AN EYE ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REJECTED LOVER IN "THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER" OF ROBERT BROWNING

DESTINY IS NEVERLAND AND NEVERLAND IS DESTINY . 
PEN - PROLAY . 
INK-ANANYA . 

S.V.O

AN EYE ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REJECTED LOVER IN "THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER" OF ROBERT BROWNING  

ABSTRACT - 

 
Before we try to make any critical analysis of one of the greatest love poetry of English literature ," The last ride together " by one of the ever greatest lover and lovely poet Robert Browning , who tried to mix up the very realistic love and relationship , various aspects of  interpersonal movements  , that generally moves with the up and down of life and the concept of complete imaginary consolation and inner peace or being like a pure euphoria  , gained from the spirituality , ongoing inner divinity , respective personality  and surely with self calculation  to match up with situation .

 Better for us to focus a little on the very personal life of this one of the ever greatest poet , one who worded the concept with the natural  flow of love ,   pain  ,  overall attachment and then detachment through rejection from  the beloved one , in silent way  in the middle of  devine realtionship  bythe unkonwon relationship predator    and then facing the  pain as an idiosyncratic lover who till now  is committed and  very highly confident with  ongoing situations with the natural pain management therapy. 

Actually to be very true and to the point Browning had a completely different psychological perspective to life and very technically it was ultimately one of the greatest net outcome of two fully different culture fertilization in one single life. Where his entire world was getting movement disorder , he then tried to move on to true love and devine relationship. 

To be very much to the point on this great personality of English literature ,  we will get Browning's self built up character  through his strong  family structure and socio-economic  culture  . Browning had a different  psychological perspective  from early days and  that formed  him completely different and may be few  steps  ahead or detached  from his contemporary generation.

Very technically his grandfather was one of the top class slave trader in his time and his network was even active in the island of west indies. To keep the traditional family business running Browning's father was also sent there and may be  fortunately he could not do well at all there.
And behind his failure if one of the reason was , the spreading of slave revolution , that waved from the North America , then the secondly  but technically and  very vital reason was his own  mentality which was driven mostly by humanity .

Ethically  he was against the slave trade and had a nice open heart to realize the ultimate value of human life and to fix it with proper respect , dignity and humanity .  He was extremely focused on his point. .
He came back to England as one of the highest paid employee of  Banking system there .
So very technically first as a failed traditional slave trader , then top level bank employee and next step was to be on  the biggest point  of his life as family person to form his son Robert Browning - totally different through a total different way , that English literature got " A  PSYCHOLOGICAL POET " .

By nature he was a natural reader and had  a great collection of almost 6000 books in his own  personal stock  and many of there were listed as the rare pieces.  Like another one of the greatest personality of world-   Tagore , Browning was also a dropped  out one ,  from traditional school education  and what was ultimately impossible in outer world ,  Browning became self educated within that family library with parental care , some more inspiring teachers , by whom Robert became  "POET - ROBERT BROWNING - THE FATHER OF MONOLOGUE "

On very other hand his mother , Sarah  Anna  Wiedemann  was from pure German family with strong cultural base and financially was  so stronger as a member  ship owner family .

so very technically ,  throughout his whole life and literature and in various aspects of self conflicts , natural instinct to search for the positive vibes even through the very critical psychological stages of mind and situation - was very smooth and common way for Browning and to be true , it was almost impossible for others .

His grand father was a slave trader and on the  contrary his father was such an intellectual on those days , who himself   insisted his own children to art and literature  and fueled his own children to be open minded  , even after knowing that in future this trend could be mal treated by both his son and the ongoing social system . So Browning by nature was one of the highest level of psychological structure of cross culture fertilization. And this trend ultimately made him completely different from all his contemporary writers , thinkers and some leading personalities of that time .

1845 was a nice turn to the life of Browning as then he met the wonderful lady Mrs Ellizabeth Barret , who was 6 years elder than Browning and very naturally their love relationship came to a strong point like marriege , going against the ongoing socio- cultural system.

