ABSTRACT
The chapter on the dramatic monologue discusses the formal rules and main characteristics which distinguish it from other poetical forms. It offers a brief historical overview mentioning the best-known critical approaches that highlight the genre’s evolution over time, changing cultural norms, and literary conventions that have shaped the form and carried additional meanings and purposes. The three poems that are analysed are “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, and Carol Ann Duffy’s “Mrs Lazarus”.
