrias Lover and My Last Duchess relates to the start of museums in the nineteenth century. In Porphyria's lover, the lover is concerned with preserving the female in that state and reassures himself that there was no blemish done and that she was now his ("mine, mine"). In My Last Duchess, the Duke say "That's my Last Duchess...as if she were alive", showing that he wanted to own and preserve her in a state that removed her individuality. Also at the end, the reference to the bronze statue is a metaphor of what he did to the Duchess.

As others have said, the Laboratory may also deal with the scientific paradigm, but I don't like that poem, so I haven't studied it in any depth. Also as mentioned by others, economic comes in to My Last Duchess with the dowry, but also into Bishop Orders his tomb in relation to his preoccupation with the wealth that wil be on his grave and that he has accumulated (burning the church so he could rob it!) and Andrea del Sarto, where his art has lost its meaning now he has to sell it to support his wife and her lover, ever since he robbed the king (I think there is a reference to the houses walls being made of gold, symbolically as he stole from the king to build the house).

 

[Azreil]

As others have said, the Laboratory may also deal with the scientific paradigm, but I don't like that poem, so I haven't studied it in any depth.

Crazy girl. Best poem of his.

The scientific paradigm in The Laboratory is clouded by the fact that Browning is disgusted by the upper class and sees them "infecting" everything -- it was a time of scientific revolution, with huge leaps forward being made in electrochemistry and a number of fields. But Browning doesn't focus on these: he focuses on the way it has been corrupted by the upper class, in using it for their own purposes.

Yeahh. I'm tired, and I kinda gave up on Extension English before I started studying for the exam. I hope this helps, as vague as it seems to me.

 

[jellybelly59]

economic paradigm is evident in browning's 'The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church, Rome'.

 

[Marinatos]

Crazy girl. Best poem of his.

The scientific paradigm in The Laboratory is clouded by the fact that Browning is disgusted by the upper class and sees them "infecting" everything -- it was a time of scientific revolution, with huge leaps forward being made in electrochemistry and a number of fields. But Browning doesn't focus on these: he focuses on the way it has been corrupted by the upper class, in using it for their own purposes.

Yeahh. I'm tired, and I kinda gave up on Extension English before I started studying for the exam. I hope this helps, as vague as it seems to me.

You're just crazy. You're like the only one in our class that even uses it.

 

[Sventina]

I don't know if other people have said this, I didn't read all the posts, but;

A lot of what Browning means is more in what he implies than what he says. We discussed Porphyria's lover a lot in class in terms of what is suggested about the characters' economic and class status.

Because marraige was based largely around economics, you could inerpret that perhaps Porphyria's lover was below her class, which was why they were meeting in secret. I forget the quote that shows that (I don't use Browning).

The materialistic descriptions in "My Last Duchess" and "The Bishop" are supposed to reflect the value of economic stability. The Duke uses his economic and class status to try and intimidate the person he is speaking too and justify his actions in apparently executing his last Duchess. The Bishop, whose religious station ironically suggests he should be unbound by materialism, is asking his sons to create an extravagant tomb so he will be remembered as superior, which is basically the use of wealth to create eternal status.

He doesn't explore scientific paradigms so much, but not every text shows all the paradigms, so you just have to use your other found texts to show the full range of values.

I might mention I refuse to use Browning.