[摘要]

《我已故的公爵夫人》与《波菲力亚的情人》罗伯特·勃朗宁戏剧独白中的经典之作。本文通过分析两首诗中一些具有代表性的诗节，总结出两首诗中的女主人公—公爵夫人与波菲力亚的形象。

[关键字]公爵夫人；波菲力亚；女性形象　

Abstract:

Both My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover are among the masterpieces of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues. In the past decades, many scholars and experts have explored the art of these two poems. However, seldom have they focused on women images in both poems. Under this circumstance, this essay is written by examining some specific and typical verses, and women images of the Duchess and Porphyria are concluded as follows: for one thing, both of them were beautiful, kind-hearted, and noble. For another thing, in the Victorian period, they had to passively accept their destiny---being killed by their husbands.

Key words: the Duchess；Porphyria；women images

1. Introduction
 Robert Browning, a great poet in Victorian period，was famous for his dramatic monologue. According to some researches done by eminent experts, the history of dramatic monologue, in fact, dates back to Greek-Roman times. However, it was not until in Victorian period that this kind of genre reached its peak. Great progenitors, for example, Alfred Lord Tennyson published the first real dramatic monologue Ulyssex in 1842. But when it comes to the form, Robert Browning is usually credited. Among his enormous magnificent works, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s lover were among his masterpieces. Given this fact, it is necessary and important to analyze the two poems from a new perspective.
In recent years, a lot of scholars have involved their topics in this field. As to the first poem My Last Duchess, a majority of authors focused their attention on the form of dramatic monologue, while others discuss the poems by means of its translation, artistic style, or from the aspect of linguistics and other latest theories. Compared with the former poem, the latter one received less attention. In this case, seldom has anyone explored women images in the two poems, thus giving a clue to this essay.