The story of the mariege is not less interesting than his Dramatic Monologue.They kept their mariege in full secret as in her own family Mrs Barret had to face her brutal father , who had a natural trend to oppose in the mariege of his every child.
Though MRS Barret was a bit of sicky from early ages , but was with much popularity as poet in English literature with strong and crystal clear support to feminism , movement for woman's right ,  equality , standing against hungry industrialization  , religious conflicts  .  Surely all these tagged her  as a promising poetic talent .
The first meeting between Robert and Ellizabeth was through a letter from Robert as a reader and fan to the poet Ellizabeth . And the next was followed to the church and within a short period they ringed each other with wedding ring.
So very truly the way Browning became the  window to her life for the outer world  ,  on the other way the overall bitter and longer experience of her life , gave Browning a complete different notion and vision to own life . They kept their mariege in full secret until they headed  up to Italy
Browning stayed in Italy till the last breath of his wife. As per Browning " Italy was the university of life ".
On one side new couple with top class poetic talent was  enjoying and learning the life with world famous Italian sculpture , culture , literature  and on the very other hand his every writings were being highly treated  in rough manner and on the other hand Ellizabeth was being more and more famous ,  and she was being focused  , she was focusing more and more on Robert  .  This reverse situation gave Browning a greater and newer view , and it was  larger than life to Browning.

Politically Browning was  much straight and clear just like his father and wife  . He carried his liberal mentality and very directly cleared his sympathy for the victims of slave revolution in north american civil war .
" who then dares lord - emacipated thus / his fellow shall continue bound ? No I "- in 1877 this was his great poetic protest .
Like the expression of his talent , much controversial but extremely happy married life , his struggle , ability to match up and learn , political standing -  in case of religion Browning had a typical approach . The way P.B .Shelly attracted him to be an atheist on the contrary he was also much impressed to another great poet Mr Byron for his creation like ," Christmas eve and Easter day ".

    Keywords -  realistic love and relationship,  critical psychological stage of mind,

   Slave trade,  civil war,   self conflicts. , political standing , dramatic monologue .  

Browning's approach to romantic  love and relationship   =   As a genuine singer of love and romanticism , even being within  a very restricted time , Browning very deliberately presented  the total concept of romantic love and relationship and for the first time in the history of English literature   he categorized the concept of love in various aspects like pure love ,  hopeless love , sinful love , romantic love ,  and to so many .

Background of the poetry " The last ride together " =   1855 ,  exactly very 10 years later of his marriege , the time came to browning like the nightmare as he lost his son and even his almost  dyeing wife  very typically escaped from death , Browning felt the life in a greater and higher aspect with psychological movements like , co- existence of two conflicted state like impetus and despondency , axiomatic emotion and natural expression of that through highest level positive attitude like creation  and the result came out as a model of 50 poetries , named "Men and women " and the very poetry " The last ride together " is just a gift from them for the readers  . Actually this poetry is one of the highest level of philosophical connectivity or harmony among soul ,eternity and nature and eternity .

This pattern of higher philosophy of love and romantic  relationship and it's approach   was never seen before in English literature and very clearly this way of thinking actually departed Browning from his contemporrary literature and very logically , THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY marked this poetry as " Dramatic Romance ".

Structure based  poetic  analysis of The last ride together = To be true the poetry " The last ride together " is a top class example of dramatic monologue.  As per some specialist Browning very technically and intentionally kept this poetry in this format , as he was very roughly treated in Italy for his approach to poetry and to exclude the ongoing conflicts , he commonly used the first person mode like I and the pronoun highly changed to we , second person to mean the couple to keep the overall concept within , ' self mode ' .

Till date the poetry is an unique one for extremely different and mysterious rhyming , mainly on the 5th and 11th lines of each stanza. And side by side a typical change is here in the subtle metrix on lines 10 and 11.
Usage of abnormal dashes more than formal punctuation is highly effective to keep the syntex in a different challenging mood and it clearly indicates to a kind of conflict , so that thinking process may multi dimensional .
And not just about the structure and concept , the poetry " The Last ride together " through each and every stanza leads to a conflicting level of definite and indefinite stage from where the almost impossible task of harmonizing  the certain reality and uncertain destiny , is done .
1) The very 1st stanza is with the final request of the rejected lover for his last ride togetherly with his lady love.
2) Then the 2nd stanza deals with the connection between uncertain life and certain death.
3) The next stanza is with the euphoria of romantic vibes.
4) 4th stanza is with the very limited thought with probability.
5) Through the 5th stanza the lost lover accepts the failure of his destinied love.
6) Experiencing the love as the reward of war and work.
7) The poet very directly doubts over the reality of love.
8) Communicating with the undone of musicians and sculptures like creator.
9) Higher level of aiming with love.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE REJECTED LOVER THROUGH BROWNING'S PEN -

Actually throigh the whole poetry , Robert Browning , one of the greatest singer of love from various aspects in English literature , tried to focus on various kind of activities , those are driven by very critical and ongoing psychological conflicts after facing the rejection from the beloved one in romantic relationship ,  within the rejected lover's psychology  .
From the very first stanza Browning tried to harmonize the very fundamental and equally paradoxical psychological movement that leads to a certain stage of mental confusion  , restless thinking , a bit of impulsive activity ,  carried by the lady and her rejected lover .
Very honestly the lover even being rejected , kept all his activities with highest level of respect , love and dignity to the lady and without any conflict , anger , hatred he just accepted the way of resignation in his romantic relationship  and that could be the factor , for what the lady rejected his lover but not the last request of lover  .
And between this ongoing process of rejection and then acceptation - though  Browning set the lady , the lover and their romantic relationship to a state of conflict  , but both the lady and the lover were within controlled activities .

Next Browning set a greater philosophical view of life to frame the abstract part of life through the structured ride to keep this time and space with special entity.
First the rejection , then another proposal and finally an acceptation - overall the focus was not just only the relationship between a man and woman - but through the relationship , the eternal conflict among the entity of human philosophy , human biology and human psychology , are  also expressed very deeply  and surely in a symphony of melancholy .. .

Next Browning through the rejected lover harmonized the opposite pole of entire entity - life and death . within just few seconds the lover faced the dualistic mode of universe . Just within a moment life appeared to him with two complete different faces - one side is hard reality with eternal truth and on the other side there is the rejecting partner  is self here to give him the last but true psychological consolation just before the starting of uncertainty of mind and brain  with certain loneliness.

Then numberless internal psychological conflicts just when were to be active more and more , then the rejected lover got her lady on his chest for the final time -  And exactly here the  author used the  " Drammatic monologue " by stating " WE " .

NOW THE QUESTION IS ABOUT THE USAGE OF PRONOUN " WE " EVEN IN TIME OF BREAKING THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP - 

Who , why and how  are these "we " ?
Was it any first person experience of the author ?
Was it any second person experience by the author ?
Or is it the eternal and ongoing third person experience that was somehow experienced by the poet ,  of numberless lover throughout the numberless ages ?

Whatever it could be . But the extreme excellency for the author is here to create the most typical , critical but deeply experienced feeling for the readers to get the 1st person experience  . Ultimately what is the ultimate type of this romanticism ?  Is it the reaction of the love that is biological needs or philosophical attachment ? Is it the the reaction of the love that is connected with psychological bonding or something abstract , that is yet to be discovered ?

Next when the really " THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER " starts for the last time , the rejected lover took it with very positive motive and he was happy then , even after knowing the destiny . May be he was experiencing his inner awakening to the higher level of human brain / soul  and through the structured lady and the ride , ultimately he was being more and more attached  with the abstract of his lady love . This is very practical for some people to be mentally attached more and more to the concept of bonding , even after being rejected by the beloved partner of their romantic relationship and in some cases the person get addictive with euphoria and surely with a positive approach to the partner .

Only the rejection for the lover and the accepting of the last proposal by the lady - these were the focused area . Now basing on these two , the author kept his one after one aspect of a pure and positive activity to  love through the lover . The way the lady rejected the lover and then accepted the proposal and the very way the rejected lover accepted the ultimate truth and then harmonized himself with the situation , that is actually beyond any thinking ability and this is only possible when both of a relationship can keep the internal attachment with positive vibes , even when they are separated in the eyes of common or society .

And it is very natural , that once someone knows his destination is to destiny or destiny is already heading to destination , then the thinking process gets automatically directed as per the instinct . And in this stage , the rejected lover arranged and managed his overall thinking process with the high level of consiousness , concentration and connectivity with the total happenings . That is the real why for the lover could compare the very proper treatment with his lover and love to the so called parameter of success and failure .

Actually to be technical their romantic  love was ended and through the " THE LAST TOGETHER " they were actually caring the dead desire . But from both ends here is the point of their personal respect , dignity and loyalty for each other . When the relationship is no more but positive activities are related to each other , it is only possible , when the inter personal connection or desire  is still alive , but anyway not activated mode due to some factors.

And psychologically the author depicted the whole scene from one stage and one angle . We know almost nothing about the past and the future of lady . The way rejected lover reacted to the situation , the lady did nothing like but accepting his proposal . This may be called the highest peak of romanticism  led by " Natural selection of partner by preference ". 

Now very automatically these questions come with serial.

1) Why did the lady reject his lover ?
2) Why did the lady then accept his last proposal ?
3) Why did the lady  respond with silence ?

We just know nothing . And this nothing leads us to a state of discovering the hidden truth , that is somehow on back foot due one after one ongoing idiosyncratic happenings .
What is the past and what is going to be future of this relationship ?
Overall we just can imagine the mental state and effort of the rejected lover to escape from the reality with one after one logical thinking .

But what was about  the lady ?
What was in her mind ?
Did  any pain kissed her and pushed her to the speechless silence ?
Was she fulfilling only the desire of the rejected lover or psychologically she was rejecting the ultimate vibe of the life or was she adjusting herself with future life due to some obstacles  ?

So very ultimately none  knows the ongoing ultimate inner conflicts  what was working in their brain .
The rejected lover continued to match his self entity with the laws of eternity .
He presented so many categorical points of success in ground like music , sculpture , poetry like area and tried to balance his mental state with distracted relationship and his never ending love .
But to be true this is neither the end nor the starting . This is a journey and destination or destiny is unknown to all like all things are to all .

And here the question is  about their journey .

Very ultimately what was the pattern of their love ? and then rejection ? and finally with full contrast another proposal and or being accepted .
So was it a  romantic relationship  , driven by biological desire  or psychological  instinct or some thing like "  frustration-attraction " - that worked between Romeo and Juliet   ? or by philosophical  instinct or by something that is yet to be discovered by psychologist ?
Nobody knows that properly . And this is the credit of Browning to keep the readers thinking on and on ........


Bibilography - 

1 ) psychology and psychological research International journal - ISSN- 2576-0319.
2) The new psychology of love - Edited by Robert J. Sternberg and Karin Weis .
3) Chicago manual of style guide of referencing .
4) Mary Gorton Mebride ( The idea of joy -Robert Browning and nineteenth century - LOVISANA STATE UNIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLAGE ).
5) McNair scholars journal ( vol - 14, issue 1, article -2 ) , Princes Braxton Davis Grand valley state institute .
6) Lucy .L. Brown ( Albert Einstein collage of medicine ).
7)  P. Ekman and R.J DAVIDSON .( The nature of emotion , Fundamental questions - New York- Oxford University Press )
8) Mark .R.LEARY ( Dept of psychology and neuroscience -Duke University -U.S.A)

THANKS.
S.V.O

NEXT - DUST OF SNOW- BY ROBERT FROST  -

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